UPDATE on animal situation from volunteers:

Delivered lots of dog food, catfood, kitty litter, carriers and cages to Holbrook last night. We arrived about 11:30 p.m. After unloading and setting up some cages it was back to Flagstaff where we stopped for a couple hours rest then back home.

There were about 50 dogs, 25 cats, 2 rabbits, and 4 birds at the high school. (We didn't go to the fairgrounds where larger animals were being held.) Litter was their most critical need at that point and thanks to AAWL we had plenty to deliver.

They were expecting more dogs and cats today so they were extremely grateful to receive our help. I would say that the cats were actually the ones that were in the most critical need of more space, bigger cages, etc. Our supplies should be a huge help with that.

Right now the Holbrook situation is pretty good. They are still in need of some big dog pens because they have several large dogs that are in too small cages or carriers but I reported back to Betty Welton and to Erin Lopez and together with Friends for Life they are working to get additional supplies lined up.

The plan is to try to keep the cats and dogs that have families, up in Holbrook and not have to bring them back to the valley. The H.S. has the animals that were displaced from the shelters already here in Phoenix. I know AAWL is planning to take many of them. However, if the situation goes on for a long time, it is possible they may have to come up with another plan, perhaps including fostering people's pets.

It also seems to me that they may well need people willing to go up to help care for the animals in a week or even two, particularly during the weekday, should this go on for as long as it looks like it will.

The Show Low shelter had been evacuated but as of last night they had reopened it as a triage to care for injured and burned animals. However, with the threat of a second evacuation still hanging over them - we may yet see cats and dogs coming our way.

The fact that we had a great response and have many people standing by to help if needed is wonderful. We hope to learn from this and begin to develop a rapid response team that can help our companion animals in a crisis as quickly as we help people. In that respect this has been a positive experience.

We will keep you posted. Everyone who has responded that they could foster is still very much on our list. This is far from over.