On
“Pet Central” Steve spoke with Robin Case about her unwillingness
to evacuate without pets.
She
Refused to Abandon Her Pets, Rooftop SOS Saves The Day
By
Steve Dale
Click
to visit our audio archive and here Robin tell her story.
You
may have seen the SOS she painted on her rooftop on one of the
TV cable news outlets. “One big dog, two cats, one person.
Please bring help.”
Robin
Case was so busy working, she wasn’t paying attention to
the media, and didn’t realize Katrina had morphed from the
Category One storm which had hit Florida several days before into
a Category Four or Five. It was only about two days before the
hurricane was to land in New Orleans when Robin, an artist, happened
to visit a local hardware store and saw a crowd of people standing
around a TV set.
That’s
when Case learned about the emergency evacuation. But where would
she evacuate to? Her car didn’t have much gas, and she had
little money. Besides, she couldn’t find a hotel or motel
out of town at this late stage that would allow pets. “I
wasn’t going anywhere unless I knew I had somewhere to take
my family,” she says.
Case’s
mother lives outside Kansas City, and her daughter in New York
City. The family she’s referring to are her two 15-year
old cats, Lexa and Luna, and Ruby, her 8½-year old Rottweiler.
“If I had small children, I’d have a responsibility
to get them out first,” says Case. “But I wasn’t
going to leave my animals to someone else, or worse, leave them
behind. I can assure you I wasn’t the only one who made
decisions based on what we could do with our animals. It’s
not only that I believe I have a responsibility to care them;
in their own ways they care for me too. They may need me. But,
also, I need them.”
Case
continues, “Since most people have a pet, I’m not
sure why more alternatives aren’t thought about for (evacuating)
people with pets. But then, in New Orleans there weren’t
a lot of options for anyone. If you didn’t get out early
- for whatever reason – we were told there was only one
place to go, the Superdome.” The Superdome didn’t
accept animals. As the Superdome began to fill up, New Orleans
Mayor Ray Nagin told people to evacuate to the Convention Center.
But Case wasn’t even aware of that option, which probably
turned out to be a good thing given the adversity reported widely
in the media of those sheltering at the Convention Center.
So,
she hunkered down with Lexa, Luna, Ruby and as many supplies as
she could gather at a client’s home. The home was on higher
ground than her apartment.
Case
says that in her location Katrina wasn’t a house-rattling
storm, though some shingles were lost and a window broke. The
power went out, and soon the street began to fill with water.
But the water only lapped at the doorstep. In fact, the backyard
was dry enough for Ruby to do her business. What she wasn’t
aware of was that the entire neighborhood surrounding her was
under 12 to 16-feet of water. And the levee behind the house was
about to give way.
“I
thought the water would immediately recede, and that the power
would return,” she says. The nearby neighbors previously
evacuated; there was no one to speak with; she simply had no way
to know the extent of the damage.
As
helicopters increasingly flew overhead, she decided what’s
going on must be serious. She took her paint brush and made her
way up to the roof using a swimming ladder and created her most
important painting ever, the rooftop SOS. Maybe it was that her
roof top art work made coast to coast TV, or that the National
Guard spotted it – Tuesday she heard a knock on the door.
But it turned out the little rescue boat that had appeared wasn’t
large enough for 90-lb. Ruby. Case was firm, and told the National
Guard rescuer that she’s not budging without the dog.
Several
soldiers returned with a larger airboat a few hours later. At
first Ruby didn’t seem to appreciate the rescuers. For one
thing, this Rottweiler wasn’t going to accept strangers
barking orders at her. Case told the soldiers, “Shine the
flashlight on your face, not into the dog’s face, and talk
quietly telling her what a good little girl she is.”
“Yes
mam.” They did it. And Ruby responded, quickly calming down;
once she realized they weren’t there to do harm.
So,
the big dog, two cats and one person were taken to a large group
of perhaps 100 or so people milling about on the highway. Again,
Case made it abundantly clear that relinquishing her animals wasn’t
an option. More than half the people waiting with her had animals.
Case says many were like her, in at least part, staying behind
because there was nowhere to evacuate with pets. Case realizes
the result is that lives could be endangered, including the lives
of emergency responders.
After
waiting about six hours on the scorching hot pavement, buses arrived.
After being assured they would all be taken to a shelter that
allowed animals, as they boarded the bus, the group was told,
“Be prepared when you get there to give up your animals.”
“I
flipped,” she says. “People were crying, screaming.
It didn’t seem to matter that we all lost everything we
owned. I mean I know where my apartment was. And I realized everything,
my art studio, everything must be gone. But I wasn’t going
to even consider letting go of my animals, not for a second.”
It
turned the destination shelter in Houma, LA allowed, even welcomed,
pets. “The animals were behaved and so were the people,”
says Case. “The shelter was clean, it was civil,”
she says. “(At shelters) where pets weren’t allowed,
apparently it wasn’t always so civil. I believe the pets
helped to calm people (at the shelter), their gift to us is that
they can help us when we most need emotional support.”
The
next morning Case was able to snare one of the last remaining
rental cars, and drove her family members with four legs to her
mother’s home.
“They
must have known that there would be thousands who would stay in
the city, and just would not have the means to evacuate”
says Case. “If they were worried so much – and they
should have been worried with a Class 4 or 5 hurricane –why
didn’t they provide transportation out, and shelter before
the storm? Or is that too sensible a question?”
As
for her own future, Case pauses and says, “I loved my home.
I loved my life. But now it’s time to start a new life.
At least I feel I’m not alone. Ruby licks my tears, and
then finds a way to make me smile. I hope I can begin to smile
more.”
