Ms. Kitty and Noah’s Wish
I haven't written much lately because my troubles and opinions seem incredibly insignificant when compared with those of the residents of New Orleans. I'm sure I'll take some criticism on this but I've been worrying most about the helpless animals who've lost their owners and are trapped in cages or kennels. They're scared, hungry and have no idea what's happened to them. As a result, I can't even watch the news anymore as every new pet story brings to much to bear. A friend of mine named Brad who is a Veterinarian at the Redmond Veterinary Hospital went down to New Orleans earlier this week to help provide medical care to the animals left in Katrina's wake. While I salute him, I cannot fathom being exposed to what he is likely to see.
Mandatory evacuations have begun and authorities are not letting people leave with their animals which I cannot understand. If I were asked to leave without my kids, there would be one helluva fight and someone would end up being hurt pretty badly, possibly myself. Pets are family members too and deserve equal treatment especially since the worst is over. At the very least, "rescuers" need to drop the humans off and make an immediate return to retrieve the animals.
One story that really grabbed my attention was the story of Ms. Kitty. The MSNBC.com Katrina Blog has been chronicling the search for Bill Harris' cat, Ms. Kitty the past few days and I was happy to see that finally there was a happy ending.
Although I couldn't make it down there, I made a financial donation to the non-profit animal welfare organization Noah's Wish. Their website is so swamped that they haven't even been able to keep up and their server has been down. Although I'm sure they have more pressing concerns, I did offer to help with hosting and have some serious resources (two, load balanced dual AMD Opteron 248s with 8 GB RAM and Gig-E ports) to be able to do that. I want to at least keep their site up so people can make donations. If you are able, please consider making a donation via Paypal.
Thanks for reading.
September 9th, 2005 - 10:11
A very worthy blog entry. I’m pretty sickened by the animal toll, too. Many of the humans had a choice about whether to stay or get out. The animals did not.
September 12th, 2005 - 06:01
You are so right! Pets are part of the family, too. They depend on their owners just like any baby depends on its parents for care. Having a pet is a lifelong committment. They do not grow up and move away like kids do. They need you until the day they die. My dog and My cats are my babies. I would give up my life trying to save them rather than walk away and leave them behind. I could not live with myself otherwise.