New Orleans

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2005

We woke to a new southern day, complete with a warm breeze, strong sun, the reputed hospitality and… Waffle House! The best waffles ever, grits with cheese, cheese with some eggs, horrible coffee and lots of “darlin’s.” After scarfing what we deemed our last hot meal for the week, we took off for our last 3 hours to base camp. After miles of uprooted trees and scarred houses, we came upon Bogalusa; a small, economically depressed town struggling to get back on its feet. It is about 70 miles north of New Orleans.

(A couple of these pictures are overexposed, but it’s the content that’s important.)

Bogalusa, LA

Just outside of town we found the dirt road driveway camouflaged between imposing trees; our home for the next week. A Bogalusa resident, Ms. Cantor, donated the land around her house to the Alley Cat Allies (ACA) for their temporary shelter and rescue headquarters. They expect to be there until the end of the year. It’s a 300-acre, pine-filled, knotted and gnarly landscape, but her house sits in a clearing a bit off the road. We encircled it with our cars and tents. She also donated the guesthouse that includes a kitchen and bathroom – amenities we did not expect to have! It is also a makeshift office where they have a desk/fax machine/computers.

Outside and inside of the shelter.

We were told to set up but were soon interrupted and asked if either of us had veterinary, or even just cat experience. I had worked as an assistant at a cat clinic, and volunteered in the clinic at Tree House Animal Foundation. There was a cat in shock from all the trauma – panting, drooling, vomiting and diarrhea. There wasn’t a vet there and whoever was in charge wasn’t either. They asked me to rush the cat to the vet, which I did. Off I went, back to “downtown” Bogalusa.

After detours and stops, I finally made it to the veterinary office. It was in an old, white Victorian home and it was frantic with the influx of people and their pets and/or rescues. The vet was NOT happy to see me. I had no information, didn’t own the cat, and didn’t know what the Alley Cat Allies procedures even were. I had so little information I couldn’t even wing it. So she impatiently opened the carrier, jammed her hand in and he swatted her. She slammed the door shut, her eyes are burning. Practically growling she said, “Now just WHAT are you going to do with a cat like that? I can’t help a cat that acts like that. You don’t know the first thing about it. If he has FIV, FELV, if he’s feral. I just as soon put a cat like this down.” I was stunned. Here is a vet who first of all, didn’t handle the cat in any way correctly and secondly, was ready to euthanize at the drop of a hat. I answered that I didn’t know what the protocol was, but to at least take a look at him. Mistake. She told the tech to get the lasso. She put this noose around his neck and violently yanked him not just out of the carrier, but also from a waist-high table onto the floor. The poor baby ran to a corner and stuck his face in it, shivering all over. I was disgusted and had yelped out. I was frozen. “Now just exactly how far are you willing to go to save that cat?” I didn’t want to give orders freely, as I was unsure of the organization’s expectations. I tried calling Elizabeth, as I didn’t have anyone’s numbers with me. No luck. So I told the vet to go ahead and sedate him and check his vitals. She called me into the exam room and told me he had FIV. Do I want to keep this cat? I said, yes, we could deal with FIV cats. “Oh, so you’re just going to let this cat back out in the world to infect other cats. Cats like this should be put down.” I answered that actually, our shelter has a room just for FIV cats. “Oh great, so he’ll live his life in a cage. What kind of life is that?” No, our shelter is cageless. “Well, that’s ridiculous. Cats are not pack animals like dogs. They don’t want or like to be together in groups. They are solitary, nocturnal beings.” I gave up at this point and told her to hydrate him and give him a shot of antibiotics and I’d be on my way.

I got back and put him back in a clean cage where he was left alone to rest and recuperate from yet another traumatic experience…as if the hurricane wasn’t enough! I gave myself a tour of the place. I’m impressed with the improvised setup on someone’s property. There are two huge tents; one for supplies, the other is the shelter. The shelter tent has glass doors, electricity and air conditioning. People donated all of this and the electric was wired and turned on for free by a local electrician. Soon I was cleaning cages and Elizabeth and I, both organization freaks, were already plotting the most thorough yet efficient way to tackle this huge job – about 120 cats in need of attention in cages that desperately needed to be cleaned. We spent the rest of the evening cleaning, ate a dinner of cold canned beans and corn on tortillas. As we were scarfing down dinner, Diane, the woman in charge, came to us and asked us to set up cages for the incoming rescue vans and cats.

We hope to be on a rescue squad soon. It’s a long day – they leave in the morning and don’t get back until around 9-10 p.m. But to save some animals from whatever mess is out there will be quite rewarding! Not to mention, selfishly, I want to see this aftermath firsthand. It’s been six weeks and before Bogalusa, I wasn’t sure there would be much to see. But I realize now that not much has been done, or been able to be done due to Wilma, manpower, and supplies.

The rescue squads each get a list of specific addresses to which they must go, search, and hopefully recover people’s pets. ACA keeps a database from calls they’ve received either from the owners, or people who have spotted animals. There are still animals being found everyday in empty homes and vacant lots. They are hungry, dehydrated, scared, and confused. Most are domesticated animals that escaped their homes via broken windows or open doors. We work to find and reunite these animals with their owners.

Anyway, I’m exhausted. Looking forward to delving into my first full day tomorrow.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2005

That’s right. 5 kittens, 1 litterbox.

One word – exhausted. After getting up at 7:30, eating a carb-filled breakfast, and chatting it up, we had our daily 8:30 meeting. Elizabeth and I were assigned to the shelter. (Elizabeth is my travel partner, and works for Tree House Animal Foundation as the Volunteer Coordinator. She deals with cats daily and Tree House sponsored our trip.) We cleaned and fed and watered about 120+ cats. We also made notes on behavior and consulted with the vet. We organized and consoled and cuddled and had to catch two escapees (one successful, the other not). Hot, busy, and much more work than I had even imagined…and I expected a lot! But having patience, bonding, and interaction with the cats was extremely rewarding. At the end of the day I had about seven cats that went from hissing to letting me pet them.As a result of our work and being the most knowledgeable resources on cats aside from the vet and tech (most of the volunteers were either inexperienced and just wanted to help, or were more familiar with dogs) Elizabeth and I were asked to co-manage the shelter for the week. We had plenty of ideas for improvement. It’s already looking much better and things are more in tune with what should be done for the cats. Protocols are being established as well as a plan for efficiency and expediency.It is awesome to know that we truly are making a difference. As a matter of fact, one cat is reuniting with its owner tomorrow. Yay!A long and exhausting, but very fulfilling 16-hour day. We will be assigned to the rescue squad in a day or two. Yawn and goodnight sweet kitties.

Buddha and Monkey. 2 of my favs, again in a litterbox.

We lovingly referred to this guy as Crumplestiltskin. He ended up coming back north with us, renamed to Bogalusa, and is still up for adoption at Tree House today. See previous entry.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2005
Today was another hectic, full, and exhausting day at the shelter. But there were two reunions today! Both had said they thought they were only going to be gone a couple of days and now, six weeks and several shelters later, here they were, some of the lucky few to find their pets. The cats and their owners were all very excited and happy and so were all of us! It was awesome and the reason we’re all here.

Reunited with “Stone Cold” after over 6 weeks.

Reunited!

Elizabeth and I are officially in full swing. Today we added more detailed medical sheets to each cat’s information. Now we can track their health and bring any potential problems to other volunteers’ attention. There was no documentation of this previously, or of special needs or diets. It was sort of a free for all. Luckily there weren’t many that needed meds. But as more come in, we’re seeing minor problems that need a diet change (I/D for those sensitive stomachs, or kitten food only for kittens) or antibiotics. We also labeled cages on the outside as to special needs, or simply to be prepared for an aggressive cat. We’re very understaffed, so making simple changes for certain cats is an ordeal but we’re doing it and they’re getting more of what they need. We’re pretty much doing all we can with what we’ve got.

The vet is rolling along as well doing dentals, spays/neuters, and other such medical necessities. He and the vet tech are doing an incredible job.

While Elizabeth and I have shelter and clinical experience, there are other people here with other specialties. One woman, Karen, has 120ish cats at home and is very knowledgeable with special needs cases such as hepatic lipidosis and tube feeding. An older orange tabby had lipidosis from not eating. It’s potentially reversible, but deadly if not treated in time. The cat was very frightened and disoriented and thereby aggressive but not feral (which is a term used far too loosely here). Various people attempted force-feeding her, including the vet tech. It just aggravated her fear and increased her stress. Finally Karen stepped in to work with the cat. She calmly and resolutely, slowly and patiently worked with the now terrified and confused tabby. In time, the cat calmed down enough that Karen got food down.

As well, today I was given a lesson in feral cats by Denise, an east-coast woman with 18 cats and a background dealing with ferals. One little tortie was so frightened and upset that she didn’t move from her spot. She urinated and defecated all over the towel she was sitting on. She and the towel were saturated. The key is being slow and patient. Denise did not wear protective gloves. Using simply a towel, she slowly and confidently shifted the cat and got the soiled towel. She cleaned up and put a box in the cage for the scared little kitty to hide in. While grumbly and potentially very aggressive, the slow movements and Denise’s obvious confidence made the process go smoothly.

Adam, Elizabeth’s husband, joined us today and was quite helpful! We got the cages done hours before we had the day before. Diane also asked us to name and write a few sentences about each cat for the website. Fun! Well, in theory. I was so tired I was having a difficult time being creative.

Traps were set in an attempt to get the cat that escaped yesterday. To our delight and surprise, a cat that had snuck out unbeknownst to everyone was caught. We were so relieved because this was a cat with an owner who is going home in a matter of days! One of the volunteers, Anne, is from Texas and is taking a load of cats with her. Many have owners there and a few others are ferals going to live in her barn. Very cool!

Tomorrow I head into the city!! I’m a little nervous and excited, but more than anything I’m just driven and ready to go and get in there and do some rescues (I hope!).

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005

Today I went to downtown New Orleans. I had my bright orange “RESCUE” t-shirt on and was very pumped! I was going with Kyle, a “veteran” rescuer (she had been out once before).We loaded up the van with supplies: a net, dry and wet cat food, plates and bowls, traps, carriers, leather gloves, masks, food and water for us, body cover etc… the van has laminated signs all around that read “Hurricane Katrina Animal Rescue.” I felt so official. Turns out we were treated as such as well.After crossing over Lake Pontchatrain, a mere 20-mile trek over water, New Orleans suddenly loomed up out of the haze. There was a surprising amount of traffic, but the reality is, almost all of it is clean-up crews and workers. New Orleans is pretty desolate. The further you get from downtown, the more deserted it becomes. The city is not livable – it’s one large toxic zone. Even where the homes were not engulfed in water, the damage left them and other buildings structurally damaged and unsafe, many moved off of their foundations. Everything is caked in dried muck. Plant-life is either dead or dying. Trees have fallen or are falling. There is no grass, only coated, brown, crunchy blades of what used to be. Every time you walk or drive, you kick up all of that crust and create dust. There are medians and boulevards full of debris; from fallen trees to decaying furniture, to displaced boats and cars. On every corner there are a multitude of signs advertising house gutting, demolding, construction, and contracting.

Desolation

We took a wrong turn so our plan was turned backwards, which was fine and ended up being some kind of serendipity. Someone had destroyed the map in the van so we were going on a very minimalist Mapquest map. It’s bad enough because street signs are missing or turned around, and you pretty much have to find one and count the blocks. The first home was a search for ferals. We wandered about but didn’t find any life. However, it was our first neighborhood and my first witness to the degree of devastation. The home we were trying search was completely blocked in by furniture and debris. All we could do was look in the windows. The water line left behind went almost all the way to the roof. The back porch was completely separated from the house and a backyard hot tub in a gazebo was completely moved and left lopsided.

A neighbor spoke with us and tearfully shared that her cat, whom she had had to send away due to living conditions, had been put to sleep the day before from a health condition. She also wasn’t having any luck finding the ferals she fed and cared for. She cried and we consoled and talked with her. She seemed interested in being a feral volunteer for Alley Cat Allies. Then her husband came out and ended up having a very detailed map of New Orleans. We felt these were all signs that the wrong turn was the right one. The husband was bandaged up. It turns out upon returning to their house he heard water running in the bathroom. It was dark and when he went to turn the knob, an alligator latched onto his arm! What he had heard was it thrashing around, stuck in the tub! He shook it off and ran.

We thanked them and took off to the next stop. The song that came on the radio? Lean on Me.

Our second stop was a home that originally housed a family and their 5 cats. We geared up, covering our skin, hair, and mouths. We went in and crawled about. It’s difficult to describe the degree of damage. Everything had floated around and just landed randomly when the water receded. There were chairs on the counter, a freezer moved into the middle of the room, no furniture was left unturned, even the floor tiles had buckled. The inside of this as well as other homes was coated floor to ceiling in black mold and slime. The smell was of the worst mildewy basement you’ve ever been in times 10. Nothing was salvageable. They lost everything. Every item in those homes was covered in mold, mildew, and other miscellaneous forms of rot. You could see peoples’ lives, who they were, what they were interested in, if there were children….there was a prayer card and other Islamic items about this house. There was an Amazing Kreskin book on the floor. We came upon an open attic and crawled up. Nothing. But, behold! In the living room there were 2 fresh hairballs; a sure sign of life. We did a search to no avail. There was a huge bag of food and water already left outside so we decided to come back. You can’t spend too much time at any one place unless you actually know you’re going to make a rescue. There’s only so much daylight and so much time until curfew, and you want to hit as many places as possible.

Next we went to one of the worst hit areas. There were cars randomly dropped everywhere, boats in the road, and the homes were just trashed. People had not been back to see the damage and there was nobody around. We would see an arborist here and there, but that was few and far between. In this house we again crawled up into a packed attic. There was a hole in the roof and when we looked out there was a flat space and cat poop. Life! We searched around the attic and Kyle found a cat! Unfortunately, there was not a solid floor and there was so much stored in the attic that we couldn’t get him. We went outside for a breather (it was about 110 degrees in that attic) and grabbed a trap. While out there I saw another cat run through the backyard. We went and set the trap then went outside for a bit, surveying the neighborhood. We went back up after about 15 minutes and to our dismay, the bait was gone and the trap hadn’t snapped shut! So, we took notes and promised to come back the next day.

Mold up to the ceiling.

Our next stop was right outside of the Garden District. It was an apartment complex that may have had several animals still inside. Unfortunately, when we drove up, the building was nothing but the charred remains from a fire.

Remains of the apartment complex destroyed by a fire.

However, two men were surveying the area and told us that cats had been seen wandering that neighborhood. One of the men owned several properties where he had seen animals roaming. He gave us the addresses and the permission to trap these former pets. While we were standing there, a FEMA worker drove up and told us about a Rottweiler he’d seen hanging out on a porch for at least the last three days. As we were only supposed to hit designated spots because of time, we told him who to contact. All in all, the Garden District and French Quarter seem to have suffered the least; mostly wind damage. Relative to everything else, these areas were in pretty good shape and even had a few restaurants/bars open, though water and electricity are still scant.

Next was an apartment complex on the edge of town. We turned into what we thought was the complex and bumped into the groundskeeper. Kyle spoke with him at length while I looked around for life and set up traps. It turns out he had been feeding strays prior to and after the hurricane. He also took it upon himself to open every apartment to make sure there were no animals stuck inside. He knew where many of them were hiding out and Kyle talked to him about volunteering to feed ferals. In a matter of 15 minutes we came across about 6 cats. Unfortunately, we realized, we were in the wrong place. We headed back up the street a few blocks and found where we were supposed to be. There was no sign of life so we started to randomly go into apartments. Neither of us felt comfortable with this and felt it was a waste of time. It was not a 2-person job. So we went back to the other complex and ended up finishing our day there and catching 8 cats. We were totally pumped, but we also saw many cats we didn’t have enough traps for and vowed, as before, to come back or send a team tomorrow.

We took a different route home on a two-lane highway. It was like a tunnel because so much debris was piled up on the sides of the road. There was a great deal of work going on in this area as opposed to downtown. It was more rural and on the outskirts of N.O. It was very surreal – piles and piles of roofing, refrigerators, stoves, personal belongings, rotting furniture, trees – everything. Then we came upon an open field that was being used to burn huge piles of downed trees. There was a lone bulldozer driving around keeping the bonfire lit and the piles compact. It totally lit up the night sky. It was a bit shocking and disturbing as we wondered why they were burning all of this wood instead of putting it to good use.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2005

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