LEAVING WINN-DIXIE
AND LEAVING FRIENDS

October 21, 2005

Rickie, Alexis, Tom, Joey

We are glad we did it, glad we went, but it changed us and we are looking forward to the empty spaces inside filling up again some day. In retrospect, we might have chosen a gentler place. We might have experienced fewer feelings of desolation and isolation in one of the organizations where there was more camaradarie, where there wasn't a two-tier system of rescue workers as heroes and everyone else as unworthy. If we heard, "I've crawled under houses to rescue animals", as an excuse for refusing to pitch in with sometimes overwhelming kennel duties once, we heard it ten times. Oddly enough, that doesn't look particularily heroic to me. I could crawl under a house to save a dog. The heroic thing they did, that I don't think I could have done, was crawling past the ones that died horrible deaths to get to the living.

Rickie, Marti, Tom, Joey

Having Teddy with us as we left, helped. And when we stopped for gas in southern Mississippi, a woman saw the "Disaster Animal Relief - Volunteers from Airedale Rescue" sign on our car and came up and said, "You've all been down to help and we are so grateful," and thrust three of her organization's cookbooks through the car window. That's a nice touch of softness I'll remember.

Joey, Rickie, Cheri, Marti

Rickie adds:

Coming home from our week at Winn-Dixie, Marti, Joey & I split the drive in half, so we spent the night in Alabama. Marti & I met for the complimentary breakfast the next morning. CNN was on, showing more pictures of the disaster site we had just left behind us, when this very large older gentlemen came in. He looked at the television and started talking to Marti & me, explaining that he was just going back to his home which was on the shore of Lake Ponchetrain. He was happy that the only damage done to his property was that he lost a tree which was split in two across his yard. He told us that he was 82 years old and had been away from home when Katrina hit, but was so thankful that his most precious possessions had gotten away safely: His wife and three Maltese had gotten away right before the storm and as long as he had them safe, the rest was replaceable.

Marti, being the social creature that she is, immediately told him our tale of meeting the animals of New Orleans at Winn-Dixie. With tears streaming down his face the old gentleman thanked us profusely, so touched that we had come down to his city to help the animals that had been left behind. We left with his "God bless you's" ringing in our ears. Amazing how a heartfelt thanks can heal so much of a bruised heart. I felt a little better just from talking to this old man and remembering the animals that we were able to help.

Again I want to thank all of you who donated so much to help make our journey possible.

CONTINUE WITH
IN THE EYE OF THE STORM:
KATRINA "A-TEAM" TRIP HERE