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Local SPCA Needs Help With Hurricane Ike Animal Rescue

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

This female pit bull was rescued by SPCA Tampa Bay volunteers from the devastation left by Hurricane Ike.

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By JULIE BUSCH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2008

LARGO - Mama Dog was looking for her pups when her rescuers whisked her away from the wreckage left by Hurricane Ike.

"I cried with her," said Elaine Anthony, one of 20 volunteers who traveled to Texas through SPCA Tampa Bay looking for lost animals.

"She was so depressed," said Anthony, who gave the dog the nickname after she and Mama Dog were joined in the futile search by some truck drivers. "She howled and cried."

The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has taken in more than 130 cats and dogs and two guinea pigs affected by the mid-September storm. The animals had no identification or were surrendered by their owners.

Three Tampa Bay volunteers still are in Texas working at a temporary shelter to help owners locate lost pets. They are expected back Sunday.

A room normally used for obedience classes now is a temporary shelter for dogs at SPCA Tampa Bay, 9099 130th Ave. N., Largo. Cats, meantime, live in a hallway just outside.

The shelter was just below capacity before the transplants arrived Tuesday, so SPCA Tampa Bay is seeking more volunteers, cash contributions and people willing to adopt, said spokeswoman Marissa Segundo.

More information on adopting the animals is available at www.spcafl.org. People wishing to adopt must sign a waiver agreeing to relinquish custody of the animal if its owner is found.

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