When Hurricane Milton was about to hit Florida, animal shelters across the state worried about how the dangerous storm would affect their cats and dogs. Many shelters had no choice but to evacuate animals from their facilities.
One such shelter, Miami-Dade Animal Services, knew they were going to need a lot of help evacuating all of their dogs. A few days before the storm was set to hit, they posted an urgent call on their Instagram.
“With the tropical storm approaching, we are taking all precautions to keep our shelter dogs safe,” Miami-Dade Animal Services wrote on Instagram. “We are urgently in need of fosters … If you are able to open your home and keep our shelter pets safe from flooding, please reach out to us.”
People wasted no time showing up to support the dogs in need. Even as they were dealing with preparing for the storm themselves, these foster families went out of their way to make the dogs feel comfortable in a scary situation.
Miami resident Mari Gvozdeva took in a foster dog named Scout. As soon as she and Scout got home, she gave him a nice bath, played with him and gave him a comfy place to sleep. In no time at all, Scout was settled right in.
As word got out about the dogs in need of foster homes, more and more people started showing up to Miami-Dade Animal Services. Just two days after they posted their initial call for help, there was a line out the door with hundreds of people ready to take in dogs.
The shelter was floored by the response.
“We’re overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible support from our community,” they said.
Within days, each and every dog at the shelter — all 388 of them — were with foster families. As the hurricane passed over Miami, the dogs were safe and sound in loving homes.
Many of the dogs’ foster families have been posting videos showing off the amazing pups they got to spend a few days with, hoping to help them find forever homes. If any of the dogs have caught your eye, you can check out the Miami-Dade Animal Services adoption page.
Already, several of these posts have led to dogs getting adopted. It’s wonderful that so many happy endings have come of something as stressful as a hurricane.
