texas

North Texas Groups Rescue Hundreds of Dogs, Cats From Flooded Baytown Shelter

Dozens of people with several North Texas organizations banded together to rescue more than 100 pets from a Houston-area shelter affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Dallas DogRRR executive director Patti Dawson said she received a message Monday from a partner shelter near Houston that had flooded.

"Immediately we put a team together, she said. [[442221583,C]]

Tall Tails Rescue and Transport's Kay Wlodarek said the normally five-hour trip to Baytown took nearly 12 hours due to flooded roads.

We've been turned around so many times," she said. "We had several very scary moments. "I cannot imagine what those people are going through."

With the help of volunteers with boats and trucks, the groups removed the pets from the flooded shelter and loaded them onto a trailer.

"We just loaded what we could as fast as we could," Wlodarek said. "As many [animals] as we could." [[442222743,C]]

Once the group had loaded the roughly 100 dogs and 15 cats and headed back to North Texas, Dawson said she posted a plea for a facility to house the pets.

"Within 10 minutes, [MacArthur Hills Senior Living] called us and offered this facility," she said.

MacArthur Hills executive director Travis Wick said his wife saw Dawson's plea and asked if he knew of any places.

"I thought, 'Why not ours?'" he said. "It just seemed to work out. I thought it was a perfect match."

The convoy of pets arrived at the Irving senior center at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

"I can't wait for the residents to wake up and help out or maybe adopt a dog themselves," Wick said.

Dawson said some of the pets needed medical attention, but they should all be fine.

To help, visit the Dallas DogRRR Facebook page at www.facebook.com/DallasDogRRR/.

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