Internet helps families find pets after tornado
Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2008
Michelle Aaron and her family were out of town when a tornado hit Gassville on Feb. 5. When she returned, she found shingles blown from her roof and trees toppled in her yard.
Worse, she discovered her 10-month-old golden retriever Brady was missing. Winds toppled her fence and tossed Brady’s doghouse across the yard.
“We looked every day for Brady,” she said.
She placed a message on an Internet Web site for pets lost in the storms sponsored by the Humane Society of North Central Arkansas in Mountain Home.
On Sunday, she and her family were reunited with Brady. An Internet user had seen her message after finding the dog and taking it to a Flippin animal shelter.
At least 30 animals were reported missing after an EF-4 twister packing winds up to 200 mph hour ripped through the Baxter County town of 1, 700, said Rick Day, president of the Humane Society of North Central Arkansas.
All the animals listed on the society’s Web site have since been found and returned to their owners or found by the owners themselves, he said.
“We had great success with this,” Day said of the lost-andfound Web site. “People rallied together. Of course, the first priority was to take care of people, but people also recognized the need to recover pets.” Rick Salaun reported his cat Muzzy missing the day after his Gassville house was destroyed. “I placed the description [on the Web site ] and hoped,” he said.
Three days later, while combing through the wreckage, he found Muzzy tucked under what was once his bathroom countertop.
Jennifer Shultz found her miniature dachshund, Hagen, standing atop a kitchen table in the remains of her home a day after the storm. A friend placed a lostand-found description of Hagen on the society’s Web site.
“He was so happy to see us,” she said of her dog. “We found a rolled-up carpet [in the debris of her home ], and we think he must have hidden in that.” Because authorities restricted people from returning to their homes immediately after the storm, pets often had to fend for themselves for a day or two, Day said.
“As officials straightened things out and made the homes accessible, folks were able to find their pets,” he said.
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