BARRE — When the Red Cross opened its first shelter in the Barre auditorium on Monday, for the first time pet owners did not need to scramble to find alternative arrangements for their pets.
Volunteers with Vermont Disaster Animal Response Team opened a pet shelter in the Barre ice arena next door. By Monday afternoon, the group was caring for 26 animals registered to stay that night — mostly dogs and cats. On Thursday afternoon, there were 12 pets there.
“What’s nice about a co-located shelter is the owners have the ability to come and take care of their animals, walk them and feed them and clean up and help us,” said Joanne Bourbeau, chair of the response team’s Windham County team and northeastern regional director for the Humane Society.
“They’re going to be very busy trying to get their lives back together, trying to fill out forms and have meetings so our staff can take care of their animals while they’re trying to piece their life back together,” she said.
They are expecting more pets and the shelter is open 24/7, said Cathy Plas, secretary for the Central Vermont team.
Now volunteers with the Vermont Disaster Animal Response Team, known as VDART, have also set up a companion shelter near the Red Cross on the Johnson Campus of Northern Vermont University, and are also referring people to an independent pet shelter set up in the Rutland High School in the aftermath of the floods. The group has seven regional chapters and may open more shelters as needed, Bourbeau said.
“This is really an unprecedented deployment for VDART. We’ve never had to respond to multiple locations simultaneously before so it certainly is challenging,” she said.
The biggest challenge has been finding more trained volunteers. People interested should contact their chapter for training, though training may not be possible right now as resources are stretched, Plas said.
The VDART effort is welcome as shelters around the country are seeing very poor adoption numbers and high animal surrender numbers so this is “a really bad time” for an emergency, according to Jacques Du Preez, executive director of the North Country Animal League in Morristown.
The shelter is offering food and drinking water for humans and their pets. But Du Preez is referring people in need of overnight care to the VDART emergency shelter in Johnson because their own shelter is at capacity.
Further south, the Humane Society of Springfield has not been as hard hit and has some space for temporary shelter, according to Marissa Bentley, an animal care technician there.
“We are here to help with any food, litter, any animal needs that people may have. We do have a food shelf here and we are remaining open,” she said.
With that exception, “I believe the majority of the shelters in Vermont are in the same situation as we are overcrowded with dogs, cats and are understaffed,” De Preez said.
Fosters come through for cat cafe
For the 57 cats who were staying at the nearby Kitty Corner Café a more informal arrangement was a better option when the business’s building flooded Monday evening.
“We sent them all out to foster,” said Alexis Dexter, owner of the state’s first cat café.
“We had so many people come out who took tests to foster while we were trying to get the building together to prevent more flood damage. So at the moment we are empty of cats and very thankful to our fosters.”
Dexter said she went home around 4:30 p.m. on Monday but headed back to the downtown Barre building about an hour later when her staff called her about water coming into the basement. By 5 p.m., she was shin-deep in water on the sidewalk.
“We had to herd the cats. We had to get them all into carriers and whatnot and get onto high ground,” she said. “They were definitely scared, especially when the fire alarm started going off at one point.”
Dexter and her staff stayed with the cats all night as the basement flooded to the rafters. By 11 a.m. on Wednesday they made the call to remove the cats after a neighboring building sprung a diesel leak that started to release fumes.
That’s when the café put out social media posts for temporary foster placements. By 7 p.m. Wednesday the last cat had been fostered, Dexter said.
On Thursday, Dexter and the staff spent the day barricading the building to prevent more water from coming. The damage is severe and the cafe is closed to business for the first time since they opened in the midst of the pandemic in August 2020.
But Dexter said she would try to connect pet owners who need help if they reach out to the cafe via the Facebook page. She knows there is help out there, she said, “because we needed help and we found all the help we could ever possibly need and we’re happy to spread that help to other people.”
Preparing for future disasters
Extreme flooding events are expected to become more likely for the state due to climate change, and rain continues to be in the forecast. Experts offered several tips for being prepared when large storms loom.
First, they advise pet owners to stock up on food, water and especially prescription medications for themselves and their furry family members.
“A lot of people lost medications in the flood,” said Megan Rumpke, veterinarian at the Montpelier Veterinary Hospital which was closed Tuesday because staff couldn’t get to work. “But we took emergency calls. I think I called in four or five medications to pharmacies that day,” she said.
Bourbeau advises vigilance and preparedness, including having an evacuation plan and emergency pet kits ready. She pointed to VDART’s lists online for disaster preparedness which includes tips for handling horses and farm animals.
“I would recommend people keep their pets close to them and crated if they can. Make sure they get all the equipment and supplies they need,” she said. “We recommend that when people are planning for their families that they include their animals.
State Farm, which partners with the Humane Society and VDART and provides emergency kits, also has pointers for what to pack.
Bourbeau suggests bringing comfort items, copies of medical records so that we know their animals are vaccinated and enough food and water for several days. In the event that people cannot take their animals with them during an emergency or flood event, she advised calling the state Emergency Operations Center for the animals to be rescued.
Bentley recommends keeping pets indoors as much as possible during bad weather and flooding and microchipping them — a $25 service by appointment in Springfield — that would make it easier to locate them and find the owners. “People don’t microchip cats as much as dogs,” she said.
Du Preez advises people to plan ahead so they don’t have to leave their pets behind and to call for help.
“First and foremost, don’t leave your pets behind. Secondly, contact (the Humane Society) if you need temporary assistance. And if it’s for food, blankets, pet supplies, please feel free to contact us. We are here to help as much as possible,” Du Preez said.
