Earthquake animal rescue 1-24-09

1-24-09


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Many more earthquake photos at www.mrbudbud.shutterfly.com

I will try to catch you up with what has happened in the past few days.

World Society pulled up stakes and left the scene Thursday. That means they were here Wednesday, still turning away animals because they were getting "organized" Friday, worked for 5 days, and now they are gone. I do not know where they sent the animals they had collected.

The vets and govt. officials are now working hand in hand with us to try to finish this job. Our rescued animals are all safe in a warm shelter, receiving veterinary attention, and waiting for their owners to claim them or to be adopted at the end of February.

We are posting them on a web site and I am making up posters to place in stores around the quake areas so people can look for their dogs there and call us.

Some of the animals are beginning to show up at the refugee shelters. They are concerned about disease because most of the animals are suffering from diarrhea at this point. We are going into the shelters and taking the dogs from there. When we get the vehicles full we tell the directors, who are working with us on this, that we will be back the next day for any more that might be there.

We also are being taken, by local people, into areas where the people have left animals and have not been able to come back to feed or water them.

One house we went to Friday is barely standing. There is a dog there, doing her job, and guarding the house. There are also chickens there. We were able to get up onto the porch of the house where the dog is. With every step we took, the whole house swayed and rocked. It is going to fall.

We could not get the dog that day. She is not willing to come and we will probably have to use a catch pole to get her as she is aggressive and scared. We will have to figure out a way to get her off the porch though because even a small wrestling match will bring the house down on all our heads.

Another man took us to a house where he said there was a dog whose owner, (an elderly man,)had fled and had not been able to get back to feed him.

The dog was in the back yard pen with the chickens, but so much "stuff" had fallen during the quake it was like trying to maneuver in a huge pile of rubble.
Tin roofing, boards and timbers with nails and wires, fencing, all tumbled and tangled together. The little dog had a LOT of hiding places and was terrified. He had not been touched since the quake. Nor had he been fed.

Neighbors, who have come back to the area, had thrown chicken food over into the pile of rubble so that is what the little guy had been feeding off of.

The man who took us there climbed with us into the mess and we were able to move some of the tin roofing material away from his hiding place and slip a noose over his neck.

The poor thing was already traumatized and this was just another horrifying experience for him. He wanted to bite everybody and almost succeeded.
Once we got him out of the rubble I slipped a muzzle on him and then held him against me and loved him telling him, "It's ok now. Everything is going to be ok."

We got him in the car and, while my daughter soothed him and petted him, he finally relaxed and lay his little head down on her arm. We put him into a crate in the back and, when I petted him and loved him, his little tail started beating against the side of the crate. I took off the muzzle and he licked my hands in thanks.
He has calmed down and now is a total sweetie.

GOOD NEWS on that one....his owner called and wants him back. He is now living with his relatives and told us that when the quake happened he could not get to the dog because of all the rubble. The old man is on a walker and I can just imagine the horror he went through. He had been taken to one of the refugee shelters where nobody really had the time to go back and help his dog.

We brought out 11 dogs from one shelter on Thursday. Two of them have owners and they will be returned to them as soon as they have a place for them. Hopefully, others will be claimed too.

We left food with anyone who needed it and have been handing out de-wormers, vitamins, and various other meds.

We have released LOTS of cattle from pastures in danger of going down in a landslide. We break the fence down and head the cows out, down the road, toward the more stable areas so the dairymen there can care for them. The police gave the orders to release any cows we found fenced. Most of the places we are going are off limits to the general public. Way too unstable.

I have posted MANY of the quake animal photos to our photo site at www.mrbudbud.shutterfly.com

There are more to come.

Please pray for these people, these animals, and us.

Frances "Kitten" Jones
BudBud's mom