When Hurricane Gustav first made his intentions known and started barreling down on the Southeast, Joy Harvey knew her ministry: displaced guinea pigs.
Harvey and her husband, Hub, were ready — and qualified.
“We first got trained after Hurricane Katrina,” Hub Harvey said, tugging on his EARS (Emergency Animal Rescue Service) badge. “And we were able to return some dogs to their owners eight months after the hurricane. That was emotional and a wonderful opportunity for people to open up and let us pray with them.”
But Gustav was the couple’s first opportunity to run an animal shelter specifically for hurricane evacuees. The Harveys, members of North Shelby Baptist Church, Birmingham, in Shelby Baptist Association, set out to care for the pets that evacuees brought with them to the temporary shelter at the Shelby County Exhibition Center in Columbiana.
And it rained cats and dogs.
“We had 34 dogs, three cats, three guinea pigs, a gerbil, a rat and a hamster,” Hub Harvey said.
The Harveys pitched a tent big enough to hold them all right outside the exhibition center and then set up camp themselves in a tent right next to it.
And for the duration, starting Aug. 30 and wrapping up Sept. 5, Joy Harvey had the place running like a well-oiled machine. All the animals — even the smallest ones — were tagged with collars for identification and so that the Harveys could call them by name.
“We’ll take care of Tia and love on her and make her feel right at home,” Joy Harvey told a just-arrived evacuee turning over his small dog to the Harvey haven. “We’re sorry this is happening, but we’ll try to make it as good as we can for y’all.”
According to the evacuees, it’s working.
“They have been so nice, and it’s been great to have the animals right here with us,” Chelsey Gautreaux, of Houma, La., said of the Harveys. She brought several dogs, a cat and a guinea pig with her.
The pet shelter gave evacuees something to do that felt familiar, Hub Harvey said.
“We walk the dogs when we need to, but we encourage the owners to come walk their own dogs so that the dogs will be calmer and feel more at home, too,” he said.
A steady stream of owners — adults and children alike — circulated through the open-air tent day in and day out.
And several evacuees like Gautreaux served as volunteers, helping Joy Harvey organize the tent and care for the animals.
“The people seem happier being able to see the animals and take care of them,” Joy Harvey said.
And they seemed to open up while they were at the tent, said Hub Harvey, who’s also an Alabama Baptist disaster relief chaplain.
“We’ve gotten to talk with several about their faith, and people tell us their stories,” he said. “It’s really a neat ministry God has blessed us with.”
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