I love animals, especially dogs. I have been trained and have worked in disaster response mental health and I was also trained in disaster animal response for emergency sheltering. When the Humane Society of The United States deployed me to work in Louisiana I felt I had the opportunity to fulfill some of my professional destiny along with my passion to help humans and animals.

Little did I realize the enormity of the disaster and the profound commitment of people who help others during such traumatic times! My friend Debbie Tate, L.C.S.W. and I were deployed to New Orleans, Lamar Dixon Exposition Center in Gonzales, LA, for nine days on September 18^th. The Exposition Center was at least twice the size of the state fairgrounds in Sacramento. There were over 50,000 animals saved. Up to 1500 animals were housed at the exposition center daily including, dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, goats, pigs, and some reptiles. The small animals were in crates piled four or more in a stall-like area in four barns and horses were housed in two separate barns. The Veterinary Medical Emergency Team [VMAT] set up a M.A.S.H.-like unit where they worked 24/7 doing surgeries at Barn 1.

Sleeping in the infamous FEMA Palace Tent on cots with 398 others, [several volunteers brought motor homes and their own tents] using port-a-potties, not showering for days, working in 112° plus weather, including humidity, and spending 12-14 hours a day counseling; provided for a front line experience in trauma and stress mental health services.

As a mental health team we worked with the volunteers, staff of several animal agencies including HSUS and ASPCA, members of the National Guard, veterinarians, and the victims searching for their beloved four-legged creatures. People working this rescue and recovery effort were experiencing both physical and compassion fatigue. Counseling in such an environment is vastly different than in an office. The Rap Tent was in the open area by registration where everyone reported in to be given their assignments, however; much of our work with the volunteers and others was done as we walked around the barns housing the lucky animals that were saved. We listened to countless complaints and expressions of anger, fears and feelings of helplessness. Grief counseling was needed daily for volunteers, staff and especially the survivors who came looking for their animals. It was not conventional therapy by any means. When I went to rest in the FEMA Palace Tent volunteers and staff would come over to my cot and talk or ask me to come and listen to them at their cots. There was no rest. From 7pm to 10pm we walked the rescue line where vans and trucks brought in the animals that were found that day. Each person who ventured into the muck, debris and devastation had a story to tell about the animals they rescued. Tears flowed as we listened and smiles abounded as we saw that after three and four weeks lives of so many animals were still being saved.

Victims had left their animals with food and water expecting to return in a couple of days as in their previous hurricane experiences. Many of the local residents were in massive denial as to the extent of Katrina's power. One survivor housed at the Red Cross center at Lamar Dixon, cried, sobbed and sank to the ground when he could not find his mother's dog that had been housed in Barn 2 each day since the disaster. He came every day and walked her and fed her. Dogs were not allowed in the American Red Cross Shelter. Due to the enormity of the rescue effort animals were being sent out to other shelters around the country every day. Somehow his mother's Fluffy was sent to one of these shelters. Paper work was delayed as there were only a few computers in the huge motor home mobile offices of the HSUS and ASPCA. No one could keep up with tracking the export of animals on a daily basis. The volunteers inputting data for PetFinders.com and other such internet sites were on overload. Tempers flared, and communication bogged down.

Therapy was sometimes giving a person a bottle of water, a Gatorade, a latte, a wet towel, having them sit down or go into an air-conditioned rest room for a quick break, giving and transmitting information, telling a joke, listening to a joke, spontaneous dancing and me playing my ukulele to the animals and the humans. We drove for supplies, we tore down bags of animal trash just before Rita hit and we had to evacuate. That was therapy; along with doing what was helpful, being part of the entire team, and knowing how to take care of ourselves so we could be there for others. I counseled some couples regarding their relationship, helped with conflict resolution, practiced crisis intervention, helped with anticipatory anxiety, shared relaxation exercises and stress reduction, used grief counseling, assisted many who had melt downs and did several debriefing sessions with some of the teams that came there together from all over the country.

I have worked fires, floods, and some of the aftermath of 9-11. Each disaster has its own unique issues. Katrina and Rita were different than the others. The disaster went on and on and continues to be a part of the country's reality. I saw with my own eyes and smelled with my own nose the wreckage when went into the parishes that looked like war zones. I experienced my own evacuation from Rita, lived without power, no cell phone service, cut off from communication except for a radio and flashlight. After doing in-the-field counseling and helping for nine days I too needed debriefing. I felt the pain and I felt the power of a great country coming together to help those in need. The human-animal bond is powerful. I feel honored to have known so many individuals who gave of themselves to help strangers and save animals. Doing a good deed is therapy in and of itself!