Triple R Pets: News Archive

Below are all the news items we have posted since January 15, 2006 regarding our work in the Gulf Coast and Hurricane Katrina. Please browse our articles and read what we have done in the past. If you happen to find any broken links please let us know.

As of Saturday evening, it would appear that our friends in Louisiana are facing another landfall in their state. The good news is that the lessons of Katrina have been learned and people and their pets are safely evacuating together. Many of our fellow animal rescue groups are on the ground, working hand in hand with government officials to ensure the safety of pets and the successful evacuation of local shelters and citizens.

At this time, Triple R Pets is not deploying to the coast. We are serving in a capacity of resource coordination for several other groups and standing ready to assist on the ground, if and when necessary. As was our focus with Katrina, we will work to put a long-term relief program in place, if this is needed.

In the mean-time, if you are a trained volunteer and are interested in assisting, please send an e-mail to Judy Clark and she will help you get to a group that needs more hands on the ground.

If you are a shelter or foster home, please let us know if you can take in any animals. We are already working on finding homes for over sixty animals that have been evacuated from shelters in low-lying areas. Transports will be in place over the next few days/weeks.

As always, you can make a donation that will be used specifically on hurricane relief efforts by using our safe, secure PayPal link to the left. Please mark you donation as hurricane relief and we will ensure that the funds go directly to the animals on the coast.

For those in Louisiana, please bring your pet with you to the evacuation points, they WILL allowed to evacuate with their owners. Please be sure to have supplies with you and a crate. If you do not have a crate, have your animal on a leash. Our latest update indicated that the Louisiana SPCA would be assisting at the pick-up points.

If you need any assistance, please contact Judy Clark at 708-829-9371 or via e-mail.

Wow! We have now helped with the TNR of over twenty cats in the past two months. We're not done yet as this colony has sixty cats. With forty more cats to go, we need to raise another $1,400 to complete the colony. If you can help out with a donation of $35 that is one more cat we can help! The caretakers of this colony are Warren and Angie Boxx. They are great caretakers and the cats are lucky to have them. They are committed to ensuring the entire colony is spay / neutered to stop the population explosion. The story is all too common. There were a few cats hanging out after Katrina came through. It seemed they were left behind. Warren and Angie started feeding them and the rest is history. Here is a picture of some of the cats, hanging out:

While we have ended our formal work on the Gulf Coast, we still have found that there is a desperate need for TNR (Trap-Neuter-Release). Last week one of our volunteers, Katie Taibi, helped a resident trap and spay 16 cats. With the help of a grant as well as the success of our annual garage sale, we are able to continue to fund TNR along the Gulf Coast.

This August will mark the 3rd year since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Yet, many residents are still rebuilding their lives. The pet overpopulation problem and feral cats add an even greater burden to many concerned animal lovers still rebuilding. While many organizations and people across the U.S. have forgotten about Katrina victims, you can certainly count on Triple R Pets to continue to help these unlucky people and animals.

Today marks the two year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Waveland, MS. All along the Gulf Coast much progress has been made, yet there is still so much work left to do. Our Trap-Neuter-Release program is in full swing helping those animals left behind trying to survive in areas where foods sources may be limited. Population control is a main objective as we enter our third year of sustained relief. With limited adoption opportunities, we need to keep the numbers in check.

Residents still rely on our smiling volunteers to check in on them, help with a vet bill or just provide a ride to a vet for an animal in need. Food distribution in the hardest hit areas is still needed and the food is harder and harder to come by as the days, months and now years pass.

Hurricane preparation, including resident education, free micro-chipping and shelter operations continues. Hopefully we will never see anything the size of Katrina again, but we must be prepared.

We thank everyone who has volunteered, whether their time, donations or just in kind, supportive words. Without you, our operations along the Gulf Coast that have impacted both residents and furry friends would not be possible!

Board Member, Collette Walker giving a big hug to Lemoyne who was rescued last November from Ocean Springs, MS. After being treated for an aggressive case of heartworm and every skin disease known to a dog, Lemoyne has found a loving forever home in the Chicago Suburbs.

At last, we have completed pet registration in East Biloxi. We are happy with most of the statistics, but a few are a bit scary. We have listed the stats below. A big thanks goes to Hands On Gulf Coast for supplying all the volunteers that helped with our door-to-door survey. As September comes to a close so does our work down here. We are still helping with TNR and plan to continue our efforts throughout October. We also began to help a lady named Suzy who runs a shelter in Bay St. Louis. I have been dropping off a few pallets each week that disappear in a few days. Suzy distributes food for the entire neighborhood and has been feeding numerous feral colonies. The coast has definitely seen a huge improvement over the past 8 months, but there is still so much work to be done!

The most important lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina is the need to be prepared before a disaster ever strikes. One of the key components of preparation is knowing your community. Triple R Pets stepped up to the plate to find out exactly what kind of pets are in East Biloxi. A door-to-door survey was conducted through out all of East Biloxi (everything east of I-110), an extremely vulnerable area to hurricanes.

61% of pets are not fixed ... we provided low cost spay / neuter coupons to these residents. 86% of pet owners plan on bringing their animals with them in case of evacuation. 48 pets will be left behind ... we are working on addressing this individually with residents. 45% of pet owners plan on using the pet-friendly evacuation center at Harrison Central High School if they have to evacuate -- This means 150+ pets will be evacuated to the Harrison Central HS pet-friendly evacuation shelter

Sorry for the delay in posting this one, it slipped through the cracks! There was a nice article in US News and World Report on the two pups that rode home on Air Force One at the end of April. We also received a nice letter from President Bush regarding his visit to Mississippi. Both are posted below for viewing / downloading:

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS - SPECIAL PROJECT DURING THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF JULY 6-14-06

We need your help! Now's the time to come and visit the coast. See the progress that has been made ... and see how much is left to be done! We will provide you with safe, free housing and three meals a day (through the generous partnership with HandsOn Gulf Coast). The project entails micro-chipping as many pets as possible in the lowest lying areas of the coast (vet tech's will do all the micro-chipping). In addition, we will be surveying pet owners with their evacuation plans and collecting emergency contact information. We will also be providing hurricane preparation materials, including information on the pet-friendly shelter in Gulfport, crates, bowls, collars, leashes, etc.. This is not labor intensive, but will require time and effort to complete. The plan is to get as many volunteers on site during the first two weeks of July as possible. Detailed maps and instructions will be provided. Volunteers teams will need to have their own transportation.

Triple R Pets -- Dog Food Supplied to a Make-Shift Shelter in Tangipahoa Parish 6-13-06

When Humane LA asked for our assistance with helping a shelter in Tangipahoa Parish with some food and supplies, we were glad to be able to help! Through generous donations, dog food has been in good supply. While we continue to provide food to animals left behind along the coast and residents in need, we are also outreaching to hard-hit shelters to assist whenever possible. Now, we just have to get a crew over there to help with some tree removable ... hopefully Ben and the HandsOn Gulf Coast folks can assist.

ARNO (Animal Rescue New Orleans) continues to maintain over 3,000 feeding stations throughout the hardest hit areas of New Orleans. These are areas where there are no residents living, and thus no source of food for the animals that remain left behind, on the streets. With a flour circle around feeding bowls, rescuers have determined that dogs and cats continue to visit the stations, and so far, there are no "rodent prints." Cats are the most prevalent animal being fed and cat food is in desperate need. We donated as much as we could to ARNO this past week, but they need more! Triple R Pets can assist with the transportation and distribution of the food to the ARNO team, but we need your help! If you have a source for food or can make a donation to purchase low-cost food for ARNO, please do so now. Ear-mark your donation for ARNO and we will be sure it goes towards their food supplies.

Triple R Pets to assist Humane Society of Southern Mississippi with Pet-Friendly Shelters 6-5-06

Triple R Pets has agreed to assist HSSM, located in Gulfport, MS with the setup and functioning of the first pet-friendly shelter to aid residents along the coast. With so many residents in FEMA trailers, evacuations will take place even with a tropical storm warning. Most sources are predicting thirteen to seventeen evacuations along the Gulf Coast this season. We will be looking for trained volunteers to assist at the shelter. Please contact us if your schedule is flexible and you are willing to travel with short notice. Residents will care for their own animals, but volunteers are needed to oversee the shelter and assist residents as needed. Please also know that you will potentially be in the path of the storm. The building the shelter will be located in is designated as a hurricane shelter, but this is a "come at your own risk" volunteer program.

Back in late April we told you about a resident in Long Beach, Mississippi who was caring for a number of furry hurricane victims. They were battling sarcoptic mange, fleas and worms when several rescues came to them in pretty bad condition. With lots of love and care, the dogs have all made terrific progress and we are happy to report that two of the lucky rescues are going to their new furr-ever homes just across the border in Louisiana. Here are pics of Hope and Faith ... Hope is still growing her coat back in and needs a haircut (Judy & Denise did their best!) but you can see that her skin is no longer red and infected and the fur is coming back!

Before Picture:

Hope from before

There is a story on our new Paws for People page about this, but wanted to be sure it received everyone's attention. Through an unbelievably generous donation of un-saleable product from PetSmart and the donation of trucking from Ottawa, IL to Biloxi, MS from Midwest Food Bank, we now have FOOD FOR THE COAST! We have been out of dog food for several weeks now. We manage to scrape together enough from short runs to the Best Friends warehouse in Jackson, MS or through sales or damaged goods given out at Wal-Mart, but it has been a long couple of weeks. Starting this coming week, we will be brining a few pallets down every week. We can hold back the bulk of the food at the Midwest Food Bank warehouse in Bloomington, IL; allowing us to be ready to respond to any tornado or storm issues in the Midwest and not overwhelming our warehouse in Biloxi.

If you've ever considered coming to Mississippi to help, now's the time! First, it hasn't quite turned into the steam bath that the area will be in another couple months. Second, as we start our hurricane preparations, we need some folks simply going door to door and logging pets and resident's plans. It is not hard-labor intensive, but highly important and the more people we can get started on this, the sooner we can be finished. Click here for more information on volunteering.

Field Update - Ben Waldman - 5-5-06

Ben is beginning the daunting task of trying to help residents prepare for hurricane season. In general, the stronger storms seen in Mississippi have come later in the season, but nobody is taking any chances this year. Ben has laid out a plan to try and help us work as efficiently as possible with the Biloxi residents:

Last week, we had the privilege of meeting President Bush as he came through the HandsOn Gulf Coast volunteer camp where Triple R Pets is fortunate to have their volunteers stay. The President was touring New Orleans and Biloxi as part of a trip to review the progress and take a moment to thank the many volunteers in the area during National Volunteer Week. Triple R Pets has known since we started our partnership with HandsOn that they were an amazing organization, but this past week, we really learned about their structure and vision for disaster response. We are very lucky to be able to work with this group. As the small grass roots group that Triple R Pet is, we simply do not have the resources to provide our volunteers housing and meals, especially as we enter our ninth month of support along the coast. HandsOn has welcomed our volunteers and even our emergency rescue of twenty-seven puppies!!

During the President's visit, we were given the opportunity to share some stories of rescues and resident assistance program that we have in place. The President also shared his thoughts on pets in disaster situations with us. In all, this was wonderful way to reach out and continue to spread the word that there is still a need for help in the area and of course there is a need for evacuation plans that include animals.


President Bush holds Storm, a puppy rescued from a pound by Triple R Pets, as he visits Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts in Biloxi, Miss. Thursday, April 27, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)	Brogan Horton, Judy Clark and President Bush with Jazzy May, a rescued puppy currently living at the HandsOn Gulf Coast camp. Thursday, April 27, 2006. (photo source unknown)

A special thank-you to Ben Waldman, who constructed a new pen for the puppies in a more central location. This was not an easy task as the location moved slightly ... three times!

After a week on the ground, Judy Clark begins the task of fitting crates onto a cargo van to head back north with as many animals as possible.

The shelters here remain over-crowded as residents surrender animals on a daily basis. The weight of eight months of struggling is starting to take its toll of folks trying to make ends meet and crowd into a small trailer. Puppies and kittens are crawling out of the woodworks and [click here for the full story].

Judy Clark is back in Mississippi for a week. Friday was her first day on the ground. Click here to read a report from the field about an interesting first day!

Visiting the home of a make-shift shelter and debating how to best help the animals.

Ben and Brogan (our second full-time volunteer on the ground now and a vet tech to boot!!) have twenty-seven puppies in their care now. Yes, that number is correct! They were all scheduled to be euthanized tonight at a shelter Ben and Brogan helped at today ... so they did not leave empty handed! We are looking for shelters who can take these guys in. Pics will be posted soon.

A huge thanks to Almost Home who generously provided us with about four pallets of food today. We are now working on funding another transport trip where we can take this food down south ... where we are OUT of dog food!!! ... and then return back to the midwest with some dogs in great need of transport before their time comes up in the shelters they are in.

Ben Waldman 3-29-06 - Hey y'all. Here is another update from the deep south. I have been working on getting a very organized list of weekly supply drop-offs. Regular supply drop-offs for residents [read more]

MTV Alternative Spring Break sent over one hundred volunteers to Biloxi this year. During their time there, they met up with Triple R Pets Field Operations Coordinator Ben Waldman. There are some blogs that mention their work with Triple R Pets (links below) as well as some footage of Ben with the Storm Corp crew as they work on the interior of a storm-damaged home in East Biloxi. Tune in to MTV and look for Ben ... he's the one wearing the HandsOnUSA t-shirt pulling the big garbage can inside and later using a sledgehammer to take some anger out on a wall!

On March 16 a much anticipated volunteer team from Pennsylvania arrived in Biloxi. With them, came a load of food and supplies. The photo below is the start of the load that went over to Johnny, a local resident caring for over seventy animals (all of whom have had owners contacted ... these are not missing pets ... they are in his care temporarily). A special thanks to HandsOnUSA for the loan of the Expedition and trailer to move the food! Ben's 1988 Ford Ranger would have collapsed under the weight!

The volunteer team then spent the week helping with feeding routes, resident outreach and assistance at the Humane Society of Southern Mississippi (HSSM). On Tuesday, March 21, they will head back to Pennsylvania with animals from both HSSM and the Gulf Coast SPCA. The animals will be picked up in Pennsylvania and head up to Maine to a no-kill shelter where they will be adopted from.

Triple R Pets volunteers Tom Bill and Jim Carlock put together over half a dozen runs for the Pearl River County Shelter last week. Tom and Jim made several trips to Tylertown and Jackson Mississippi to pick up the 12' panels of fencing that were donated through Best Friends as they wrap up operations in Tylertown. In addition, they were able to pick up additional miscellaneous supplies for the shelter. The following is a before and after of the old runs ... and the new runs! Shown in the picture on the left is the "old" style runs in the middle (you can see how small they are) and a new run behind it and up front. In the run up front are Angel and Gumbo, two dogs that later that week headed to Albany, New York and their new furr-ever homes! The picture on the right shows Tom and Bill putting the finishing touches on the last run ... just as the sun is setting on their last day in Mississippi! Nothing like using every last minute of your volunteer time. Click here to see all their pictures. Tom also wrote a great poem as a reflection on his time at the shelter. Click here to read the poem.

Claudia and Colleen delivered two dogs to their grateful owners who lost their home in New Orleans when Katrina struck back in August. They are now living in Houston and had never given up finding their dogs. They had three dogs in total, one they found had been rescued and transported to Washington (yes, the state of!) and they had her back home with them in Houston. Over five months later, they found their other two dogs, who had been rescued and transported to Anderson Animal Shelter in Elgin, Illinois. The wonderful staff at Anderson treated the dogs for Heartworm and provided them lots of love and attention. Triple R Pets was happy to be able to give the dogs a ride back home with our van heading down to provide transport back to Chicago for some displaced animals. Here are some pictures of the reunion in New Orleans:

As if last week's transports were not enough ... we're heading to Albany, New York on Thursday, March 2nd with a cargo van filled with animals. Through the support of two long-time volunteers in Gulfport, Mike & Amy, many animals will find their furr-ever homes this coming weekend. Private adoptions reduce the stress on animals, especially those that have been in the shelter system for some time. Careful screening of homes and the matching of animals to approved adopters ensure that the animals are placed properly and receive follow-up visits and proper care for the rest of their life! More updates from the long drive later this week. Judy Clark and Ben Waldman will be making the transport run. A special thank you to Project Halo in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the animals will be able to stop and rest for the evening (not to mention the drivers!). Project Halo was instrumental in the weeks following Katrina in rescue and sheltering for animals in Gulfport and the surrounding communities of Mississippi. They continue to reach out and help animals through the support of their volunteers and facilities on transports coming to the East Coast. You can visit the Project Halo (Helping Animals Live On) web site at: www.projecthalo.net.

Three great danes and a large German Shepherd all made their way north to Great Dane Rescue out of Volo, Illinois this last weekend. Transporting these large, but delicate animals creates special concerns. Finding crates large enough to comfortably and safely transport these gentle giants was the challenge this week. A "giant" kennel crate costs about $180.00 on sale, so finding and keeping these crates in the transport network is critical. If you have a kennel, giant or otherwise, please consider donating it to Triple R Pets to use during transports. You can also make a monetary donation to help fund the purchase of kennel crates through our donations page.

It was a busy week at Triple R Pets as thirty-one animals found their way to local no-kill shelters in Illinois or directly into their furr-ever homes. Returning volunteer Ann F and her sister drove a cargo van filled with lucky animals to Springfield, Illinois, where Judy Clark met them to take the animals the rest of they way up north. It was a long day for the animals, but they all did very well on the transport. In total there were twenty-three puppies ranging in age from six weeks to sixteen weeks; seven adult dogs and one lucky cat. Many of the animals had reached their time limit in the Mississippi shelters and this transport was their chance for life. Please, consider adopting a local shelter animal! Every animal adopted creates space for another animal that might otherwise not be given a chance at adoption. These are wonderful, loving animals who need you to open your heart and home to them. Below is a picture of Sweetie, a 1-2 year old Pit Bull who was on this transport. She is heartworm positive and will undergo treatment here in Illinois. Her only desire in life was a way out of the kennel and into someone's heart. She has found that with a loving family in south suburban Chicago. She is enjoying her new fenced backyard and new companion animal and family. Pictured below is Sweetie with volunteer Andie B who helped with the final movements of the animals on Wednesday, February 22.

Triple R Pets, working with Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin, Illinois, are leaving Illinois today with the precious cargo of three dogs en-route to New Orleans to be reunited with their families. The families, who are living now in Houston and Northwest Louisiana, will meet our rescue teams in New Orleans and Biloxi to pick up their furry companions. Separated days before the storm, they will finally be back with their human companions. We will post lots of pictures and video in the coming week. Anderson Animal Shelter volunteers were in New Orleans in September helping with rescue efforts. These and several other dogs were brought to their shelter in Illinois for care and fostering. All the dogs were posted on PetFinder and efforts were underway to try to locate all the owners. The dogs were also treated for heartworm and have made a full recovery and are ready to resume their roles with their families. Hearing the joy and excitement in these owners voices as we scheduled the meeting times and places confirms why we do what we do! This is going to be a very exciting week for all of us.

You may remember reading about the "Firehouse Dogs" and their rescue just before hours before the female would have had her puppies under a collapsed home scheduled for demolition in just a couple of day! All ten, yes ten, puppies have been adopted and now the bonded pair of adults have found their furr-ever home! Through the patience and efforts of their rescuers, these two have become more socialized and accepting of humans. Surely they were loved by a family before the storm, but after months of being on the street and living through Katrina, they were severely traumatized and just plain scared of contact. Pam and Paul are the proud new companions and they split their time between Florida and New Hampshire. What a great life for these two survivors! Here is a pic of the two after a bath, out for a stroll with Pam in the Florida sun:

At the airport tonight as I left Gulfport, someone asked me why I keep going back to Mississippi. Without hesitation, I said, "I go back because I can". But then I started thinking about this as only David Letterman could, and I came up with my top ten reasons to go to Biloxi! Here they are:

7. Frank still doesn't have a handicap home, so he needs help bringing supplies in, cleaning and sifting through the insurance issues.

6. For the little kitty we found in an area of town completely abandoned today. She is waiting for someone to come and bring her to wherever her people moved to. We'll start making calls to lots of numbers, and hope she is there when we come back.

5. For the gentleman on Lee Street who is feeding an entire neighborhood of dogs and cats and needs food and supplies.

4. To throw a ball for the little pup on Lee Street whose owner is not returning, but the neighborhood holds out hope and so she waits on the porch every day, hoping too, that today is the day.

3. To again witness the most contradictory scene imaginable. The sun over the ocean to my left and the destruction to my right. I never fail to be amazed at the power of the ocean when I see the result of the waves. It humbles you to your core.

2. Spiritual renewal. This, from a confirmed atheist. Yes, the spirit of the people and the sheer will to survive of the animals is the most incredible power you'll ever feel.

1. Need. The animals need us. The people need us. We need to be there. We need to reach out and help. We need to stretch ourselves to make a difference.

If you've ever considered coming to help, PLEASE do so! Even if it is the Cherry Limeade that draws you south, a day on the streets in this incredible neighborhood and you'll come back for all sorts of other reasons!

Take a minute to read these moving pieces. It really talks to why we must continue our efforts and help those who cannot help themselves. They are both in Adobe PDF format: