TAMPA, Fla. — In the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, one place that saw a different kind of flood was Hillsborough County's Pet Resource Center. It was already overcapacity before the storms.
After Helene and Milton, the shelter was inundated with surrendered and abandoned cats and dogs. It also sustained damage to some structures by their outdoor kennels. Walking around the vast line of kennels at Hillsborough County's Pet Resource Center, you can quickly see the strain on resources our recent hurricanes put on the facility.
"Before the storms even hit we were at over 150% capacity for dogs and cats were at 125% capacity before the storms even hit," Chelsea Waldeck of the Pet Resource Center says.
Then, she says, those numbers ballooned from animal owners surrendering their animals before and after the storm. Owners who were just trying to survive themselves. Then came even more animals who were discovered roaming around or simply abandoned.
"Some were strays that came in maybe they just got loose during the storm. A fence blew down and someone let them out not knowing that their fence had blown down," Waldeck says.
That is where pet fosters and volunteers have really stepped up and stepped in lately.
"I really like walking past the cages and seeing the kittens that I fostered that are now up for adoption that's the most amazing thing," volunteer and foster Katie McCarey says.
Amazing is how Waldeck describes the volunteers and pet fosters who have become the shelter in the storm for the Pet Resource Center in recent weeks.
Volunteers such as McCarey who currently are fostering a handful of young kittens and two medical cases, including 8-week-old, Svetlana.
"She's paralyzed and has no feeling in her legs from the waist down. She was an abuse case but such a sweet girl," adds McCarey. Svetlana is up for adoption even while she is being cared for outside the PRC. McCarey and her family have opened up their home to foster cats and dogs for years.
She said the PRC helps all foster volunteers with free food, toys, medicine and litter. But what's more important, she says, is the reward.
"You know that you really bridged that gap between them coming in the most horrible condition and you got them into a forever home," adds McCarey.
Other volunteers like McCarey come to help at the kennels or to take a cat or dog out for the day to play. McCarey even takes some dogs out in public for what they call "Adventure Tails," complete with an "Adopt Me" bandana on as a walking advertisement.
"My girlfriends and I bring out a dog for brunches in Hyde Park and they always get adopted. Always," she claims.
The Pet Resource Center needs more folks to step up and volunteer. They also need help to get their population down. They are waving all adoption fees this Saturday, Oct. 26 for their "Pawlloween" adoption event at the Pet Resource Center.
