Pets find home away from home

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Press & Sun Bulletin

By David Paulsen

DICKINSON -- Life couldn't return to normal for the Lewis family without a stop Sunday afternoon at the Front Street Dog Shelter.

The water had drained from their basement, and the electricity was back on. Danielle and Dennis Lewis and their three children, Jamie, Tyler and Sarah, had moved back into their home in Johnson City late Saturday. Now they needed their dogs, Buddy and Spike.

"They're our babies," said Danielle Lewis, 31, who was joined at the shelter by Jamie, 13, and Sarah, 8.

Flood evacuations last week forced many pet owners such as the Lewises to leave their dogs, cats and other animals behind, but animal shelters have stepped in to ensure the animals' safety until they can be reunited with their owners.

The Front Street Dog Shelter, a Broome County agency, dispatched rescue teams over the weekend to pick up animals left in abandoned homes, mostly in the Conklin area. The Delaware Valley Humane Society in Sidney also welcomed evacuees' pets and visited homes on request to provide pets with food and water.

Pet owners have welcomed the help.

"People were pretty frantic the first couple days," said Vicki Bugonian, the Front Street shelter manager.

Anxiety turned into relief as conditions improved in the flooded areas and experienced rescue teams arrived to save stranded pets.

The Lewises had brought their two dogs with them Wednesday when the flood forced them to move in with an aunt in Binghamton. But the aunt also had a dog, so they decided to leave Buddy and Spike at the shelter for a few days.

"It was just too much to have all of them in the house," Danielle Lewis said.

Steve Vicks, 19, and his family took their dogs but had to leave three cats and a snake behind when they fled their home in Conklin last week.

The family later was able to retrieve all but one cat.

"The cats hadn't had food or water in five days," Vicks said Sunday.

He had stopped by the Front Street shelter to see if the remaining cat, Carly, was there. Bugonian told him to check at another agency where a cat somewhat resembling Carly's description was being housed.

By that time, the Front Street shelter was housing at least four displaced cats and 17 displaced dogs, though nearly any household pet was welcome. For example, the animals that assistant shelter manager Debra Bryan ferried to the shelter Sunday afternoon included two ferrets, a rabbit, a Dalmatian and a litter of kittens.

Numerous veterinarians, animal hospitals and other agencies helped the shelter provide assistance, and similar community cooperation was present at the Delaware Valley Humane Society shelter, which had taken in 16 to 20 dogs and at least 15 cats after the flooding.

The shelter was able to accommodate the influx because nearby kennels agreed to take some of the Humane Society's other animals, said Terri Heath, president of the Delaware Valley Humane Society.

By Sunday, the number of new arrivals had dropped.

Some displaced pet owners were stopping by to pick up their animals or visit and comfort them, Heath said Sunday.

"A lot of these pets are scared," she said. "They don't know what's going on."

At Front Street, Buddy and Spike shook with excitement as the Lewises approached the cage. They took the dogs outside to a play area, where Buddy and Spike bounded back and forth, played catch with a tennis ball and, of course, relieved themselves on the gravel.

And then it was time to go home.

But Danielle Lewis said they had to make one stop first: to McDonald's for some ice cream, the dogs' favorite treat.