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Riding out the storm!

Riding out the Storm!

Wow - was THAT an experience! Mom said Hurricane Katrina wasn't that bad, so we went to bed at home that Saturday night. Well, the next morning the storm had strengthened to a category 5, it was headed our way, and it was too late to leave! We were afraid we'd get stuck on the interstate somewhere. Instead we chose to "hunker down" in our church (1 1/2 miles from our house). They have a basement, so we knew it'd be safer with tornadoes. Mom knew Athena (my cat sister) would be too scared around a bunch of strangers, so she left a small kennel for her to hide out in, in the house, and hoped for the best. Mom took my kennel (I love to sleep in it!), food, toys, leash, and bowls, and headed for the church. When we got there, she found an empty Sunday school room and let me run around. She took me outside to play until the weather got bad. When the storm hit early Monday morning, I didn't know what was going on. We stayed on the first floor for a while, but the ceiling tiles kept rising up and down. Pretty scary. The trees were bending outside, water was rushing in under the front doors of the church, and people were starting to get worried. We decided to go downstairs to the basement. I stayed in my kennel part of the time, because a little boy was there who had been bit by a dog a long time ago, and he was scared of me. I was nice, but mom didn't want to scare him. Anyway, after we hauled everything downstairs, the water (and sewage!) started filling up the place! We ran back upstairs and back to our room. Thankfully things settled down, and we all did very well. The church was fine and we were fine. After that, people from all over the community started pouring into our church, soaking wet (from sitting on their roofs), so mom kept busy helping them. I was so good for her - I just played in the room with the kids. After a few more days, we went home. Thankfully my house only had roof damage and not flood damage. Athena was fine - she was sure happy to see all of us! It was truly an experience!