As of today, September 15, 2005

Dear Friends & Family,

We have just returned from spending a week at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales , Louisiana. This is the site where the search and rescue teams for horses, cats, dogs and other animals were housed as they were located from the disasters left by Hurricane Katrina. It has been the most memorable and emotional week we have ever spent as we assisted Habitat for Horses and Lone Star Equine Rescue under the directions of Dr. Denny French of the Louisiana State University Equine Program - Hurricane Equine Rescue Operation.

The Northeast Florida Dressage and First Coast Hunter Jumper Associations, as well as many others, helped load up our horse trailer full of donated medical supplies, halters, lead ropes, buckets, and many other horse related items to make the 14 hour drive through to the destruction and wake left by Katrina. When we arrived and checked in with our contact, Bonnie Clark who was the coordinator of the equine rescue barns as we proceeded to walk the aisle ways and see what we were going to be dealing with. The first and foremost thing we saw was the look of fear and trauma in the horse's eyes. They were hurt, tired, and hungry and if we could only have them tell their stories we would be sobbing before we could walk one length of the barn.

There were 3 barns and a large arena that had been divided into 10 paddocks with 300+ horses. I was assigned to Barn 3 which contained 120 horses and had more horses than any of the others. Dr. French's wife Nina was in charge of this barn and what a wonderful lady she is.

Dale spent the first day out with the HfH/LSER team delivering feed and hay to people still out in the field and brought in six horses that had found their way to a construction site. The days were long and strenuous with taking care of that many horses. Feeding was at 7 am ; first you hayed, fed, then watered. Then began the stall cleaning; there were stacks of shavings and the feed companies had provided plenty of donated feed and truckloads of hay. Dale unloaded more feed and hay than he ever dreamed of doing in his lifetime. Besides the daily feeding/haying/water and mucking we had the pleasure of assisting the vets from LSU who were there from morning to night in the medical treatment of the horses.

The vets and vet students from LSU started their rounds first thing in the morning with their grocery cart full of medical supplies going from stall to stall administering medical attention and meds as required. These young vets and students were dedicated and kept long hours just like we did. My hats off to all of them; and they worked hard to ease the pain and suffering of these beautiful creatures. The injuries went from severe lacerations to chest, hip, shoulder and of course many leg and feet punctures. A lot of eye injuries and face lacerations and of course the water was contaminated and those horses that were subject to it for a period of time had terrible skin problems. The hair and sometimes the skin was coming off. We had to keep the more severe leg cases wrapped to prevent infection. We had orphaned foals and mares whose foals did not survive and 15 or so stallions in the barn were so traumatized they did not even act like stallions.

The Louisiana state law requires horses who have Coggins to be microchipped. This was one of the biggest things that saved so many owners locating their horses. One day I spent with the vets from LSU scanning for microchips and pulling Coggins. You will hear more from us on the microchip issue as this disaster proved to us that microchipping should be required by all states. Our days were long and hard, we started at 6:30 am and it was 9 pm before we quit for the day. There was always something that had to be done as you can imagine. You were too tired to eat and too tired to sleep but every day we got up and asked God to give us the strength to keep going. We met people from all over the US and Canada and made some real lasting friendships. Most of the volunteer effort came from horse people but we had others who just helped sweeping or whatever needed to be done.

We have a few stories that we would like to share and pass on. Vickie, a vet assistant with the Dog/Cat Rescue Team came over and asked if we could put some of the cats in our living quarters of the horse trailer as the generator had quit and there was no a/c or fans to keep the cats cool and it was very hot outside. We of course said yes and they loaded and stacked 19 cats and their crates in our trailer. We have pictures of this as it looked like Ravenwood was the Cattery of the day. There was a white mother cat with two white kittens and they had found a black tabby orphan who was about 2 weeks old. They were bottle feeding this baby and Vickie decided to try the little one with the mother who had kittens. The mother cat took over cleaning the new baby and let it nurse. It was really something to see and the mother cat and babies stayed with us until they left the next day to go to their foster home. It was awesome to see this mother cat take over the care of this tiny little one who had lost its mother and litter.

One afternoon while I was up to my you know what mucking stalls, I saw a lady walking down the aisle I was working in. She was looking from stall to stall so you knew that she was looking for her horse. After a short period you learned that 'look' on peoples faces and so you try to help. As she reached the stall next to me she suddenly screamed out "Miracle". I hurried over to her and the mare that had spent her days with her head in the corner of her stall now turned at the sound of her name. Keep in mind we did not know what this mare's name was or who owned her but suddenly the head came up, the ears perked forward and she came around as I opened the stall door and her owner ran in and threw her arms around her horse. With tears rolling down my face and watching the reunion of a horse and her owner was one of the things that made the long hot days well worth it all. This family had lost everything they owned but still had their horse. There is a sad part to this story. 'Miracle' had given birth to a beautiful filly two weeks before the storm and we only assume the foal did not survive and make it. Not only did 'Miracle' have to deal with the storm but also the loss of her baby but she had been reunited with her owner.

The same thing happened the next day but with a mother coming through with her teenage daughter looking for her horse. You should have seen the face of this teenager when we found her 4 year old gray mare that she had raised from a baby. It was a wonderful feeling to go to the tack stall and fix up a grooming kit for an owner so they could groom and love on the only material thing that they had left from this terrible disaster. We got to know another couple Timmy & Sharon who had fled from St. Bernard Parish where they managed a large barn. They had come to Lamar Dixon with the horses from their barn and were camping in a tent to take care of them. They have lost everything including their jobs and when I talked to them today they still had not been able to get back to their home.

There was also a young couple Shawn & Kim who came after work each day and helped with the chores. We were talking about the horses and people losing their homes and come to find out this couple had lived in the mid-city of New Orleans and their home was still underwater. They had lost their home and the hospital that Kim worked at was totally gone and Shawn had lost his job. Kim's brother lived in Baton Rouge and they had evacuated to there. Both had gotten jobs and were now volunteering to help with the horses. We could not believe that this young couple had lost everything material but said they would just start over and that the horses needed their help. What wonderful courageous people and we were blessed to spend time with them and now have them as friends.

The Center was filled with every rescue group you can think of. The Animal Planet semi was right across from us. There were 3 barns of dogs/cats and other such animals and the barking went on nonstop. After awhile you got kind of numb to it all. It was sad to see so many animals that had lost their homes and owners and we fear for the outcome of their future. The ASPCA & the HSUS started shipping out dogs and cats to shelters and safe houses so that the animals could be fostered out and adopted in the long run. The horses however will have a better chance. Over 80% were microchipped so their owners could be located and found. Louisiana does not want to foster outside the state but HfH/LSER knows that we have many homes here available and after Oct. 1st we will know more if our foster homes will be needed.

Anyone interested in fostering a horse/dog or cat if you will just email us we will add it to the list so that in case we are able to foster we will be ready.

We started our trip back home exhausted, sad and happy if you can understand that and knowing that what we did make a difference. In the week that we were there we saw horses reunited with their owners, helped those that were scared and hungry get more secure and comfortable and start to settle and eat and sleep at night. There was a little less fear in the eyes of many when we left. We would have stayed longer but Dale was carted off by ambulance to the hospital and diagnosed with exhaustion and the doctor said "go home"! You have already done so much and now you need to rest. We were thanked by everyone every day for all that we did. The Red Cross, the animal owners, other volunteers, the doctors and nurses, the vets and vet students, the waiters/waitresses in the restaurants everyone we met who found out what we were there for thanked us for giving our time and our hearts.

It is Dale and I who are the blessed ones as we shared the lives of many who had lost so much and were so brave and courageous. We met so many from around this country of ours who like us wanted to only help and now they are friends for life. Our belief in God and mankind is now stronger than ever and we are thankful for the privilege of this journey we were allowed to take.

God Bless all of you and all of God's Creatures,

Dale & Chris Dunn
Ravenwood Farm
North Florida Horse Rescue
farm: 352-478-2412
cell: 904-626-1990
nfhr@ HorsesintheSouth.com