Date: September 15, 2005
Time: 11:44 pm EST
Re: Hurricane Katrina Rescue Efforts
From: Paul

Today was a great, great day. Progress was made on many fronts. We left Hattiesburg, Mississippi this morning and after several wrong turns (every other road sign is blown down), we arrived in Tylertown. When we arrived, Dr. Ognibene was headed out to the triage facility at a looted Winn Dixie. We continued walking the dogs and setting up the facility.

Words cannot describe the scene here. Just a few days ago, this was an empty piece of property with a small house.  Through the hard work of volunteers and vital donations, it is a small village with tents, a fenced in dog walking area and new runs that were just built today.

The chain link runs were transported to us on an 18 wheeler, driven by a FedEx driver that volunteered his time, loaded with supplies that a school in Ohio donated. Just as it pulled up, a team from a humane society in Maryland arrived and one of the team members was a contractor who knew how to assemble the fencing.

About 2 hours ago a luxury bus pulled up, trailer in tow, and delivered supplies for the volunteers; 50 air mattresses, pillows, towels etc. Then they proceeded to cook dinner for the whole group. There are too many individuals and groups to name them all but this is truly a grass roots effort.  The group that cooked the meals was from Kentucky where they operated a sanctuary and they offered to take several birds that were living in the house.

15 cats that were rescued from a destroyed shelter in Louisiana will be heading back to the League for care and adoption into new homes. We just received word that we will be able to start transporting animals from Hattiesburg and I am working to coordinating the timing.

That's all for now…

Paul and Mike

ps - We are now pulling into Hattiesburg. The next rescue team arrived safely. Goodnight.