Holding Out For a Hero

Obviously there are no words to properly describe the devastation in New Orleans this week. The breakdown of the human spirit there is heartbreaking. But while I was watching the news this morning something else struck me as terribly wrong. As buses arrive to take refugees to Texas, the citizens of this crippled city - their earthly possessions forever gone, their homes destroyed, their lives turned upside down - are being told that their pets are not allowed on the buses. In one case a family pet of 9 years was turned away - suddenly orphaned on the streets of a flooded, increasingly violent city.

My heart sank. My stomach turned.

How vile. How utterly cold-hearted of the bus companies. The people of New Orleans have lost everything. EVERYTHING! Homes, clothes, parents, children. As they fight to survive, as they struggle to make their way to warm, dry shelters, their pets are, quite literally, the only thing they have left. And the bus companies have the nerve to enforce their no pets rule?

TV cameras have captured dogs sitting on roof tops with their owners awaiting rescue. I am sure countless others sit alone, awaiting the return of a master who will never come home.

So my request to you this morning is this: Please dig just a little deeper and make another donation to the Humane Society of the United States Disaster Relief Fund. A dollar, ten dollars, twenty dollars...whatever you can afford. These homeless loved ones need all the help we can muster.

As for the bus companies? There is no reason - NONE - why they couldn't suspend their no pet rule during this crisis. They should be ashamed.