Companion Animals / 29The Humane Society of the United States had leased fi ve large
barns for sheltering rescued animals. The barns had roofs but open
sides, with fi ve aisles of twenty stalls each. The ten-foot-by-ten-foot
stalls had three walls and fl oors covered with wood shavings. When
my team arrived on September 13, three of the fi ve barns were full
of dogs. They were all in crates, mostly of the plastic airline-type.
The fourth barn housed horses, cared for by students and faculty
from the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medi-
cine’s large animal program. The fi fth barn served as the cat shelter
and the veterinary hospital, staffed by the Veterinary Medical Assis-
tance Teams. In addition, one of the three dog barns had an entire
aisle of aggressive dogs; many had obviously been used for fi ght-
ing. These dogs could not be kenneled with the general population
and required skilled handlers.
The tremendous number of dogs led many volunteers, myself
included, to wonder why there were so few cats. During the time
we spent at Lamar-Dixon, there were only about fi fty cats there.
We hoped that because cats are more portable than most dogs,
more guardians had taken their cats with them. But, we also knew
that the free-roaming cats had no guardians to claim them and that
many traumatized cats were simply hiding and avoiding rescuers.
When we arrived, the number of dogs at the facility was at its
peak. Before September 12, state authorities would not allow ani-
mals rescued from New Orleans to be transferred out of the region.
Rescue teams had been working in the city for a week, steadily
bringing animals to Lamar-Dixon. The number of dogs, in par-
ticular, was staggering. After September 12, dogs who had been
unclaimed since the fl ood could be transferred to shelters out of
state, while others had to remain within Louisiana. My team and
I worked in the dog shelter area from sunrise until nearly sunset.
En route to Louisiana, we developed a plan whereby the three staff
members would take charge of one barn each with me assisting
where needed. We naively imagined implementing a system and
organizing the entire operation. That fi rst morning was a reality
check. Merely cleaning the kennels in one aisle of a barn took until