Katrina aftermath includes puppy boom on Gulf Coast

[Thom Little]

"I've never seen so many puppies in my life," said Manny Maciel, an animal control officer from New Bedford, Mass., who has made two trips south to help trap loose dogs and cats in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Earlier this month, Maciel pulled 10 puppies and their mother from beneath a porch in a particularly hard-hit section of Biloxi. On another two-hour shift he found seven puppies and seven more dogs.

Maciel took all the dogs to the Humane Society of South Mississippi, where a shelter built for 75 animals now holds about 250 dogs and cats on any given day, including nearly 50 puppies. The shelter is the largest operating on the Mississippi coast.

Tara High, executive director of the nonprofit group, said workers have yet to see a big spike in cat births, but there's no doubt what dogs have been doing since the hurricane.

"We're beginning to get litters now," said High, a board member thrust into the job in the post-Katrina frenzy when the former director quit unexpectedly. "It's a lot of puppies, and it's not puppy season."


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AL_KATRINA_PUPPY_BOOM_ALOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-31-13-40-09

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. The force of life is amazing

in the face of fear, starvation, thirst, uncertainty they still manage to get the deed done and raise a litter. I raise a glass to them.

[baby_mouse]

2. PUPPIES!

Nature's balm in the face of catastrophe.

Would that humans were so kind...

This post is not quite serious...