A friend in north Louisiana offered to take us in. She had just moved into a new home after losing everything in hurricane Katrina and was already housing other evacuees and pets. We had to keep all of our pets in the travel kennels in the garage. They were all terrified and cried constantly. The garage was the safest shelter we could provide for them at the time but getting them to eat and drink was almost impossible. Several of our pets are old and some have special medical conditions such as heart and kidney disease. So I feared that this experience might be too much for them but we did the best we could under the circumstances. The following day is when the hurricane hit our city. We watched on CNN as it destroyed our city. It is such an awful feeling to sit back and watch the destruction and want to do something, anything to stop it. All we could do is watch and pray. There was even damage in the city that we evacuated to. The sound of the wind knocking down trees, power lines and tearing roofs off of homes near us was unlike anything I had ever heard. The rain that fell on the roof of the home we were in sounded like rocks falling instead of water. Within a few hours(that felt like an eternity )everything cleared up and the sun rose just like any other day. I could only imagine what it must have been like for those that did not evacuate back at home.
As the temperatures grew hotter we knew our pets would become seriously ill if we could not get them to a cooler location. All of the veterinary offices and kennels were already full and were not accepting any animals for boarding. My husband and I took each pet out of the travel kennel and tried to get them to eat and drink. Some did others were too afraid and worse of all is that many of our pets are cats and they would not use the litter boxes. The other evacuees that were staying in the house already had their pets indoors so bringing ours in was not an option. When we tried to remove two of our pets out of the kennel to give them medication they escaped and we were unable to locate them. To say that I am heart broken is phrasing it mildly. We knew our pets would not survive much longer under these conditions so we made the decision to return home. We did not know if there was still a home standing to return to but we had to try.
If you have seen the reports on TV you can imagine a little of what we saw as we entered our city. There trees knocked down everywhere! Large beautiful oak trees completely uprooted and many had fallen on homes. Trailers mangled and twisted, roofs of homes torn off, traffic lights were either laying broken in the streets are twisted by the wind and now facing the opposite directions. There were many homes that were crushed by the trees that fell on them. As we drove to our neighborhood the streets were impassable because of all the fallen trees. We had to drive into neighbors yards just to get down our street. The fear of what we might see(or not see)as we were about to turn down the street were our house once stood surpassed the fear that we felt when we took our last look on the night we evacuated. I took a deep breath said a silent prayer and drove on. There it was, our home - damaged but still standing! Sections of our roof are gone, rain damage inside, the fence is destroyed and there are trees laying everywhere! But we are blessed that our home can be repaired many lost everything! We brought all of our pets indoors and they immediately began to eat and drink. Two are being cared for at the veterinary office for kidney disease and bladder infections. I am using the computer from someone that has power from a generator. There is no electricity and we have been told that it may take 3 weeks for power to be restored. With temperatures hovering near 100 degrees saying it is hot is an understatement! We have to wash our clothes and hang them outdoors to dry.
[/i]“No phone, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Caruso it’s a primitive as can be…“[/i]
All water for drinking has to be boiled, and when we arrived there were no stores open. There is now an outbreak of mosquitoes that I am sure were sent here straight from hell! We purchased as many supplies as we could before returning. Normally returning home under these conditions is not advisable but it was the only chance our pets had to survive. Our city was declared a disaster area but there is progress every day. Many of the streets have been cleared of the fallen trees, power is slowly being restored, Walmart even sent in a disaster team to get at least one operating store up and running for a few hours each day. When we arrived there were no operating gas stations. Now there are a few but the supply is limited! Groups such as Convoy for Hope and other faith based organizations are set up all over the city and these guys are actually going into the neighborhoods that are often forgotten such as the low income areas where many elderly home bound people are living. For reasons that is probably best left for another discussion, I will never donate to the Red Cross again - enough said for now!
One of the saddest things to witness is all of the stray animals roaming the streets. I assumed they were left behind by their owners. I can’t imagine how frighten they must have been when the hurricane came through and now to be on their own. I can’t stand by and see an animal starve so my husband and I have been trying to ration the pet food we brought back with us for our own pets and share with the strays that are in our neighborhood. I was so incredibly disgusted by the actions of one neighbor. There were two very scared dogs that approached me when we were cleaning debris in our yard. I gave them food and water and asked another neighbor if he knew who the dogs belonged to. He told us exactly who the owners were. Each day for a week we have given these dogs food and water(and any other stray animal that appears at home)I assumed their owners would be worried about them and would look for them as soon as they returned. I wrote a note informing them that we had been caring for them and they could look in our yard for them when they returned. My husband saw them return to their home with a Uhaul truck, load up their furniture, read our note and drive away. Leaving their dogs sitting in the driveway!!! How incredibly cruel can some human being be!!! They made no attempt to provide food or even clean water for their very own pets! It may be cruel to say this but I hope they experience the same fate that they left their pets to suffer. Today the dogs allowed me to pet them and I was able to remove a collar that was too tight around his neck. I would love to give these two friends a home but we no longer have a fence around our yard. The animal shelter here is NOT a no kill shelter and they are already to filled to capacity with the animals from hurricane Katrina. If there is anyone out there that can offer some help for these precious animals please post.
Well guys, if you have never experienced a hurricane I hope you never have to. The positive side to this whole experience is that I have a greater appreciation for life. Just a few weeks ago when we were helping the victims of hurricane Katrina little did we know that we would also be in need of help a short time later. This past weekend we celebrated my birthday with a candlelight dinner(not much choice there ha!ha!) which consisted of a bottle of water and a MRE. But it was probably one of the best dinners I I have ever had because we are blessed to be alive and have our pets with us!
They return together and after eating they allow us to pet them and play in our yard for a while before leaving. Normally they return to the house of their previous owner then travel back up and down the street. Yesterday my husband finally gained their trust enough to inspect a chain(yes a chain ![]:o(](./images/smilies/flaming_mad.gif "Flaming Mad"){kind=small}
) that was around the female's neck. He could barely get his finger under the chain. We removed the chain and the dog licked my husband's hand as if to say thank you. I hope I find some help for these two dogs soon. I wish their was some type of law that would keep their former owners from ever having a pet again!
