5 men, 7 Dogs, and a Macaw

I am behind in my writing and will try to catch up. This post concerns our last group of evacuees, who arrived Thursday night, September 8th. The information we had was that we would be placing Charles, his partner Brad, their 6 small dogs, and a cat. As it turned out, the freelance team that was working in New Orleans that day brought three other men: A neighbor of Charles and Brad, a disabled man, and Allen, an elderly man who was afraid to come out of his house, until he saw the kippah on one chabadnik rescuer’s head.

We assembled an intake team that initially included the two of us, Gail, our nephew Nathan, and Dr. Rachel. When the cars pulled into the shul it was clear that there were going to be some complications. The disabled man appeared to have been passing the time stuck in a city without water drinking sanitary, but inebriating fluids. The “ 6 small dogs” were in fact one tiny dog and 6 fairly large dogs, none of which fit in the dog crates that Richard L. had supplied us. They also brought a large macaw. There were no cats as they had evacuated themselves.

So we got to work. The disabled man needed a special needs shelter, so Dr. Rachel with the help of Steve W. started working the phones. Allen had a sister in Boston who wanted to take him in. I talked to the sister and then put Allen on the phone. Allen, like many of the evacuees we dealt with, was a bit disoriented and initially refused to go to Boston. He had not eaten in days. Ronit Y. was called in to take him to her home for the night after Sheila made his travel arrangements.

Charles and Brad’s neighbor was the easiest to assist as his brother was on his way in to the city and just needed directions to the synagogue. He was the first to leave Beth Shalom.

Charles and Brad were upset as they somehow got the idea that a relative had a private jet waiting for them in Baton Rouge and that they would be flown immediately to Santa Monica. I am not sure where the freelance rescuers got this idea, but it was in fact too good to be true. It took some time to persuade them that something else was going to happen. Martha and Richard did in fact have leads on places for them to go, but needed some time to work things out. In the meantime they needed to rest.

We needed some extra help, so I called Richard. He ran out and bought a set of kennels for large dogs and we called in Frank and Karen W. from our congregation who agreed to shelter the two men and seven dogs. While we were waiting for the W’s to arrive Richard joined by Jeffrey and Erich, who Richard called for help, started putting together dog kennels. The saintly Frank and Karen then arrived with their pick up truck and we loaded the dogs into the bed.

With Richard’s help, a shelter was found for the disabled man and the New Yorkers agreed to take him there. This left us with just the macaw to take care of. The W’s could not take him too, so he was given food and water and a safe place to sleep in the Green Room.

It was well after 11 when we were finally able to shut down.

By Friday Martha and Richard had a solution for Charles, Brad and their menagerie. Someone is willing to let them use a house in Harrisburg, PA on 8 acres and will let them keep all of their pets. By Saturday afternoon they had been persuaded (with the help of many, including Karen W.) that this was a good solution, and im yirtze hashem they will be on their way soon.

I am so proud that Beth Shalom was able to participate in the Jewish Federation’s rescue missions and the whole community is grateful to those volunteers who helped run our ad hoc reception center and who offered home hospitality. Many thanks to Sheila for being willing to get calls late at night and book airline tickets.

The macaw seems to have enjoyed its stay at Beth Shalom. It even got to participate in Rabbi David Saperstein’s visit with LSU students.