Wednesday and Thursday - Sept 21 & 22

Hello Friends

I am up at 5am on Friday because I can't sleep. Like usual, I when I wake up in the middle of the night, my mind starts spinning and I can't stop it. So my latest worry in my head is about a story of Marlene who is one of the vet techs who was doing rescue work in the city of New Orleans a few days ago. While she was dropping food, a desperate young woman came up to her with an address on a slip of paper that she got from Craig’s list. (craigslist.com). The young woman was responding to a desperate plea from a woman in a nursing home. She was asking for someone to break into her house and save her little Yorkshire Terrier. Marlene grabbed the note from the girl and did just that. From what I hear she went to great lengths, even having to move floating furniture. No sign of the dog. Something told her to turn over the couch floating in the living room and there treading water under the overturned couch was the trapped little dog.

It is unsure how long that dog was trying to keep his/her head above water; could have been for two weeks. She had to literally pull the dog from the thick muck that was keeping it from being able to swim. She said it was like the dog was in quicksand. The little pup weighed three times it’s normal weight in this disgusting slime. When she got it into her arms, it passed out. They rushed the dog to the safety of the Louisiana State University’s vet school. There they revived the dog and spent the rest of the time cleaning it off and scooping debris from its ears with a spoon.

Last I heard the dog was still exhausted but at least taking a lick of food from Marlene’s finger and at least trying to lift its head. This dog is alive today because of Marlene. She is an angel on earth and I don’t even remember what state she came from. She and her Vet came together but had to leave yesterday. They didn’t leave empty handed though, they took home two cats that were put up for adoption by their owner. They were both older cats who would need the type of care that vets would be able to give them. Lucky cats.

So I can’t sleep because that poor woman is in a nursing home somewhere and doesn’t know her dog has been saved. And that’s what it’s like for all these poor people. They have lost everything and they are worried sick about their pets.

If any of you know how to navigate craigslist.com and can help to find this woman, please let me know so we can put her in touch with the caregivers of her dog.

Rita is looking like she might be causing some major trouble down here. Though it seems we’re in the clear here in Baton Rouge, other shelters have had to evacuate their animals. We will only head out if the winds are proposed to get strong enough to send things flying into our rig. If so, we will head away from the storm and return when it passes.

A German Shepard got escaped the barn yesterday and I chased it across campus in m flip flops. I’m not in very good shape, but I think I know what they mean my “adrenaline”. I ran farther and faster than I ever had. Two volunteers had seen the escape before the dog got in my view and they were chasing the dog in their car. They picked me up and we drove around campus searching to no avail. Luckily, because of the time of day, the traffic was heavy so people weren’t able to drive to fast and hit the dog with their car. About 30 minutes after we returned the dog was brought back to safety. Not sure who it was that was able to get the dog to stop, but it’s sure a happy ending.

I worked on a new phone answering system the other day and hopefully that will be implemented soon so people can actually get some decent information when they call us. Right now, the system is completely useless and when we answer it, we prevent the people from getting the information that is available in the phone menu. I hope it goes into effect today because it will be a great service to the people who are searching for their pets.

We should have our “no known owner” pets onto petfinder.com and petharbor.com soon. This will at least give their owners a chance to see them and hopefully there will be some reunions here finally.

The shelter is closing on October 15th. All owners must pick up their pets by September 30th or release for adoption (with a clause to reclaim within a certain period of time). Many are making arrangements to get their pets out of here. In early October there will be a huge adoption fair. But on October 1st, I will be able to take Monkey out of here and that’s what I’m waiting for. Then we will head home.

Ok, it’s getting to the point where I think I might be able to get back to sleep.

Talk to you all again soon.
Carol & Gabby

PS Juliet, the arnica seems to be helping with the overall emotion of this place.