As people prepped for high water from Tropical Storm Debby, some dogs and cats (and a rabbit) also needed a place to shelter.
The Humane Society for Greater Savannah (HSGS) has a large facility off of Eisenhower Drive near Sandfly. The problem? It floods.
“The drainage is not the best and our facility floods. Water gets all up to the dog kennels so once the water gets in there is no way out,” said Nina Schulze, the adoptions manager at the shelter. “We have to get them out to make sure they are safe.”
90 animals from the adoptions center – including 37 dogs, 53 cats and even one rabbit – were picked up by foster families in less than 48 hours before the storm picked up in Coastal Georgia on Monday in anticipation of the flooding. With sandbags covering all the exterior doors of the shelter, the last dog, Torque, was picked up at 10 a.m. Monday.
Schulze said the foster preparations before Debby were “organized chaos,” posting a time-lapse video to their Facebook page of the foster families picking up the pets for the week. They attribute the quick action to social media posts and word of mouth.
The shelter provided food, bowls and toys for families who fostered during the storm in hopes that some of them would become forever homes. Schulze said the more support these families have now, the more likely they might be to adopt once the rain passes.
“Some of them are people who have fostered before, but others just saw the post on social media and saw that we needed the help and came,” she said.
The shelter made the call for foster homes on Sunday afternoon with hundreds of comments and shares to spread the word for help. Within three hours, community members had already fostered all of the available cats and the HSGS was only looking for families to take dogs.
Just 24 hours after the worst parts of the storm and the foster pets getting to know their families, Schulze said some have already expressed interest in adopting.
“I’ve already had a couple of people tell me ‘we’re going to adopt’ so hopefully these are not foster fails, especially some of the dogs who have been here a long time,” she said.
Many of the animals are expected back by Friday at the latest, but Schulze and other employees at the adoption center said they hope some animals stay with families a little longer.
Foster families have been sharing photos of the animals they took in on the Humane Society of Greater Savannah’s Facebook page today, including some of the images linked here.
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