NEW ORLEANS – Dawn Moore and her husband Troy started the Moore Love Rescue in Greenburg, Indiana four years ago. She is a nurse, he is a cement truck driver. They have taken a week's vacation time to come to New Orleans to transport Ray and 100 other dogs and cats from six local shelters to foster homes in four states up north.
Woolite, a shaking ragamuffin, will go to the Moore's own rescue.
“He’ll go to the groomer very first thing,” Dawn said. “You’re going to look like a movie star and he'll find a home and he'll find a home fast.”
The Moore’s created this mission knowing the tremendous overpopulation problem we have here in New Orleans.
“I just see the need down here being so great,” she said. “You guys have taken one hit after the other. We still have animals dying in shelters in our areas, too. It’s not perfect by any means, but we are sitting in so much better position than you guys.”
Dawn contacted shelters from St. John Parish to Plaquemines. She had them put photos of available adoptees on a website, and then she had rescue groups in Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Minnesota choose which dogs they could take in.
“The Internet work that had to be done between the two groups to communicate, it’s just been a whole group effort,” she said. “It’s an amazing experience.
These seven puppies are among a dozen dogs from the St. John Animal Shelter who were chosen by a rescue in Indiana.
“This one here's face is what got them rescued,” Dawn said. “When they saw that face they could not resist.”
For Cheryl and John Trigo, who work at the St. John Animal Shelter, it is a prayer answered.
“Thanks to the rescue groups it makes our job a lot easier,” Cheryl Trigo said. We still have to euthanize but when we get 12 going to a rescue it makes our day – our week.”
Jason Stroman of the no-kill Plaquemine Animal Welfare Society is sending 26 dogs and cats.
“We have long waiting lists of animals to come in. When we move out that many at one time, we can help a lot of people that way,” Stroman said.
Michelle Ingram, founder of Zeus's Place, a New Orleans rescue and boarding facility, is sending three dogs and four cats.
“I thought it was fantastic. I checked them out and found they were a great rescue operation up north with a need for more rescue and we have the exact opposite here – we have more rescues than we know what to do with,” she said.
It has been a tremendous amount of work. The Moore's started with winning a $10,000 grant from a Petfinder.com foundation. With it they bought a bus from a school auction in their hometown for $2700, had it built out with cages and a bed, as Troy and a friend of his who is a professional 18-wheeler driver will take turns driving 15 straight hours back home.
But this will not be a one-time trip for this bus. Dawn and her husband have big plans for its future.
“Part of the reason Petfinder liked our idea, this grant, because we weren't short sighted,” Dawn said. “We're not just going to get a hundred animals and we're done with the money. We invested in something that will continue to save lives.”
Dawn said they will continue fundraising to be able to add a generator to the bus and a water tank, so it can become an emergency response vehicle.
“We’re going to put in a surgical table where the next time there is a disaster happens we can actually respond and be totally self contained and not be a drain on the local resources,” she said.
In the meantime Stacy Chaisson of Dag's House on the West Bank, which has hosted Dawn and her husband and their bus, is just happy that one of her rescues, Buddy, will have a real chance for a family in Wisconsin.
“He was way malnourished. Every bone on his body showed.”
But now Buddy and 100 other lucky dogs and cats have a real shot at a home, thanks to the kindness not of strangers, but of the many people locally and across the country who believe all animals should be loved.
The Moore's say they will return to our area – they hope quarterly – to help local rescue shelters. They are very committed to this area.
If you would like more information, you can go to their website. And if you would like to follow any of the 101 animals to their new homes, you can search NOLA Oil Dogs on Facebook.
