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Pasado's Story
Pasado Newsletter
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When we say "PasadoRescuers"
- we're not
talking about hundreds of people employed by Pasado's Safe Haven. Only
three of our "huge" staff of six were in New Orleans. PasadoRescuers
were volunteers, like Dr. Dana Bridges, left. An equine veterinarian by
trade, she gave up weeks of her practice to come and help. She never had
experience breaking into houses, but she learned fast. |
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Our rescuers would first search for "signs
of life" - a dog chain in the yard, dog food bowls, any sound coming
from inside the house, feces in the yard. They tried to discriminate and
not break into "just any house".
While Dr. Dana broke into the above left house, there was indeed a dog, left,
who was waiting
for her. |
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Some hurricane evacuees
painted pleas of help for their pets on the outside of their houses.
Left, Steve, a Microsoft staffer who joined PasadoRescuers, notes that
we saved the dog inside.
Leaving notes behind alerted any group who
may have come next not to waste their time searching - the job had
already been done. |
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Many of our rescues were
strays. They were scared and wary. Afterall, imagine how much they'd
gone through. |
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Some we found, just in
time, after they'd gone for weeks without food or water. Not eating
wasn't the issue, it was lack of hydration in the heat. |
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Any kind of transportation was used to
help injured animals, including a shopping cart that washed into a
neighborhood during the flood. |
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It made a perfect ambulance for a dog
who'd been rescued from inside a house. She suffered from severe
dehydration and a raging infection. |
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Some, we found too late to help. (Image
diffused.) Our rescuers faced hell. They still relive their experiences
in their dreams, they tell us. Or rather, nightmares.
Tad, left, is a prosecuting attorney (in
his everyday life). For a time, he became a hero to the animals with
PasadoRescue in New Orleans. He'll never be the same. |
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At the end of each day of
rescue, the different PasadoRescue crews would meet at an abandoned gas
station. Why? Because it offered a staging area under an overhang that
provided shade. From there, they would travel back to the Raceland barn. |
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Steve, a rescuer from
Ohio, joined us for week in New Orleans. We first met him at Pasado's
Safe Haven's sanctuary in Washington State a few years ago. His wife,
Heather, had taken our Sanctuary 101 workshop. She insisted he take it a
year later, and he did. They are now working on opening their own
sanctuary in Ohio. The dog Steve
shares the van with, left, "scared the hell out of me", Steve recalls.
He was a pitbull who didn't make Steve feel all that comfortable sharing
an enclosed area with. |
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Within minutes, Steve came
to understand how "vicious" this pit was. "He was such a goober," Steve
recalls. "What a great dog." |
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A job well done. At day's
end, one of the crews stops for quick photo. No matter how tough of a
day they had, they felt complete exhilaration for what they had
accomplished. Tired and filthy,
they boarded vans and headed to the "barn" they would call home - to
tend to the sick and injured...next... |
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