Rescued Pets Arrive From Mississippi Coast

CLEARWATER Doggy tails were wagging and kitty throats were purring Thursday as a vanload of pets arrived from coastal Mississippi seeking new families in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, local volunteers and animal control officers from Hillsborough County have set up emergency shelters in the Mississippi towns of Gulfport and Hattiesburg, and Pinellas County Animal Services sent a mobile veterinary clinic to join the effort.

"We've got a team of animal control officers in Gulfport," Hillsborough Animal Services field manager Jim Dickeysaid. "They are doing anything from rescuing stranded pets to rounding up strays."

In Hattiesburg, 22 volunteers and staff members from the Humane Society of Pinellas and the SPCA of Tampa Bay have set up an emergency animal shelter that also serves as a pet-friendly shelter for families and as a sort of foster home for people who can't care for their pets while they try to put their lives back together, said Eva Eraclides, development director for the Humane Society.

The Pinellas volunteers hope to reunite as many pets with their families as possible, Eraclides said. When that can't be done, some of the animals will be sent to the Bay area to seek new homes.

The nine small dogs and six adult cats that arrived at the Humane Society's Clearwater shelter early Thursday were found abandoned without food or water at a shelter in Mississippi, where they were living when the storm hit, Eraclides said.

Volunteer driver Linda Zamparelli was exhausted after making a 22-hour round trip to fetch the furry evacuees.

"I just wanted to get out and try to do something rather than just sit at home and just watch and worry," Zamparelli said.

"I've been feeling awful about what's been going on with the people and the animals,and I've been trying to help anywhere I could."

More Mississippi pets were expected to arrive at the Clearwater shelter late Thursday, Eraclides said.

The SPCA of Tampa Bay's shelter in Largo also is preparing for an influx of displaced animals, spokeswoman Marissa Weeks said.

In addition to donations of cash and animal supplies, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society are seeking families to adopt the animals they have to make room for the Mississippi immigrants.

"We have hundreds of adoptable pets here already," Weeks said. "As soon as we can get them into homes, the more we can accept from Mississippi."

Pinellas County Animal Services dispatched one of its mobile veterinary clinics, dubbed the "Animobile," to Mississippi on Thursday afternoon.

The air-conditioned van with 16 cages will be used to ferry stray pets from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to shelters farther north, said Welch Agnew, assistant animal services director.

Two teams of animal control officers also were driving north in smaller animal transport trucks to assist in the pet rescues, Agnew said.

People interested in donating money or supplies to the animal rescue efforts can find details at www.humanesociety ofpinellas.org or www.spca tampabay.org, or find links to area shelters at TBO.com, Keyword: Pet Personals.