Debbi - The Cat Lady

Relief for me that I forgot to tell you about. Nearly two weeks ago, a very distressed woman named Debbi came up to my desk desperate to have her 40 cats rescued from St. Bernard Parish (the worst hit area of New Orleans). The cats were in her apartment on the second floor. Yeah, I know what you are thinking...crazy cat lady. You are probably right. But her anguish over the fate of her cats was so intense I felt it through my bones. I never stopped thinking about her and those cats and was sick that I didn't have any way to reach her. A few days ago she called and I overheard one of my phone gals saying "40 cats" and I asked to talk to the person. It was Debbi. She had not heard anything of a rescue and was sick with worry. I got her number and vowed to call her if I heard of a rescue of a large number of cats. Well, I didn't hear of a rescue of any cats, but I did see on the news that the water had been finally pumped out of St. Bernard Parish and people were allowed back in. I confirmed the information on the internet and immediately called Debbi. I didn't speak to her personally but left a message with the people she was staying with. For all I know, that's where she was already at her apartment when I called. Two days later I called her and received the happy news. She was able to get to her second floor apartment and found all but three of her cats alive. I think the three really young ones didn't make it. But the rest were taken to St. Francis Animal Sanctuary in Tylertown, Mississippi(a sister sanctuary of Best Friends). What relief for this girl and her cats. I guess a neighbor put food into the apartment through a slightly opened window. Likely that's what saved them. Many people, doing extraordinary things for animals!

Pictures

Pictures From the Shelter - Friday, September 30, 2005

This is Amy. She is a 4th year Vet Student at LSU and has been working tirelessly at the shelter while still taking classes and major exams. Soon after we arrived at the shelter, I accepted a couple of dogs to be taken in. I wasn't aware of all the fuss that would surround this action. Lots of people caught hell for it because they were "rescue" dogs and we don't take rescues. Also, it was 9:30 at night and we were technically closed. But I'm just a girl who can't say NO and luckily so is Amy and Dr. Jans who was on duty that night and did the hard work. Amy had to decontaminate the two dogs. They had been touched by that filty water and needed baths before we could even touch them. The story of these two dogs ends happily and is actually documented in the following webstory: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4854734




This is my buddy Charmian. She is from Australia and has been here for nearly three weeks as well. She took over front of house operations after another volunteer walked off the job. She has done a fantastic job. Her compassion is huge and she is one of the loveliest people I have ever met. She has been so good and loving to me. My very special "Shelter Mom".

Dog people, doing what dog people do when they are not scooping poop! Holding and loving dogs! That's Tom Sparks on the right holding this little piece of a dog named Hank. Tom is the "DOGGIELAMA". He knows every dog in the place. Hank will be staying with him until his adoptive father (also his rescuer) finishes his active duty in the army and can go and make a home for him in Kentucky I think.

Front of house people. Nikki on the left, me in the center, and my replacement, Becky. Charmian is seated. This is the table where volunteers and owners sign in and get their wristbands for entry into the building.

A mess of German Shepard Puppies! These 5 pups and their parents went home on friday. It was chaos up front while they got checked out. Their human family was two, now is two and seven!

This is Stacy. She is the gal we met the first night we got here. She's the one that Gabby put up fans in the barn with for the first week we were here. She is an amazing person. Like many other volunteers, she was also displaced by Katrina. Tough as nails with a heart of gold. We love Stacy.

Gabby, Me and Tom Sparks: The DoggieLAMA. Tom has 11 dogs of his own, but that isn't stopping him from fostering up to 9 more. He is taking in any dogs that he can to help the owners till they get back on their feet. He is even putting in a bigger fenced area in his yard to make his fosters welcome! An angel on earth for dogs and their owners!

Wonderful, amazing Allison. She will do anything for animals and the people who love them. Allison is the heart of front of house operations!

Friday, September 30th - Our Last Day at the Shelter

Friday was the final day for owners to pick up their pets without having made special arrangements for a short extension. So we reconfigured the front of house to accommodate the mass influx of people coming to get their furry family members. We thought it would be packed from morning to night. But it wasn't. True, lots of animals did go home, but many others are still here. I bet we get a ton of them going home saturday because it's the weekend and many of the people who have relocated here found work already. The day was controlled and because I finally got a full staff at the front, it was smooth sailing with only a few instances of pure craziness.

When we got here nearly three weeks ago, there were 1,100 animals housed. The census Friday morning was like 550 I think.

I apologized to Karla (the adoptions gal) for causing her any grief and basically we kissed and made up. Which is something I had to do before I left because if you know me at all "bad blood" eats at me and will make me miserable far longer than the person I'm upset with.

We switched gears a little to include a foster station where owners who need a little more time with finding adequate housing for their pets, could (with the help of a volunteer) find a foster family nearby to help them through the transition. Several people were matched up on petfinder.com. One man checked out his cat and was off to take him to the foster who lived here in Baton Rouge who we matched him up with. A happy ending for the cat who can at least be out of a cage, though it will be a bit before he can be with his own daddy.

I'm finding cats to be quite adaptable. Even the ones in cages are doing pretty good. Since they like to sleep all day long anyway, they don't seem too adversely affected. Some stretch out with their head ending up in their food bowls while others curl up in their litter boxes (reminiscent of Buzzby and her pet-pet box). Right now, Monkey is curled up on my arms making typing on this laptop a little difficult. But I sure love it.

I had been asking for a book of "rescue" animals for a while and finally one appeared on thursday. Remember, we have mostly "owner known" animals here. We only got some rescued pets when one day Lamar Dixon was unable to take any. So all this time, our "rescues" have been kinda hid away from the public. Folks weren't allowed to come and see them because we didn't want to risk the safety of the "owned" pets that were put in our care. Nor did we want to risk their safety. Remember, people have tried to steal animals out of shelters. Some have been successful, so to even get into the place, you have to show ID and get a wrist band. It's serious stuff. So this book magically appears the other day and viola....people are flipping through the thing and actually finding their pets. I think three have been identified because of it. Yeah!

A man came up to Gabby yesterday while he was manning the "help to find your pet table". He had been here last week and was desperate to find his 7 cats. Gabby educated him about petfinder.com. Well, this guy has located 6 of his 7 cats on it. They are all over the country but he is making arrangements to get them back. He came back to see if he could find his 7th cat here. The book yielded one that looked like it could be his. Gabby took him to see the cat and unfortunately it wasn't. But the man has faith that with the help of this great system, he will find his last lost baby. It was a nice victory for Gabby because he has been working so hard to convince people that petfinder.com and the animal emergency response network are the true way to go. And he is right!

My fun little victory came a completly different way. Becky noticed the phones hadn't rang in a while. Because the phone pretty much rings off the hook it's very noticible. I figured, wow, the new phone system must have FINALLY gone into effect. Remember, I was pushing for this for nearly two weeks. I was shot down the first two times I tried to do something about it but I persisted and now it was finally in place. Now, when people call in, they hear a menu of options first. Individual options can be chosen and their needs met with a very comprehensive answer scripted by yours truly. (((Monky got tired of all the typing and arm movement and just jumped off and went to his new cat bed on the couch))).

So we try the new phone system out and find that when the caller pushes the option to get a "live" person, it skips the front of building phone and goes directly into the command center! Ha! Let them deal with the calls. It's so poetic. I almost peed my pants! So now the phone doesn't ring at all. Figures! I'm leaving and the phones stop ringing altogether! How ironic!
I called a campus tech guy who tried to fix it, but because it was 4:30 pm on friday there is nothing that can be done till Monday. So I guess Kay will be taking lots more calls this weekend! : )

I love Kay and am actually sorry she will have to deal with the calls, but like I said, it's poetic that the command center will have to deal with them after I had been bugging the powers that be to help me fix this problem with virtually no support in the early days! Lucky for Kay the phone options at least come on first so the calls should be cut by at least 75%.

So that was our last day. Today is actually Saturday and we are going to head home. We will make one last trip through the place, take some pictures and say our goodbyes. Then we might stop by Lamar Dixon to see what their operation is like. I have been afraid to see it because I had heard some stories that weren't painting it in a good light. But Iben said that I had to go and see it. I told her I was afraid and she said something really profound to me. She said the people who had the worst time getting over 9-11 were those that were blind. Becase what they pictured in their minds was worse than what actually happened. So with that, I think we will make a quick stop to Gonzales, LA on the way home.

This might be the last blog because we won't have internet access along the way. Pictures will come later. Thanks for reading and keeping us in your good thoughts. Can't wait to get home to our normal lives.

Bill & Carol

P.S. Thank you Jonelle for making this possible for us. We know that Trixie, Socks and Buzzby are in good hands and without knowing that, we would never have been able to leave. You're the best! Next time you do cat sitting, it will be for 4!

Thursday

Hello Friends

It's obvious why people use blogs as a daily journal. Because if you try to remember what happened two days ago (like i'm trying to recall thursday on saturday morning) the details become sketchy.

What I do remember is that things started falling better into place when I got a new front desk manager. Her name is Becky and she is from Ohio. Very into the humane movement and very good with the phones. So between Becky and Senta (another angel from IFAW) I hardly answered the phones at all. I also have Melanie and Joanne who are working as volunteer coordinators and both are great. So there are extra competent people at the front. Add to that Nelva, a DVM from public health and a few other key people and pressure started to ease up for me.

I can't recall much else about thursday so I'll finish this blog up and write about our last day...friday!