by Michael Allaire

The Milo Foundation Animal Rescue in New Orleans at MuttShack

Well, the most recent of three Milo Rescue Teams in the field, (Kimberly Long, Ann Kingsbury, Jenny Test, Emily Brown), made it to Louisiana in record time, leaving at 9:00pm Friday night, driving straight through they landed in Mandeville, LA about 11:00pm Sunday night. Not without mishap...There was a little collision with a metal pole at a gas station before they even left town (that pretty much ate up the $500 deductible); and then there was the little faux pas from the rental company sending them out with half the proper air pressure in the tires, which they didn't discover until Kingman, Arizona (gee, these RV's sure handle sloppy and suck up the fuel); the lights in the storage area of the vehicle didn't work, same for the
dashboard lights (co-pilot handles the flashlight); and the little dining
table that converts to a bed broke the first night (now prompted up with two coolers). But heaven and earth smiled favorably on them nonetheless and they got there safe and sound.

In Mandeville they hooked up with a woman who owns a kennel, Kendra, who became the default rescue shelter in her area after Katrina hit. Now it should also be noted that not only did her family home get destroyed, but she is right in the middle of serious cancer chemotherapy--despite all of that she is taking in animals, and is out in the pens daily caring for the lost and abandoned. Her simple response "What else you gonna do? I can't imagine doing anything else!". Our team spent two days with her helping get
her place in shape, cleaning pens and caring for animals, and processing a mountain of donated materials she had received.

On Tuesday, Kendra, the Mandeville "saint" led our team into New Orleans. She finagled them all through military check points--getting them through when the military wasn't letting anyone else through. They drove the RV into New Orleans to a school that has been converted into a makeshift rescue/triage center for animals. The facility is located literally at the edge of the levee next to Lake Ponchatraine, and is headed up by a group called MuttShack. There they have a "camp" on the school grounds where there are about 45 volunteers from all over the country working in this center. They can park the RV there safely, and there are tents for the volunteers.
Mostly there are lots of animals that need tending to.

They rise at 6:00am and spend two hours cleaning pens, feeding and walking crews go out into the streets to find animals, while base camp crews process animals and/or continue daily care of animals. There is a crew of vet techs and vet students who handle initial intake, triage, and clean up. Then the other volunteers handle the animals once they have gone through intake care.

They tell me they walk dogs all day long, hiking up about 25 steps to the top of the levee, along the levee top with a beautiful view of the lake on one side, and the remains of the City on the other. The heat is in the high 90's and it is taking it's toll.

On Tuesday they were surprised to find most of the animals in the center looked pretty good. But those were the ones that had come in from roaming the streets (eating what ever they could find--you may not want to know). But today, Wednesday, the picture changed--it is the first day of officially letting people back into the City at large, and the animals coming in today are ones that have been found in buildings, abandoned since the initial flood...4 weeks ago. They are emaciated and broken. Today was a hard day for everyone....but as they say "that is what we are here to do", and then again
"What else you gonna do? I can't imagine doing anything else!"

The team plans to stay at the New Orleans center until Friday, then drive back up to Mandeville to spend the night with the "saint", pick up some animals from her place to transport out to the Bay Area. They will start to drive back on Saturday, and are planning to be back in the Bay Area by Monday.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to email or call me. I am currently in the process of contacting and securing foster homes for the dogs that are coming back with our teams. We have openings for 8 foster homes for dogs coming in this Thursday, and I don't yet know how many we will have coming in on Monday. However, if you know of people that would make good foster homes please have them contact me ASAP!

I will keep you updated!

In closing, let me invoke the name of a very successful donation drive based
here in the Bay Area, created by Colleen Kessler and Gary
Schick, as the closing salutation...

Peace, Love, & Pets!