Most people worry about coffee spilling in the car.

But for Meagan Whitehorn, York Region Wellness Coordinator, she worries about a Canada goose escaping from hers.

“It got out of its box, and all I could think of was like, ‘I have a Canada goose, AKA a Canadian cobra chicken, loose in my vehicle as I’m trying to drive,’” she said.

For the last five years, the York Region Paramedic Services staff member has spent part of her free time volunteering with CritterCabs, a volunteer network that helps transport rescue animals across Ontario.

Her passengers have included dogs, cats, parrots, squirrels, possums, injured birds and even a green anole lizard, something she had never heard of before.

Whitehorn, who works as a Return to Work Coordinator in the Well-Being Unit at York Region Paramedic Services, said she first discovered CritterCabs during the COVID-19 pandemic after seeing posts online and hearing about similar programs from friends.

“I’ve had pets my entire life, and all of them have been rescues,” she said. “I can’t rescue all the animals myself, but I can help get them to their next step.”

That “next step” can sometimes mean a lot of kilometres on Ontario highways.

Whitehorn said the longest route she has helped with stretched from Pefferlaw to Peterborough to Cambridge. The organization operates like a relay system, with volunteers often driving animals in one-hour segments before passing them off to another driver.

At one point, she was completing two or three runs a month. Some trips are peaceful. Others are unforgettable.

There was Doug, a dog she transported from Scarborough to Cambridge. “Dougie was a very gassy young man,” she laughed. “He just about gassed me out of my vehicle.”

Then there was the goose. Whitehorn had picked it up in a sealed box and placed it in the back of her SUV. At some point during the drive, the bird escaped inside the vehicle.

“I opened the hatchback to grab something at the back, and the goose was looking at me,” she said.

Despite the occasional chaos, Whitehorn says the work feels deeply meaningful.

Some of the hardest moments come when owners are forced to surrender beloved pets because of illness, housing loss, or difficult life circumstances.

“I had to give these people hugs and take their precious animal away from them,” she said.

One interaction still sticks with her. A woman had lost her housing and could no longer care for her two senior cats. Whitehorn says her role supporting paramedics through difficult moments has helped prepare her for those conversations.

“I spent time going, ‘I know that, I appreciate this has gotta be one of the hardest decisions you’ve made, but you have made the decision to allow these animals to continue to have a great life.’”

“The calm, supportive energy that I provide to the staff that I’m working with, I try to replicate when I’m working with the different animals,” she said.

That calmness also extends to the soundtrack inside her SUV.

“No hard rocking music,” she said. “Usually just podcasts.”

Over the years, Whitehorn has watched strangers across the province come together to help animals start over.

One of her favourite memories involved a truck carrying rescue dogs from Texas. Around 20 vehicles gathered to transport the animals to rescues throughout Ontario.

“It was just so cool to see all these people coming together to give these animals a new beginning,” she said.

Another trip carried special meaning. Whitehorn transported a surrendered Labrador mix that was heading north to become a PTSD service dog for a first responder.

“To know that it was going to a first responder, considering where I work, that was pretty cool,” she said.

In Meagan’s case, Kindness is contagious. One coworker from York Region Paramedic Services joined CritterCabs too, sometimes meeting Whitehorn halfway through a route to continue transporting an animal farther north.

Her daughter has also gotten involved, once helping connect an injured animal with the rescue network.

For Meagan, the experience has changed the way she thinks about trust, patience and second chances.

“They teach me that new beginnings are scary and you don’t always know where it’s going,” she said, “but that ultimately it can be a really good thing to take that leap and trust somebody with the next steps.”