Things were eerily quiet July 9 at the Kendall County Animal Shelter and Adoption Center.
“It was quiet for one day,” said Charity Fegenbush, shelter director. “We had no animals in the shelter, none at all. It was very surreal.”
For the first time since the shelter opened in 2010, it had no dogs, cats or other animals — the result of a massive adoption and fostering drive sponsored by Austin Pets Alive (APA) in relief of its counterpart, Kerrville Pets Alive.
“Essentially, that Friday afternoon (July 4), Dr. Ellen Jefferson said we were going to deploy emergency services out to Kerrville. Kerrville Pets Alive needed help in a big way,” said Luis Sanchez, APA’s director of public relations.
APA reached out and showed up in Kerrville, Sanchez said, to give their Pets Alive affiliate the resources it needed — medical care, search and rescue, food supplies “because they don’t normally see that kind of traffic,” he said.
Kerrville PA was already maxed out for its ability to host animals, but then the flood hit and dozens, if not hundreds, of lost pets began turning up.
The Austin agency placed an “APA Flood Relief and Foster” form online on July 4, when the rest of Texas and the nation began to learn of the severity of the flooding.
“Within hours, we had about 1,000 signing up to adopt, to be fosters, to volunteer, or wanting to help with transport,” Sanchez said.
It was a holiday, and APA was staffing its office as it prepared to head to Kerrville. “People were showing up at the door saying, ‘What can we do to help?’” he said. “The community just kept showing up and turning out.”
Two days later, APA’s effort showed 4,363 willing to help APA tackle the pet problem caused by the flood.
“We weren’t ready for that kind of response,” he said. “But we told them, ‘If you can foster, right now, and volunteer, right now, we’ll get you a pet right now or find you something to do right now,’” he said.
APA was able to pull more than 500 animals from Kerrville, Georgetown, San Saba and other towns affected by the flooding.
That’s where Fegenbush and the Kendall County shelter came into play.
“We started receiving massive amounts of donations from the community. Dog food, cat food and cat litter, toys, beds, leashes and harnesses,” Fegenbush said.
Then APA arrived. Sweeping back from Kerrville, APA knew of its adoption-foster numbers, so it made a stop to see Fegenbush.
“The first day they took all of the cats, and 18 dogs,” she said. “The second day, they came back and said, ‘You know what, we have room, we’ll take the remaining dogs. So, they came back and took those 20.”
In all, APA relieved the Kendall County shelter of 40 dogs and 25 cats, its entire July 8-9 population.
All the animals APA delivered to Austin were dogs and cats already in the shelters, prior to the July 4 catastrophe. Sanchez said APA and Kerrville PA will start trying to reunite pets found since July 4 with their owners or, if their owners can’t be located, with other family members.
“If there’s any chance to find owners, they now have the capacity to keep those animals that are found, which is really important,” he said.
Fegenbush thanked the community for its support, both volunteering and bringing pet supplies.
“Not having the pet population allowed us to do some community outreach,” she said.
The shelter organized a pet food and supply giveaway in Comfort Community Park on Saturday. Everything from dog and cat food to harnesses, beds, even hay and livestock feed was handed out free of charge to anybody who showed up.
“I can’t say enough about my staff, they’re phenomenal. Some of them live in Kerr County and they were just like, ‘What can we do to help,’” Fegenbush said.
The “no pets in the shelter” silence didn’t last long, however. The next day, an animal control officer made a run and brought in three dogs surrendered by their owner.
“It’s still quiet, and those dogs are getting all the attention,” she said.
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