[Gpdd] Rita, hurricane relief

[Leila Baldridge]

Hi!
I am sorry to send out one e-mail to everyone, but right now I don't have 
time to write separate ones, and I wanted to let all of you know that we are 
OK and I sure hope everyone else is.
 We did lose power again, and the power went on and off for a few days, but 
last night we got our internet back on. We did not expect any problems from 
Rita, since landfall was expected to be near Galveston, but with the darn 
thing turning east at the last minute, we did get a lot of tornado warnings 
and a heck of a lot of rain. But other than the inconvenience of being 
without electricity for awhile, we came through fine in my area. The Miss. 
State University campus at Starkville had a lot of tornado damage, and there 
was at least one fatality from a tornado just north of us.
The weekend before Rita hit, I went down to Tylertown MS which is about an 
hour from the Gulf Coast. Tylertown is one of the places for rescued pets to 
be brought to first, since it is fairly close to both New Orleans and to the 
Miss. coast. I am hoping to go back this weekend. The local rescue people 
plus people from Best Friends in Utah and volunteers from all over the US 
are there trying to help with the initial care of all these poor animals. I 
was only there for one day so what little I was able to do was nothing 
compared to others who are there day and night. A lot of people were staying 
at night in tents (with no facilities except Port a Potties). Hotel rooms 
are practically impossible to find. I was working with the Humane Society of 
Louisiana (www.humanela.org). The volunteers were washing the dogs, who were 
covered in filth, getting them fed and watered, tending as best they could 
to medical needs, and generally trying to comfort over a hundred frightened 
animals. Many of the dogs had infected lacerations and needed fluids to 
combat dehydration from diarrhea. Volunteers were assigned to crews to walk 
and water dogs, wash food bowls, clean soiled cages, do whatever needed to 
be done. About 70 new arrivals from New Orleans were housed in wire crates 
under a tent made of large tarps stretched over poles. Volunteers were 
working as fast as possible to put up chain link runs so the animals could 
be moved to more comfortable surroundings. My crew had a relatively easy 
job. We went from crate to crate, taking the dogs out for a walk, refilling 
water bowls, and taking the dogs to the water hose for a cool rinse. There 
was not enough time to walk the ones who were already in larger runs, but we 
kept their bowls full of clean water, and took spray bottles of cool water 
to them and wet them down. The heat was terrible and there were so many bugs 
that as soon as we filled a bowl with clean water, it filled up with bugs!
I can't say enough in praise of all the people, both local and from all over 
the country, who are giving their time to alleviate the suffering of the 
helpless animal victims of the hurricanes. From the volunteers on the "front 
lines", to shelters in other areas who are taking in pets once they are 
medically more stable, to the individuals who are fostering animals or 
sending donations to help keep the effort going, to all those who send their 
prayers for the animals and the rescuers---everyone is so important!
Operation Angel Piggie is a great way to help out with this! I just got an 
e-mail from Jaxie with the Beebe AR Humane Society (one of the Angel Piggie 
shelters). She said that of the Katrina refugee dogs they have, one has died 
of bacterial infection, one died of Parvovirus, another has been at the vets 
for nearly a week on IV's (also Parvo),and another has a skin infection, but 
the others are healthy. So that puts a big financial burden on these 
shelters who are also trying to take care of the animals they already had. I 
talked to Jaxie by phone and she was very greatful for our help.
Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that we are OK, and to share my 
experience with the rescue effort.
Leila (and the zoo)