She heard their cries and couldn’t walk away, so she helped save 18 dogs in Kinston

BY ANDREW CARTER
September 15, 2018 05:48 PM
Updated 7 hours 29 minutes ago
KINSTON


Veronica Henderson, 31, of Kinston is reunited with her dog ‘Grandpaw’ after he was rescued from rising flood waters in Kinston Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018 following the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Volunteers rescued 18 dogs from a flood-prone neighborhood. Travis Long

April Casey tried to take a shortcut to somewhere else on Saturday when instead she arrived at a dead end – a flood that blocked her path on Will Baker Road, a little ways south of Kinston. She’d been on a mission to rescue cats for a friend who’d summoned her help.

Now, her path blocked, she walked out of her car and heard the cries of dogs from a nearby house. They were barking and whimpering, she said, making noise befitting of their situation – some trapped inside, others in a kennel outside, while the floodwaters rose around them.

“We could hear them,” said Casey, who lives in Seven Springs. “There was at least eight in the pen. And they were standing on the doghouse, but we couldn’t leave them, at all.”

And so with the help of her family, a jet ski and some jon boats on loan from others who joined the effort, Casey led an impromptu dog rescue in a region of the state that is now fearing historic flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. For about 90 minutes, people went to the flooded house and returned to safety with groups of dogs, many of whom were soaked and shaking.

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