***
To you,he is just a pet. But to him, you are everything.

Today is just a lazy afternoon for me.

Am on leave, no plans to go out watsoever. Did some housework and washing my furkids entire load of toys.

Then came the usual surfing.

When i came across this.

http://www.helpinganimals.com/f-katrinaphotos.asp

I really couldn't believe what i saw.

As the world harps on the massive destruction that Hurricane Katrina had done to the place, the people and how much they have suffered, no one seems to report the other group that too are affected by the hurricane.

Our Animal Friends.

My heart twinge as i read on , the stories and the pictures left such a sour feeling in my heart that i couldn't take it.


"In one example reported last week by The Associated Press, a police officer took a dog from one little boy waiting to get on a bus in New Orleans. "Snowball! Snowball!" the boy cried until he vomited. The policeman told a reporter he didn't know what would happen to the dog."

"The fate of pets is a huge but underappreciated cause of anguish for storm survivors, said Richard Garfield, professor of international clinical nursing at New York's Columbia University.
"People in shelters are worried about 'Did Fluffy get out?' " he said. "It's very distressing for people, wondering if their pets are isolated or starving."

"They fed their guniea pig and left it in its cage in a patient room. They couldn't refill its empty water bottle because the hospital's plumbing failed Sunday, they said. They poured food on the floor for the cat, but again no water.
"I just hope that they forgive me," Valerie Bennett cried."

"At the hospital, a doctor euthanized some animals at the request of their owners, who feared they would be abandoned and starve to death."

"...... found the rotting remains of two poodles. Checking on the other side of the bed, Laura discovered a barely living third poodle who "smelled of death." Laura picked up her tiny, limp body and offered the dog water, but she refused it. Laura sat with the dog in her arms while team members secured a carrier for her to be placed in, but it was too late. The dog "took her last breath" and died in Laura's arms. ......the poodle's muzzle was covered with blood, leading her to suspect that the dog had been cannibalizing the remains of her peers in an attempt to stay alive. It was an "absolutely heartbreaking" end to the day, Laura said."

This is the final straw.

"The dog had been left in the crate without any food or water. The team couldn’t determine how long she had survived such deprivation, but they did notice a large gap in the crate’s wire door, where the dog had apparently chewed and clawed in her desperate attempt to escape and try to survive.

“I can’t imagine the pain, suffering, and panic she felt,” Laura said, as she first endured the storm and ensuing flood before slowly dying, probably of starvation and/or dehydration.

Laura said that the dog’s head was “slumped up against the crate’s door,” leading her to believe that the dog had only died after finally giving up her frantic attempt to escape. It was “one of the most striking, heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen,” Laura said."

I cried.

And on a lazy tuesday afternoon.

The furkids are staring at me like "oh no? What did we do again? Why is she crying?"

Haha. Silly them.

They don't know that it is not them that i am crying about , but at how helpless i feel, at the curelty of mankind, at "the survivor of the fittest" theory.

Initially i thought that natural disaster like Katrina took their lives away.

As i read on, i wondered, how can the owners be so heartless and left them at home to die while they left.

But it is after i came across this website http://www.greenconsciousness.org/weblog/2005/09/animals-and-katrina-what-now.html,
i realised that many people wanted to bring their pets along with them but the rescuers stopped them.

I'd understand that if the people wanted to bring their horse along or something but due to place constrints doesn't permit you too.

But a chihuahua? a poodle? a cat? a bird? a guniea pig?

"Now they are saying there are packs of wild dogs hindering repair crews. They will have to shoot them. "

Yet the rescuers forced people to abandon their life companions, at the point of rescue, at the bus, at the shelter. They even tried to separate a blind woman from her guide dog but she refused and stayed in her flooded home 6 more days until they came back and let her evacuate with her dog."

sigh.

I really don't know how to continue at this point of time.

Kudos to Animal Groups Like PETA, and if you click on the links and read about the stories about animal rescues, you will know how great these people are.

Being in the profession i'm in, there are times when i'm activated to provide medical relief. They are about the same and they do it to our furry friends.

It really makes me wonder that during emergency like this, what will happen to my furkids?

I guess i will never leave them behind. I can't bring myself too. Probably i'll be like the blind woman and stay back with them if i can't bring them along.

I remembered the other time when i felt the aftershock of the earthquake tremors (from indonesia) at home, my first instinct was to grab my "bookie" bag and the furkids outta the house.

Like i always hear from a certain group of elite force ," LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND!"

Buttercup's version : LEAVE NO FURKIDS BEHIND!

Wahahahhahahhahahahaha.