(photo by Clay Myers, Best Friends Animal Society)
--Gregory Castle just returned from the Gulf Coast
I was there for a week and it is a stunning experience to visit the affected areas. Horrific, unbelievable, hellish, sickening, pitiful, mind numbing, but also the work we're doing is exhilarating, moving, fun, inspiring, miraculous and ultimately fulfilling. It's hard to absorb and contain the miles and miles of total devastation. You see things you can't believe are possible.
Of course for us it is all about saving the animals' lives. Just a few days ago I went on a rescue mission to one of the worst hit areas - we brought back 30 dogs, 15 cats, a pot-bellied pig, 2 pet pythons, and a 3ft long Iguana. That's typical for a day so we have to find organizations and individuals who will foster the animals while their owners try to locate them.
It's staggering that after four weeks so many of these creatures are still alive. I found a young female dog crouching in an upstairs bathtub with no food or water, emaciated and so weak she could barely raise her head. Yet she wagged her tail as I approached and gingerly lifted her to safety.
At another house we met a distraught lady who was back at her destroyed house looking for her three dogs. She couldn't get in the front door because of all the sludge piled up inside. We pushed the door in and searched through the ghastly mess of mud, upturned furniture and mold, and eventually found two small corpses, drowned or crushed by floating cabinets. Her third dog had escaped. Maybe he was one of the many dogs we've picked up straying on the streets - or maybe not.
Later, driving through the almost deserted streets, a woman waved us to a stop, thanked us profusely for what we were doing, then told us of a couple of cats she knew of in the neighborhood, then added, "Do you take pigs?". An 80lb pot-bellied pig had wandered up to her in the street out of the blue. She'd found a nice patch of black mud to wallow in and as I went up to her she rolled over to have her belly rubbed, grunting contentedly. No human contact for four weeks. We took her back with us and will find her owners if we can.
So far we've reunited about 40 pets with their people, and what a moving experience that is, seeing them come together after weeks of hopeless separation - with an eruption of relief and joy.
Several Gulf Coast cats found new homes over the weekend. Jumper, Bruce, Fluffy, Lenny, Isak, and Gumbo were all adopted out of Mountain View Animal Hospital in Sandy.
Lenny and Isak ended up going to the same home, even though Lenny developed a bit of an attitude problem while their new family was filling out the adoption paperwork... "I'm not worried. He''ll settle in," said his new dad, understandingly.
There are still 24 cats waiting for families, including Ebony (pictured above), who has the most stunning green eyes we've ever seen.
Another special boy is Benny Hill (orange and white, pictured here), a very sweet, passive 8 year old with few teeth and no front claws. There is also Daisy (pictured below), a charming, high-spirited, beautiful girl. You can see more pictures of them, and the others, in our photo gallery. If you can, please take a moment to let your friends know about these loving cats who just need a second chance.
(photo by Clay Myers, Best Friends Animal Society)
-a report from Gregory Castle, in Mississippi
We survived the night! It's very soggy at Tylertown now but no damage or major problems. The weather right now is very unpredictable... showers interspersed with gusty winds which makes note-taking in the only field where there's good phone reception tricky.
The Twister Sisters (see previous post) predict nothing more serious than what we've had so far.
We've been able to send two teams to New Orleans today to check out the new floods and rescue whatever animals they can. The teams have the addition of Sgt.Cliff, a sheriffs deputy from Collier County. He's a canine unit handler complete with GPS equipped truck, sheriff's badge and side arm, and is volunteering here for 4 days. Great guy!
Gregory, our President, and Nikki, our Adoptions Director (pictured here with a rescued dog) are now in Tylertown, Mississippi working at the sanctuary which is serving as Best Friends headquarters.
And while, thankfully, it looks like the sanctuary will be on the extreme outer edge of Hurricane Rita, the volunteers there have nevertheless been busy "battening down the hatches." It's raining today, and winds are gusting up to 30 mph, and the full force of the storm won't arrive until tomorrow.
They want to be sure everyone there, including the pets of course, weathers the storm. The team has staked in
all of the cages and tightened everything down. Five hundred
igloos were delivered so the dogs will be able to keep out of the rain and wind.
So it looks like everyone will be okay. And it makes us feel even better that two volunteers named Peggy and Melanie just arrived in Tylertown.... why is their presence a comfort? Well, they are storm-chasing, nationally-recognized "severe weather experts" who call themselves the Twister Sisters. They know tornadoes and hurricanes inside and out, and have been using their expertise and equipment to provide the sanctuary staff updates on the storm's progress every 15 minutes.
In short, everyone is as prepared as they can be, and we are hopeful that the sanctuary will come through unscathed.
Sadly, it looks like there is more significant flooding in New Orleans, particularly in the parishes where the Best Friends rescuers have been working. Once the storm passes, there will undoubtedly be much work to be done.
This Friday and Saturday, September 23rd and 24th, the 30 cats we rescued from the Gulf Coast will be up for adoption at Mountain View Animal Hospital in Sandy. For more information about the adoption, and to see pictures of many of the cats, visit our web gallery. 
Also, No More Homeless Pets in Utah's own Gregory Castle and Nikki Sharp left for Mississippi yesterday to help lead the rescue efforts of Best Friends Animal Society. They're headquartered at St. Francis Shelter in Tylertown, where more than 500 displaced pets are being housed. Dozens of pets have been reunited with their families (one reunion pictured is pictured here), even as more pets arrive every night from New Orleans rescue operations. Gregory and Nikki will surely have many stories to tell, both happy and sad, and as long as they do, we'll continue to post updates.
- photo Best Friends Animal Society
The Pet Super Adoption wrapped up just a few hours ago, and we are thrilled with its results. 472 dogs and cats are spending tonight with their new families...meeting siblings (of various species), cozying up in new beds, checking out the neighborhood on evening walks, and hopefully realizing that they finally have their own place in the world.
It really was a beautiful weekend. The sun shone, a light breeze cooled things off, and people turned out in droves to add a pet to their families.
On Friday, just before we opened the gates, we were shocked to see a line of people that stretched on and on. We've had opening day crowds before, but this was unprecedented.
When the gates opened, the rush was on, and a buzz of excitement was in the air. People flowed into the one big cat tent and the four open-sided dog tents, and began the difficult task of choosing from among the hundreds of available pets.
By the end of the first day, we had hit a new record...163 pets adopted in just five hours. On Saturday, the crowds continued, and well over 200 dogs and cats went home with new families. The pace slowed on Sunday, but still nearly 100 pets were adopted.
One of those who went home today was Sumo, an older, overweight (he prefers "stocky") black Lab. That's his cute mug pictured above. Sumo won everyone's heart by being his sweet lab-ish self, and was difficult to ignore since he spent an hour Saturday sprawled out right in front of the entrance to the cat tent, napping.
We'll have to analyze the paperwork to
know how many of the "Katrina pets" found homes, but they are all "Utah
pets" now, whether they're spending tonight with foster families, in a veterinary clinic, or
with permanent families. And eventually they will all be matched with people who think they hung the moon...and their history will matter less than their future.
Of course, we'd love nothing more than to finally reach the point where these adoption events are no longer necessary, when every friendly, healthy pet has a home to call his or her own. Spaying and neutering is the only way to really solve the pet overpopulation problem. That's why the Big Fix, our mobile spay/neuter clinic, was on hand this weekend to fix adopted pets before they went home.
A great big thank you to our sponsors (Petsmart, ProPlan, City Weekly, and B98.7), to the volunteers who come back year after year, to all of the loving families who opened their hearts to a rescued pet, to the groups and shelter staff who work hard all year long, and to everyone who has donated in support of our efforts. Working together, we have saved lives.
a letter from Gregory Castle, President of No More Homeless Pets in Utah
Before we embarked upon the mission to bring animals to Utah from areas hit by Hurricane Katrina we considered very carefully whether we should be doing this in the light of the many dogs and cats that are available for adoption in this state already, and the many which have to be euthanized because of lack of homes.
Like almost everyone else in the country we have been extremely saddened by the news and pictures that have been broadcast of animals lost and abandoned in that area. Like almost everyone else in the country we wanted to do something, however small and whatever the demands on us, to help. We wanted to be part of the national movement of caring and compassion which has sprung up with such energy in response to the dire fate of both people and animals in the affected areas.
We wondered if bringing these animals to Utah would result in fewer Utah
animals being adopted - at our Super Adoptions and other events. We believe exactly the opposite to be the case. The huge amount of public attention that has been brought to the issue of displaced animals has resulted in people coming forward to help who never would have otherwise.
So we organized this mission to bring a small number of animals to Utah and to find them homes.
We have been careful to observe several cautions in the course of this
operation. None of the animals were retrieved from flooded houses or were found straying on the street after the hurricane. In fact Louisiana
authorities are not allowing these animals to leave the state.
All the dogs and cats had rabies shots, and other vaccinations before they
left. They all have vet certificates attesting to their freedom from
contagious disease. They have all been treated for fleas and other
parasites, and all dogs were given heartworm tests. All cats from Louisiana were examined by veterinarians both in Louisiana and the moment they arrived in Salt Lake City, and will be quarantined for a week before being adopted.
It now remains for us to keep the issue of Utah's own tragedy of unwanted animals in the forefront of people's attention, so that more Utahns will spay and neuter their pets, and more people will adopt animals from shelters, until one day there are no more homeless pets in Utah.
To receive email updates about all of the activities of No More Homeless Pets in Utah, please sign up for our mailing list. Thank you.
Our final rescue van, and its cargo of 30 Gulf Coast cats, arrived at Mountain View Animal Hospital in Sandy on Tuesday evening. The clinic has devoted a whole room for the care of these special cats, and the clinic staff and our volunteers went right to work to get the cats examined and settled into their new digs.
Everyone was surprised at how calm the cats were, and how "fat and happy," considering all they'd been through. There was one feline escape artist who kept trying to break free....we can only assume he's a true southern cat at heart, and was hoping to hitch a ride on the first plane back to the Gulf Coast. We hear he's now settled in a bit, and seems to have accepted his fate as a Utahn.
By the by, we've decided that all of these cats need names that honor their roots... "Cajun" "Gumbo" "Creole" "Bayou" "Jazz", etc. We'd like your help. Please send any Louisiana-esque names to erin@utahpets.org
Somehow, Julie, who with the help of Ty had driven straight through from Louisiana, managed to give coherent responses to a reporter from the Deseret News, as well as to several TV stations. The Des News article, complete with pictures, is now online for your reading pleasure.
Our sincere gratitude goes to the friends and family of Gail Benjamin, who have donated so generously in her memory. Arthur Benjamin, Gail's husband and friends and associates have played a major part in funding this rescue effort, and Gail's faithful poodle 'Buddy' is hoping to find a canine companion from amongst the dogs that are rescued from the disaster area.
