4 years later

Katrina swept through the Gulf 4 years ago. I remember coming to Baton Rouge with Gabby. We were met with people from all over the country. Some displaced by Katrina and just wanting to help. Many, many others from every conceivable walk of life, giving their time to help the animals in the aftermath.

I met the most amazing people. I met my dear Becky Gainey. She was my sanity. Which is funny cuz she's a little nutz herself. I love you Becky!

I got my Monkey out of the deal. What a gift. I adore my boy!

Another amazing gift I received while there was the spark to do more for animals. I wasn't doing TNR, I had really no idea where I'd be 4 years later.

I remember seeing vehicles with out of state plates with "animal rescue" written on the back windows in poster paint. Some of those people slept in their trucks and cars. I remember feeling such complete admiration for those people. I never thought I'd count myself among them. I do now. I love my life. I love what I do. I am the luckiest girl in the world. Blessed to do what I want. My own life sturdy and strong so I can help cats. IT DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS!

: ) Carol

PS I know that this is more of an ALL ABOUT ME post....but then again...it is!

pictures of the whole operation

this is a compilation of photos from many of the volunteers that worked at the animal shelter in baton rouge.

watch it as a slide show at a 2 second or 5 second interval.
it's great to see!

this will give you the big picture!

http://community.webshots.com/album/518912584vAzkaG

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!

A good day - Wednesday

Hello Everybody!

Meet Monkey Manos Gabbard. See why we call him Monkey! He's a scrappy looking guy. He has a funny bump on his nose that makes him appear a bit camel like. He has a little weakness in his legs probably due to being in a cage for so long, but the vets say the muscles will get stronger as he gets exercise. Right now, this weakness makes him a little clumsy, which is fine with us. We love him. And it appears he is pretty much OK with us too!

Today was a much better day. I slept in and was taken out for a great
I-HOP breakfast by my Gabby. We did a little shopping at Walmart then came home and took a quick cat nap before getting to work. When I stopped into the command center, I was told it was a little hairy out there without me. I thought at first they were joking. But I had it confirmed when I hit the front desk. It sure looked like they had it all under control, but I guess for once, someone actually was feeling my stress. It was kinda nice actually.

I was thrilled to see that IFAW set up a table outside with information on petfinder.com, directions to Lamar Dixon and FINALLY a book with really great photos of all the pets here that have no known owners. This was something I have been trying to do for over a week now.

IFAW really has made a huge difference here. I have no doubt that Iben had a talk with the powers that be because it’s very apparent to me that Gabby and I are getting much more respect around here and the front out house is getting the attention it needs.

It’s nice to finally feel that we are valued.

The night went pretty smooth, but tomorrow and Friday will surely be crazy because, Friday is the deadline for people to pick up their pets. It will be good to see pets being picked up but it will surely be crazy when 300-400 pets go back with their owners. Hopefully at least that many will go out.

It will be mad crazy busy, but it will sure be good to see people taking their pets out of here.

Talk to you all tomorrow
Carol & Gabby

Carol's Psychology

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

It’s been way to stressful and way to long to not attend a meeting. Here’s a case where I’m not “eating” my discontentment because there’s simply not time to abuse food. Now I just wig out.

Because of this, I have been pretty much ordered to take tomorrow morning off and not come in till noon. This came down from the head of this whole operation, Dr. Paula. So once again, its 4am, I can’t sleep so I’m doing a little something to make myself sleepy so I can get back to bed.

The one good thing about it this particular morning however is that I have Monkey lying on my arms as I type. He was the one who actually woke me up. I guess he ran out of vittles in the middle of the night and he was on the kitchen counter knocking a box of cat food onto the floor and trying to get into it.

I guess we will call today’s entry, my psychology page. I don’t think it’s all that healthy to work 15 back to back 12 hour days in such stressful conditions. If you know me, taking time off when there is work to be done, isn’t my style. I also have a tendency to make “my” job so important that I can hardly even delegate it.

This is how I set myself up for misery and exhaustion! Not really a good thing to do, and hopefully after all this, I will learn a lesson. I have to leave here on Saturday and I have to have faith that things will roll on without me.

Iben (my savior) from IFAW is trying to help me to see the things that I can affect and the things over which I have no control. As you see in my opening statement, I know that this is true, and my serenity is directly affected by my ability to accept this.

I truly want to help everyone and simply can’t. I want to erase this whole problem of people needing to track their beloved pets all over the country. I want this all to have never happened. This terrible tragedy. This unbelievable loss. But I can’t. I guess I just have to do what I can, feel good in the knowledge that I did all I could, and move on.

We plan to leave on Saturday. I really need to get home and decompress. I think once we pull out of town, I will feel a lot better. I hope so at least.

On a good note, tonight a woman who had believed all three of her dogs perished in a horrible accident (early on in this operation) was indeed alive and well and in the shelter. I won’t go into details about what happened but it was an unfortunate incident and several animals passed away. But this little weiner dog, Taz survived and he was picked up by his mamma last night.

Tomorrow Snooks and Rosco, two cats who I helped the owner find are going to be with him in San Francisco. He is lucky. If not for having put collars around their necks with their names, he would be searching the “found” pet records on petfinder.com for months on end. Unfortunately, what everyone else who lost their pet will have to do if they hope to be reunited.

The San Francisco SPCA will be picking them up and taking them home to be with their daddy. I’m so happy for them all.

Well folks, tomorrow morning Gabby is taking me to IHOP for cheese blintzes and sausages. It was Mom’s favorite meal and I’m going to indulge myself a little.

Besides driving the rig down here for us, and taking care of all its operating systems so we have a comfortable place to live, Gabby is my rock. Without him I would never be able to be here. His love and support through all of this is unparalleled and I count myself one of the luckiest girls in the world to have him by my side.

Wishing you all peace and serenity
Carol

Monday

Hello Friends

The day started nicely enough, till I had a run in with the gal in charge of adoptions. She apparently doesn’t appreciate my trying to help volunteers get the paperwork necessary to apply for adoption. Now, if she was ever where she was needed, I wouldn’t be compelled to do her job. But because she is overwhelmed and and absolutely refuses to delegate it anyone else, I did try to help people get the forms they needed. Well, she made it pretty clear that he wasn’t fond of my actions and that I should do my job and keep out of hers. My temper flared, and I had Gabby collect our computer and things and we were pretty much ready to leave today. I had my cat and was ready to roll out of here. But my favorite person, Charmian (who is in charge of front of house operations) said if I go, she would go too. Then a really great (higher up) vet came and consoled me. And I cooled down and went to my first meeting. Gabby was with me for support. I really needed him beside me. I was pretty much listened to and I did give my opinion on the running of things and basically told everyone that adoptions girl wasn’t doing her job. I don’t think we are friends any longer. Fine with me! But funny thing is, she went around passing out adoption forms FINALLY!

IFAW gave us 20 Nextel phones to have better communications. I also worked with the girl in charge of operations to tell her how front of house operations has evolved since I came aboard.

Gabby helped a man find his dog today by searching the data base. The dog has a collar and had the owner’s name but because things are so hectic here, nobody has had any time to try to reach the guy. Well his persistence paid off and he picked up “Libby” Bartholemew.

It was a great reunion.

Gabby also helped someone who needed to find a place to house their 700 pound bull. He called around and found her a place, and now the Bull will be housed!

Solving the world’s problems, one pet at a time! He finished the night by getting a destitute woman some expensive prescription dog food that she desperately needed, but could not afford. Her dog gets deathly ill without it. She had pleaded to several Vetrinarian offices, but 3 were out of it, and the 1 Vet she found that had it said “sure I have it, its 53 bucks”! Luckily, we had plenty of it and were able to give some to a person that is going to deliver it to her. She lives just over the border to Misissippi.

Besides being highly upset in the early part of it, it was a pretty good day. And I have my Monkey on my lap, so who can complain?

The Best Day So Far!!!!

Hello Friends

Today was a really good day. It began with Karla (the gal in charge of adoptions) telling me to get ready to sign some adoption papers. Guess she was tired of my bugging the heck out of her. Yes, we were allowed to take Monkey out of the facility this morning. He immediately made himself at home. He is even used to the motion of the rig. Gabby had to move the rig twice as folks were pouring into the lot for the big LSU game which was rescheduled for tomorrow. Lucky for us, LSU is a kind school and they are allowing us to use a season pass holder’s spot without charge. Another vet who is here had to pay $100 for the privilege. Leave it to my Gabby to finagle a great deal!

There was a foster meet at the Student Union and lots of owners came back offering their animals to foster and a few actually made arrangements with people and handed their pets over. All was joyous because the owners wanted their pets to be in a home and not kept in cages any longer.

This was only a temporary shelter and I’m actually glad that it’s closing down because there is no reason to prolong the amount of time an animal should stay in a cage. I’m sure if it was going to be left open, people would store their animals here for a long time. It’s really not fair to the animals and I’m glad they will only have till October 15 to stay here. I think there will be a huge adoption fair that will begin after the deadline to remove pets which is September 30th, this coming Friday. I believe the owners have 30 days from the time they are actually adopted to take them back. I think it’s a good idea to call it an adoption vs a Foster because people really need to commit to caring for the pet for the rest of its natural life vs a short 3 or 4 months. Hopefully by that time, folks will have had time to get back on their feet and reunite their families.

I met a girl named Shameka today who I had talked on the phone to last week. She just reunited with her young son earlier whom she had not seen since the Katrina hit. She knew he was safe with his father, but she was away from him for nearly a month. The minute they reunited, they were on the way to the shelter to pick up Sweetie Pie. Everyone was elated and it was very uplifting.

Lots of other people picked up their animals today and now the population is about 750. I think it was like 1,100 when we arrived two weeks ago.

Today The International Fund for Animal Welfare showed up. Just like the cavalry, they came to my rescue. For the first time since we arrived, I actually felt like someone wanted to hear what I had to say about front of house operations. Gabby and I gave Iben an earful and she listened intently and said that by Tuesday someone would be here to help with the organization I have began. I have been worried because I was not sure who would take over when I leave. Now I can leave on Saturday and not feel badly. I think that’s when we will head home, Saturday or Sunday.

I have to tell you that actually speaking to a higher up in IFAW means a great deal to me. Those of you who knew me in college may remember that I worked to spread awareness about the shameful Canadian Seal Hunt. I distributed literature and worked to ban Canadian fish products in order to halt the madness. It worked for that one winter. Unfortunately it still goes on today.
But IFAW continues to bring animal welfare to the forefront.

Tomorrow should be a good day because we have the big game and we will be closed to owners after 12:00 noon. This will allow us to get a lot done and get more organized. And we can sure use some of that.

Thanks for reading!
Monkey’s new parents, Carol & Gabby

Saturday

Hello Friends

We survived Rita’s visit to Baton Rouge. The trailer did well withstanding the 60 mph gusts. It got its experience in such winds while we were in San Francisco in 2004. We nearly left and headed away for a day or two, but the locals convinced us to stay and I’m glad they did.

With the help of our core volunteers, I was able to pretty much organize the front of house operations and clean the main lobby up. Pam, you would be happy to know, that it is way better. Finally, I can relax a little bit up there. As most of you know, I don’t do well in chaos.

The big football game that was supposed to be today is postponed till Monday, so we will probably have to get off the lot we are staying on to make room for the partiers. I guess football is a huge deal here. We have been approved to stay in the lot of the vet school on campus but it’s still a ways away and we fear it will be difficult to get around with the traffic. But things will work out, they always do.

I’ve been hounding the hell out of the gal In charge of adoptions. A bunch of cats have upper respiratory infections and I fear my monkey could get one too. They have all been quarantined, but I heard a few others in the regular area sneezing so I’m a little concerned. Tomorrow, I will take another stab at her and try to convince her to let me take monkey out of the facility.

Wow, I’m getting a little tired, better turn in. Talk to you all tomorrow!

Carol & Gabby

Friday

Hello Friends

Here’s a happy story. A fourteen year old German Shepard mix came in after spending 27 days alone in the house. The owners were finally able to make it home and they were able to bring him in. He was weak and a lot thinner, but still with us. Thank you Jesus!

Finally today, I got my point across about the phone system. The one we had was awful and really needed to have a new menu options list with better information and some other tweaking. It probably won’t go into affect till early next week, but when it does, it will serve so many people so well, it will have been worth the wait.

I have a social worker who will be helping me at the phone desk. She is very compassionate and will be good for the people who come in distraught looking for their pets.

Petfinder.com revamped it’s data base system to allow for people to search animals by breed, cutting down on the viewing of thousands of unnecessary listings that don’t pertain to the animal people are trying to find. Gabby is thrilled because it’s the one real flaw to the system.

Tonight around 6:30 PM, the power went out. Hurricane Rita is making her way across Baton Rouge. We are not expecting any winds that our rig can’t withstand so we are hanging here. I guess LSU thought it would be bad enough to cancel tomorrow’s game though. It actually is refreshing because the rain really cooled things off.

I guess I’m going to be allowed to go to the big meetings now. The passing of information around here isn’t the greatest and I have ended up learning of most things from the people who call or come up to the desk. Gabby made a pitch that I should attend, and the powers that be agreed. Hopefully I can keep my mouth shut and not tick anyone off.

While I know things are running the best way they probably can, I’m not thrilled with some of the way things are being done. Having been on the outside of the information has caused me frustration beyond belief. Now that I will be at the meetings, I will be able to understand why some things are as they are and that will make it easier to swallow the things I personally don’t agree with.

We are so glad we are here. It’s hard sometimes, but we wouldn’t want to be anyplace else.

Every night after the hustle and bustle of the place slips into a quiet lull and the majority of the volunteers have left, I go and take monkey out of his cage and love on him. Tonight I kissed him on the face and got a pucker full of kitty drool. Since I met my hairdresser’s cat, Owen who was a drooler, I’ve always wanted a kitty with a slight drool. Owen’s drooling was a little bit of a problem because he did it all the time. Seems like monkey only drools when he is being given love and attention. I hope to make him drool a lot for the rest of his little kitty life.

Thanks for reading, sending prayers and for all of your support. We feel it out here! And it’s appreciated greatly.

Carol & Gabby