After Hurricane Katrina last August, I did a post about Cedarhill Animal Sancturary (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization) located in New Caledonia, Mississippi. While they are not located on the gulf, they did sustain significant damage during the storm. Understandably the bulk of donations in the aftermath went to aid the humans devastated by the hurricane. Many animals suffered and were left homeless by the storm, and there are many stories of heroic efforts to rescue them.
I have been a donor to this sanctuary for several years, and continue to be amazed and gratified by the selflessness and love demonstrated by Kay McElroy and her colleagues in helping abused and homeless wild and domestic animals. Needless to say, their suffering is often inflicted by humans (the animals', not Kay's. Or maybe both).
In addition to caring for their own animals (lions, tigers, bobcats, horses, pigs and domestic cats
and dogs, off the top of my head), they gave a home to 40 cats left homeless by the hurricane, and managed to raise enough money to take 4000 pounds of dog and cat food to Ovett, MS., which had been without electricity for two weeks at that point.
In addition to maintaining the physical plant for such an operation, and providing healthcare and food for the animals, Cedarhill continues to expand to provide comfortable homes for a continuously increasing population of homeless creatures.
They desperately need donations. In addition, their vehicles all seem to have over 200,000 miles on the. Please check out their website (links above). If you able to donate (a truck would be nice), you can do so through the website. Contact information is here:
C. Kay McElroy
Executive Director
Cedarhill Animal Sanctuary, Inc.
144 Sanctuary Loop
Caledonia, MS 39740
"http://www.cedrhill.org/"
(662) 356-0084 - Desk
(662) 549-5318 - Cell
(662) 356-4072 - Fax
The last mailing from Kay included a copy of a letter from Ardeth Bell, a Cedarhill supporter from New Jersey, who was in New Orleans from September 24 through October 1, volunteering for animal search and rescue after Katrina.
She spent her time working 17 hour days at a Winn Dixie in New Orleans,two miles from Lake Ponchartrain. She started in rescue--trying to entice frightened, hungry and confused animals (many pit bulls) so that they could be taken in for care. After a couple of days, she realized her talents were better put to use in caring for the animals after they were brought to the shelter.
They cared for 80 to 100 animals a day--, feeding them, bathing them, walking them and then saying good-bye as they were transported to ther sites after they were stabilized, making room for more.
On her way back to New Jersey, Ardeth stopped to visit Cedarhill (which is not open to the public--she arranged it with Kay), and to meet her foster cat, Alexis the tiger.
She also met Phoebe, a blind tiger, and the blind horse Flash, who now has a companion, a blind horse named Bartimus. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that without caring individuals like Kay and Ardeth, many of these animals would not have stood a chance, and would, in fact, be dead.
That's why I'm getting my checkbook out.
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