Fit for a “Princess:” 35 pets arrive safely in downtown Chicago from hurricane-ravaged Florida

Volunteers cheered as Princess made her way off the bus wagging her tail.

She smiled as two of the volunteers stroked her head and an employee with the Anti-Cruelty Society slipped a collar on her neck.

Princess, the first off the bus, was one of 15 dogs that made the trip north from the Furry Friends Adoption shelter in Jupiter, Florida to make space for displaced and lost pets after Hurricane Ian.

The Florida shelter also sent 20 cats along for the ride to the Anti-Cruelty Society headquarters, 510 N. LaSalle St., including Aspen, who has gray fur and big, shiny eyes.

Hurricane Ian flooded much of southwest Florida with heavy storm surges Wednesday before making landfall as a Category 4 storm that night. As the storm made its way to South Carolina over the weekend, the death toll reached 35 people, 28 of them in Florida, The Associated Press reported.

In Chicago and across the Midwest, people are stepping up in support of those affected as recovery continues.

Part of that support was Anti-Cruelty Society’s willingness to take in shelter animals.

After each dog had been taken inside the facility, the group of about 15 volunteers went back out to the alley where the bus was parked and started taking the cats inside.

Some of the kittens shared a kennel. One larger, timid cat, sat as far away from the kennel door as possible, while a small black kitten who shared a kennel meowed and swiped his paw at anyone who approached.

The bus left Furry Friends around 5 p.m. Friday and arrived at Anti-Cruelty Society just before 4 p.m., stopping only for gas or at rest stops to take the dogs out for a break, said Kirsten Tourville, director of behavior and training at Furry Friends.

Furry Friends’ management reached out to Anti-Cruelty Society about a week ago to ask if they could send up some pets and free up their kennels, said Darlene Duggan, chief operations officer at Anti-Cruelty. Once they knew Hurricane Ian was turning into a devastating storm, they agreed to take in the 35 animals, Duggan said.

“(Furry Friends) rallied and tried to get here before the storm hit, but we’re unable to get, so to speak, all of the animals onto the bus quick enough,” Duggan said. “So they rode out the storm back in Florida and then as soon as things settled down with the weather they left to come up.”

Duggan said animal welfare workers learned important lessons after Hurricane Katrina more than 15 years ago. Instead of relocating animals after a disaster hits, shelters started relocating already relinquished animals in order to make room for pets displaced by a natural disaster or pets that might need temporary shelter while their family deals with the effects of a storm.

“It happens often, actually, anytime there are natural disasters, whether it’s hurricanes or flooding or wildfires,” Duggan said. “Since I’ve been in animal welfare, it seems to have picked up speed within the past 10 years or so.”

Once all the animals were taken off the bus they were taken one by one to a team of veterinarians for a basic checkup. The animals were already spayed or neutered and ready for adoption in Florida before their almost 24-hour trip to Chicago.

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Lucy, a playful 5-month-old dog, was last in line to see the vet. As Anti-Cruelty staff looked for an open kennel for her, she played with one of the veterinarians, licking and biting his beard and leaning in for belly rubs, smiling.

Most of the new animals will be ready for adoption “almost immediately,” Duggan said. But first, they will spend 24 hours in a holding room.

“This was a stressful 24 hours for them being in a vehicle. You know, their normal feeding routine and potty break routine was disrupted,” she said. “So we’ll give them about a day.”

Some of the animals will go to foster homes and will be available for adoption from their foster home. And a few will be taken to partner shelters in Chicago suburbs.

Tourville said she was grateful Anti-Cruelty accepted the dogs, allowing Furry Friends to help those in cities affected by the hurricane.

Duggan joked she hopes the animals enjoy their first Chicago winter, likely never having experienced snow.

“In reality, our hope for them is the same for all of the animals that come into the care of the Anti-Cruelty Society,” Duggan said. “And that is just a warm, loving, engaged home that they can spend the rest of their lives with.”