St. Bernard Parish 

On A Friday afternoon,3/28/2008, Sumter DART was asked to go to New Orleans. Ronnie drove one of the transport rigs to New Orleans to rescue 43 dogs and 8 cats from the St Bernard Parish animal shelter. These were leftover casualties of Hurricane Katrina. Owners had not returned to claim them or others had simply turned them in.

On Sunday morning, an entire team effort was started to load, count, recount and photograph each pet before their long trip to Florida. Driving near 700 miles in 11 hours, Ronnie and Bruce, a member of the Emergency Services team, arrived in Pinellas County, Florida where all of the animals were unloaded, fed, walked, and bedded down. We got up early the next day and reloaded 34 dogs into our trailer headed for Broward County animal shelter. There they accepted the balance and we returned to Bushnell, Fl.  From Friday to Monday night, and 1800 miles, Sumter DART transported 43 dogs and 8 cats, who now had a chance at getting adopted.

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                   Waiting in line to go