After successfully airlifting 80 dogs and 13 cats from the overcrowded pet rescue facilities in Louisiana (The LA to L.A. Airlift), Kim Finger from Much Love Rescue coordinated a second group of rescued dogs, this time to be driven from Louisiana to Los Angeles. This time there were to be fewer animals and an evening arrival time, so we donated our hospital facilities to help process, check up and distribute these dogs to the rescue groups who were willing to take care of them.

At the end of the night, 21 dogs had been rescued from New Orleans.

These photos are from the night of Thursday, September 29, 2005.

Volunteers arrived shortly after closing time (one or two with their own dogs for moral support), and began to set up in the parking lot outside our hospital. The volunteers would provide collars and leashes to the dogs, help photograph them to help their owners locate them, walk them through the health stations set up inside, and then take them to rescue groups who would provide them with foster homes,

Kim Finger (in black shirt above and below) coordinated the “Ruffugee” efforts

This was the enormous truck towing a 38 foot camper/trailer that they drove 2 1/2 days nonstop (with pit stops every four hours to feed and walk the dogs) from New Orleans. By the time they arrived, dogs that were previously listed as "severely dehydrated and underweight" were plumping up and looking great.

Processing each dog began outside, as they were given a collar and leash and a volunteer to look after them, and had their picture taken to be put up on Petfinder.com to hopefully allow their owner to find them.

The next stop was inside the hospital, in our reception area to get their paperork (the volunteer assigned to each dog would take their paperwork with them to each station) and to get weighed to start off the medical record. The dog above is standing on the scale.

From there, the next stop was a quick medical check up, to make sure each dog was well enough to go with a rescue group and did not require any immediate care.

They would each then get a microchip implanted (after scanning them to make sure they did not already have one) to make sure that these dogs would never get lost and separated permanently from their owners again.

Next stop, in one of our exam rooms, was a heartworm test. While heartworm
is not a very big problem in Los Angeles, it is endemic in Louisiana, and many
of the dogs tested positive for heartworm. Blood was drawn from each dog (above),
and Dr. Brooks and Dr. Sue Downing from City of Angels Animal Hospital (below)
did the heartworm tests. Those dogs that tested negative for heartworm were given
heartworm preventive to keep them heartworm free (they are still at risk
to get the disease for several months after being bitten by an infected mosquito).

Finally, each dog was given an application of Advantage to keep them free of fleas, and then were distributed to one of many rescue groups who volunteered to help care for these dogs until their original owners could be found, or to find them a new home if that proves impossible.

Kim Finger took some time out to give an interview. Various news media have covered the three “Rufugee Rescue” events Kim has organized so far, and these guys (I believe) were working on a documentary they hope to have aired on The Animal Planet.

For more information on all the Hurrican Katrina “Ruffugee Rescue” events,
see the blog Kim has set up at http://rescueforruffugees.blogspot.com/