We had a bit of rain over Memorial Weekend. And by bit, I mean some of the craziest rain and flooding I've ever seen. Ok, I know I'm from San Francisco so I haven't seen many storms, but this one was indeed nuts.
While at a friend's BBQ the rain just kept pouring and flood warning after flood warning flooded all our phones. Thankfully we were all dry and in a safe place. While checking in with friends and family over Facebook I quickly realized not everyone was safe and dry. One of our local animal shelters was flooding and nearly 200 animals needed to be moved quickly.
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| Photos via Austin Pets Alive! |
Of course I immediately started to tear up and told Antony we had to "SAVE THE PUPPIES!" To which he immediately said, "No. We're not getting a dog." Honestly, neither of us wanted a dog (we're both allergic) and didn't think we had the time for one. I said "I know. We don't have to adopt one, but they need our help." After some back and forth about not getting a dog I promised that it would only be for a night or two. We have a house, we don't have any other pets, and we don't have children. Seriously, how could we not help? So we hopped in the car and after several attempts due to street closures we made it to Austin Pets Alive! where there was a line of people waiting to help.
It was getting late in the day and many of the smaller, people/pet friendly animals had already found temporary fosters. There were plenty of people still wanting to help, but many of the dogs still needing foster homes were large breeds, had temperament issues, couldn't be with children or couldn't be in homes with other pets. We were exactly the type of family the shelter needed.
After a bit of paperwork we went outside and met McAllister. The volunteer handed us his leash, a bag a food, some tennis balls, and his medication. They thanked us again for our help and said they'd see us in a couple days after the rain calmed down and the shelter was dry and cleaned up. I looked down at his sad, cold and wet face and said, "Well buddy, looks like you're coming home with us."
The car ride home he seemed scared and confused but the second he was in our house his personality started to come out.
Two days then turned into two weeks and we finally took McAllister back to Austin Pets Alive!. I kept my end of the deal of my promise to not get a dog. APA is a no-kill shelter and we were certain Mac would find a good forever home. We went away for the weekend and pretty much the whole time we thought about that silly dog. Could we adopt a dog? What would we do about our allergies? Are we ready for that responsibility? There's a lot that goes into taking care of them and we ultimately decided, yup. We wanted Mac back. As soon as we got back in town we hopped back in the car and picked up McAllister. We wanted to be his forever family.
It sounds like this story had a very happy ending. But this is just the beginning! You can follow this silly mutt's adventures: @mac.the.mutt and help other pets like him find their forever home.
