Back in Tylertown

This is my first full day back at the Best Friends Animal Society hurricane relief center in Tylertown, Mississippi. It is a whole different scene here now that there are much fewer dogs, no cats, and everything is winding down.

When I was here in December volunteers were responsible for the daily care of the animals. We fed, gave water and cleaned out kennels. There was little time for socialization. Now, it is the opposite. The staff takes care of the dogs. Volunteers (there are about 10 at the moment) are assigned one or two project dogs. You have sole responsiblity of that dog, feeding, walking, exercising, and training. There is a "nature trail" in the woods for taking dogs on walks, a big, fenced in pen for 1 hour of exercise and a real-life room. 

This morning I took Annie, a brindle pit bull, on the nature trail, then for an hour in the exercise pen, where she ran around like a bat outta hell, then to the real-life room. There she investigated everything, destroyed a few toys and finally settled down for a nap while I read a book. The "project" dogs (there are about 6 -7 at a time) sleep in crates in the big room of the bunkhouse and spend all day out in the yard where they have Dogloos.

After lunch today, one of the Best Friends staff members will be training us to train our dogs. Other changes include: the bunkhouse now has the kitchen and the dining area (the mess tent and dollar store are gone). There are fewer staff. The volunteers sleep in their own vehicle or tent or in the loft (it was pretty "cosy" last night with air mattresses up against each other).

There are still dogs that are waiting to become "project" dogs and I believe about 100 dogs from Celebration Station in NOLA (the ones most recently to have come off the streets of NOLA) are arriving here next Tuesday.

Photo: Annie looking adorable in the Real-life Room