by Debbie Reed, Foster Mom
It’s a love affair pet owners know well: Scouring online animal shelter pages or making a trip to the local pound, someone falls head over heels for a furry friend. This case was no different.
Daisy was a lively four-year-old Cocker Spaniel whose family lost their home in Hurricane Katrina. The family moved into a new apartment that didn’t accept pets, and they were also having trouble affording the expensive heartworm treatment needed to bring Daisy back to good health.
Animal Rescue New Orleans took Daisy in and paid for her necessary veterinary care, but this was only a temporary solution. Daisy still needed her new forever home!
Diana Kraus leads the rescue group CastOff Cockers in Mesa, Arizona. She spotted Daisy online and contacted a friend about the possibility of transporting Daisy from New Orleans to Arizona. That’s when M. Lee Pipgras — the owner of the Phoenix-based trucking firm MTE, Inc. and co-owner of PAWS — came up with the perfect solution.
Lee has always had a soft spot in his heart for animals in need. Following Hurricane Katrina, MTE had inbound and outbound trucks traveling through New Orleans weekly to help transport and rehome pets. While MTE primarily transports food products throughout the country, Lee has often volunteered his trucking company to help pets in need.
In fact, Lee’s own dog Ariel had a formerly sad story. Before Lee adopted Ariel, shelter managers in New Mexico hid the dog and her newborn puppies in a bathroom for several weeks so the county manager and her prior owner couldn’t insist on euthanasia. When Lee learned about his new best friend, he leveraged his trucking resources to rescue Ariel.
In Daisy’s case, Lee offered to divert one of his trucks from a Miami run to stop in New Orleans and pick up Daisy on the way back to the Phoenix area. Dave — the truck driver and a self-professed animal lover — arranged to meet an ARNO volunteer in a Home Depot parking lot, and Daisy’s journey to her new home had begun!
Daisy bonded with Dave throughout the long drive from New Orleans to Phoenix and adjusted well upon arriving at her forever home. Diana said that Daisy is “very playful” and became close friends with Diana’s youngest Cocker, Aries. “Daisy runs and runs and plays and plays,” Diana said. “She has a little Cocker blast!”
This story has a happy ending, but many animals don’t make it out of shelters into new homes. With so many animals on their own running loose after Katrina, shelters in the New Orleans area experienced significant overpopulation issues. In addition, the city had a smaller base of homes and a shortage of families able to adopt.
Today, nearly 20 years after Katrina, ARNO’s work continues to change the lives of pets and people all over the New Orleans area. Thanks to their efforts and the contributions of generous people like Lee, Diana, and Dave, Animal Rescue New Orleans has helped countless pets find their new forever homes.
By
