Shelter home for cats and dogs affected by Penampang floods, urgent help needed

KOTA KINABALU: A shelter home for cats and dogs in Penampang was part of the damage caused by a massive flood over the weekend.

Situated in a flood-prone area, the Shelter of Hope Penampang is no stranger to disaster, as they are faced with the situation a few times a year, with the level of severity varying each time.

This round, the flood was devastatingly terrible, reaching almost the second floor of the wooden structure, damaging cages, destroying food supplies and other items.

While their main focus right now is to clean up and rebuild the damaged parts of the house where the rescued dogs and cats live, they are met with another set of challenges – more stray animals ending up there.

Its operator Adrienne Godfrey Johniu said the latest addition was a female dog and her puppies, which were forced to be removed from a housing area and on their way to a pound as the complainant wanted the dogs ‘as far away from his eyes’ as possible.

“I vowed not to take in any more strays as I have not even cleaned up and recovered from this flood but hearing about the dog and her puppies grasped my heart, I just couldn’t do nothing,” she said.

With that, she is appealing for fosters to take in the dogs until an adopter is found.

“Please lend a helping hand. I would take all if I had the means but we are barely surviving and the only way I can think of is to ask if anyone is willing to foster these dogs,” said Johniu.

Recalling the June 30 flood following continuous downpour since afternoon, she said the first thing that came to her mind was ‘it is going to flood again’.

When she saw murky water starting to gush into a stream nearby, she started to feed all the 100 over animals early before gathering her children to assist with carrying and moving cats and dogs to the upper level of the shelter which is also her home.

Johniu had to carry the larger and weaker dogs first, while those who could walk well were asked to follow her up the house, and yes they understood the instructions.

“By the time I was done with the dogs, the flood water was waist-deep and still rising. There was an urgency to remove the 11 cats that were staying with me on the ground floor,” she said.

“With the help of my kids, we wade through the strong current to get the carriers so that we could remove the cats without them being wet and to also avoid injuries to myself,” she said.

Johniu said with such urgency, the cats were getting stressed as felines panic more easily, so she had to spend extra time calming them down before getting them inside their carriers because some of them had started to hiss with claws in full swing.

When the cats were safe, next was to carry all the cat and dog food but unfortunately, flood waters had washed a lot of the food packets away, and by then, the flood was shoulder high.

Her kitchen appliances, washing machine and other items were floating around, and the higher platform built in recent years to house cats and dogs during floods, was also going to be hit so she had to go and retrieve the puppies there.

Johniu said over many many decades, the flood never reached that platform but this time it did.

She again had to wade through the strong flood current and hold on to whatever she could to avoid being swept away. She did not ask her children to follow her as it was dangerous.

She finally got 11 puppies out of danger. They all stayed in their flood-inundated house until the next morning, praying for the best.

“The next morning, the flood was still waist-deep. By 12pm, we were able to start cleaning. Even when the flood is over, I am still trying to make the shelter liveable for my rescues,” Johniu said.

“We are doing this on our own but I am humbly asking for help, for any volunteers for the cleaning process. If you would like to help, you may call me at 016-8429598,” she said.