Friday Night Soother: Rescues!
by digby
There are too many disasters right now and animals are very vulnerable. The Dodo captured some stories from the Louisiana floods:
Josh Pettit has seen a lot of hope. Often, it floats. Like when he was boating through a flood-ravaged area near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this week, where neighborhoods once stood, and all he could see was dark, angry water for miles around.
But then he spotted a pair of eyes staring at him, wide-eyed with terror, from just above the surface.
A dog, treading wildly to stay above water that was around 8-feet high.
"She was so tired," he tells The Dodo. "We got her in the boat and she was exhausted."
Pettit says the dog rested her head on his lap and cried and moaned.
Normally the Devore Animal Shelter is the primary evacuation center during emergencies such as the Blue Cut fire, said Animal Control Chief Brian Cronin. But with the closure of the 15 Freeway, centers have opened at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville and an Apple Valley facility.
Because of the rural nature of many evacuated towns, Cronin said, the fairgrounds location is seeing lots of hooved and other farm animals: 109 equine animals, 26 pigs, 204 fowl, about 240 goats and sheep, and a llama, as of Wednesday morning.
In Apple Valley, the tally as of 1 a.m. Wednesday was 133 dogs, 70 cats and 10 other pets including snakes, birds and lizards. At Devore, there were 29 dogs and six cats.
About 2 p.m. Wednesday, a couple of people drove up and dropped off donations of food and treats for the animals. The gesture is common during such emergencies, Cronin said.
“The amount of generosity has been heartwarming,” he said. “We even had someone contact us from out of state offering for us to call a local food store and put an order on their credit card.”
It's way too easy to forget how many good people there are.
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