For the pets and workers at St. Francis Animal Sanctuary, life is changing.
After all, hundreds of volunteers and a few thousand animals passed through the gates at the 50-acre sanctuary in Tylertown, Miss. beginning in September immediately following Hurricane Katrina.
It’s where Best Friends set up a relief center for the displaced pets of Katrina about 90 miles north of New Orleans and stayed for seven months. A handful of Best Friends staffers remain at the center, along with about 30 dogs still looking for homes.
For St. Francis, the changes mean a new direction for the five-year-old sanctuary.
“It’s different here in a lot of ways,” said Heidi Krupp, cofounder with her mother, Pam Perez, of the sanctuary. “Having Best Friends here has changed our direction. The (rescue) effort has jump-started St. Francis.”
Best Friends has also helped put the St. Francis sanctuary on the map, albeit under disastrous circumstances. “We’re better known than we were before,” Heidi noted. They’re now expanding their rescue and adoption programs outside the area while continuing to take in animals from the Mississippi and Louisiana region.
Their donor base, which was in the New Orleans area, has basically disappeared because flood victims have moved away, so they've been creative with their newsletters and in also leting people know about their sanctuary by word of mouth in an attempt to keep donations coming in.
They’ve hired more caregivers and now have a volunteer coordinator. And they’re looking into getting a part-time trainer on the premises as well. They’ve also taken on a part-time volunteer webmaster who is currently creating a new look for their website (
http://www.stfrancisanimalsanctuary.org/).
Many workers during the hurricane relief effort asked if they could return to Tylertown to help with the St. Francis dogs and cats. Both Pam and Heidi said, once their new programs are in place, they will welcome the help.
As things slowly calmed down following the hurricane, St. Francis began receiving invitations to attend rescue group events in both Canada and across the U.S. St. Francis now has a new mobile unit -- a Sprinter Wagon -- so they can participate in out-of-town adopt-a-thons.
A second vehicle will be equipped for use as a mobile spay-and-neuter clinic. “We’ve had a lot of volunteer vets offer to man a spay-neuter clinic for a day,” Heidi said. Pam and Heidi plan to take them up on it.
Besides new programs, the grounds at St. Francis have changed as well. Gone are the tents, dining hall, motor homes, and most of the temporary runs and fencing. At Kitty City, a room used as an office has now been returned to a cat room. The enclosed cat patios have been cleared of rescued New Orleans cats and are housing St. Francis felines once again.
Also, a second road is being built so there will be two entrances onto the property instead of one. And a new building has been added. The showers built for Katrina volunteers now have a permanent tin roof instead of tarps and will be used by future volunteers at St. Francis.
“Life is getting back to normal,” Heidi said. “It looks great around here. The grass is beginning to grow again.”
For Pam, she doesn’t know what normal is anymore.
“Normal has changed,” Pam said. “The disaster has given us a new direction. Good things sometimes come in weird packages.”
Pictured: Pam Perez, left, and Heidi Krupp with St. Francis dogs.
Article by Cathy Scott. Photo by Clay Myers.