Kindness of Strangers

 

I met up with two girls from New York (we met at the airport for the first time) and our plan was to rent a Minivan and sleep in it while we were there.  The first night  was just miserable for all of us.  We tried to leave the windows open for air, but we were bitten by mosquitoes (the air outside was sticky and humid anyway).  Then we closed the windows and it got too hot.  So what we ended up doing (which sounds crazy, I know) is once an hour to turn the car on and run the air-conditioning for five minutes.   They slept in the back seats somewhat reclined, and I slept in the front seats, sort of curled up - it wasn't difficult to wake up to turn the air on - I wasn't really in a deep sleep anyway.   I felt so badly for the, I think they got the worse end of the deal, since the air conditioning worked better in the front seat.  The next morning, we all had our first reality check of what we city girls had gotten ourselves into. 

The next day we were very lucky to have met a local volunteer named Joe, who invited us back to his house to sleep on his living room floor.  He and his wife Mary were so kind to us, they let us use their shower and gave us sheets and pillows and blankets to sleep in their nice air conditioned home (who ever thought air conditioning could be so wonderful?) After working all day in the 97 degree heat, a shower and a floor to sleep on was like staying at the Four Seasons!  We also fell in love with their four cats and two dogs Colby & Duke!

Joe has had a lot of experience in animal rescue and he told me some memorable stories about some of the people who made every effort to not leave their pets behind in New Orleans.  One story he told about a man he met who refused to part with his dog.  Instead of getting on one of the buses to evacuate, he instead walked 20 miles so they could stay together.  The pads of his dogs paws were all blistering and he needed medical treatment - and all the owner kept saying was "I should have carried him!  I should have carried him!" (but he was an 80 pound dog).  At least they made it out alive - and his dog wasn't left behind to suffer and possibly die.

Another story Joe told us - was about a rottweiler who saved the life of his young owner.  A girl, maybe college age, had not evacuated when the hurricane hit and she was in her apartment with her dog waiting it out.  All of a sudden the door burst open and water starting pouring in.  The power of the door hitting her knocked her into a daze and the next thing she remembered is her dog jumping up on her and pushing her against the wall to wake her up.  Then the two of them began to swim to get out of the apartment, where they got separated for a moment.  The girl was struggling to get to the surface and then her dog came back for her and she grabbed on to his collar and he helped her up.  Then they were separated again - she made it to one roof and he made it to another rooftop.  The two of them waited on those rooftops for two days before rescuers came to get the girl.  They left the dog behind and she is now looking for him.  The last time she was seen looking for her rottweiler was at Lamar Dixon, but no one knows if he has been found yet.  (if anyone reading this has heard of this story and has any new information, please let me know)

I also met some other locals who had shown up to volunteer - all of them working just as hard as any of us.  I was disappointed not to see more Louisiana volunteers - especially when I met so many people who had travelled from far away to be there to help.  I met people from New York, New Jersey, Nebraska, Washington state, San Francisco, San Diego and I even met a husband and wife who were from North Hollywood, just a few miles from where I live in Los Angeles.  There were also several girls there from Ohio State who were fourth year vet school students (they had all driven down together) and a vet tech from Canada.