22 Shelter Dogs Ride Out a 24-Hour Road Trip to Escape Hurricane Isaias’ Path

When a hurricane turns toward the coast, most families can load a car and leave. Shelter animals cannot. So ahead of Hurricane Isaias, Florida volunteers loaded 22 shelter dogs into transport and drove them roughly 24 hours to safety — a marathon road trip that gave some of the most vulnerable animals in the state a way out of the storm’s path.

Many of the passengers were exactly the dogs who struggle most in an emergency: seniors, and animals with medical needs, including heartworm disease. They are the residents least able to handle the stress, noise and disruption of a storm evacuation, and the first ones rescue partners wanted moved.

Recovery before adoption

The dogs were taken in by Nate’s Honor, which plans to treat their heartworm disease and any other health issues before offering them for adoption, according to WWSB. Staff are also giving the group something just as important after a full day on the road: rest. Some of the dogs arrived feeling unwell from the journey, and the shelter expects they will be ready to meet adopters once they have had time to recover.

Room to rescue more

The transfer does double duty. Every dog who rode out of Florida freed a kennel back home — space that local shelters can now use for animals displaced by the storm itself, the strays and surrendered pets who inevitably arrive in the days after the wind and water recede.

It is the quiet machinery of animal rescue at its best: shelters, transporters and receiving partners coordinating across state lines so that when the worst weather hits, the animals with no families of their own still have someone coming for them.

Source: The Cool Down