<span style="color: #000099">Hi Hope -
I've been a volunteer transporter for several years and will try to answer some of your questions -
First of all, the majority of volunteer transports are from shelters to rescues, or rescues to forever homes. Most of them are coordinated through a rescue and have a transport coordinator who comes up with the route, breaks it down into "legs" of about 60-90 miles each, and then crossposts widely on various forums, including many Yahoo groups specifically for animal transports. Petfinder also has a place to post transports.
If you are adopting from a rescue or shelter in the Detroit area, I would suggest posting on Petfinder and the Yahoo groups (if you go to
http://www.yahoo.com, go into "Groups" and enter "dog transports" in the search bar - several will come up) and post that you are looking for a coordinator. You could act as your own coordinator, but if you've never done it before, MI to NC is quite a distance to try to do it on your own. If you are not adopting from a shelter or rescue, I would suggest looking into a paid transport as most volunteer transporters do not transport from person to person without a rescue or shelter involved.
If you find a coordinator to work with you, she will ask for details about the dog, and except in special circumstances, most transporters prefer transporting only spayed/neutered dogs, but there are often situations where this is not possible. You will need to know the dog's vaccine record, if there are any known medical or behavioral problems, etc. The dog should also have a health certificate from a vet to travel across state lines. I've never had anyone stop me and ask to see it, but there's always the first time.
There don't seem to be a lot of people on this forum who are transport coordinators, but I could be wrong. You could also consider joining Acme Pet Transport at
http://www.acmepettransport.com as there are coordinators there, but again, they will operate the same way as I outlined above (I'm a moderator there). </span>
