For the Love of Dog's Disaster Relief

For the Love of Dog first got involved in disaster relief in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina. Several volunteers spent weeks in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in late 2005 and early 2006. For the Love of Dog took nearly 100 displaced dogs from the gulf coast during that time, of which only a few were reunited with their owners.

In September 2008, Hurricane Ike threatens the Galveston TX area. Ike, which packs a similar wind strenght as Katrina, has a wider "wind" area and has already killed over 300 people on the islands. As some of you know, many of our Confederate Canines come from Texas - most of them from the Galveston area. Our primary contact in Galveston was able to get twelve of the 20 dogs from his home out on a transport on Wednesday - arriving in NH on Saturday.  He, the remainder of the dogs, and dogs from his local veterinary clinic and shelter have a secure and safe location where they have evacuated to for the storm.

What happens in this case: Dogs currently in shelters are euthanized for space. This makes room for the incoming animals that are displaced by the storm. Armed with this knowledge, we were able to move 8 dogs into our program (plus found a few rescues to take another 5 dogs). Please meet the displaced kids: Mario, Mischke, Millie, Bella, Daphne, Sebastian, Bonita and Crystal.

More will arrive as needed, and For the Love of Dog volunteers will be deployed as needed. Keep reading.

September 14, 2008 - Hurricane Ike did tremendous damage to Galveston and Houston. We have our contact information in with Best Friends Animal Socity (Utah) who we did our Katrina relief with. As we have agreed to take several dogs already from the area, we are in a holding patern for what our next move will be. In the meantime, getting the dogs out who we've agreed to take will make space for a few other dogs who need help. Bonita and Crystal need to fly out of Austin, TX. The other six arrived on ground transort on Saturday 13th.

September 25, 2008 - Our friends in Galveston are safe, and are working with the Galveston County shelter in Texas City (now a "tent city" with more than 250 animals) and the Beaumont TX shelters to evacuate the rottweilers. Coming this week will be: Gino, Luigi, Annie and Rosa. Because we are hoping that the owners will return for their dogs now that Galveston residents are allowed to return home, the next group of dogs will not hit New Hampshire until October 18, and will include Scarlett, Lulu, and several others.