One of the first pleas we placed on our website was "Who has a flat-bottomed boat? Or who could buy one for us?" The first days of rescue following Hurricane Katrina were spent in water. Sickening, toxic water. PasadoRescuers who were jumping fences and scaling rickety wood walls feared scratching themselves because of the ooze of petroleum and human waste they mucked through. As careful as they tried to be, one of our rescuers scraped his ankle as he went over a wire fence. He was hospitalized the next day with a fever.

As the flood waters receded, the call went out for boots and waders, and you responded. You made it possible for PasadoRescuers to keep working, in any kind of conditions.

Despite temperatures in the high 90's, PasadoRescuers worked through the heat, in rubber waders, and never complained. One recalls, "We drank gallons and gallons of water but we just never felt the heat. I guess we were too busy."

A small understatement.

PasadoRescuers wouldn't leave a neighborhood until they were forced to. Many times law enforcement demand it. One recalled, "It was just too hard to be in these neighborhoods, be so close to the animals left inside the houses, and then have to leave. We had to keep on going."

Time was their enemy.

Finally, the waters receded, and land rescue began...