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Tammy Ross of west Boca Raton couldn't contain her excitement as she greeted her new love, Sampson, a 3-month-old white lab mix she renamed Stormy. 'He was so sweet and calm and so good with the kids. I just knew it (he was the one) Ross said.

Photos by Libby Volgyes/The Coastal Star

By Arden Moore

Boca Raton is about 1,400 miles away from Moore, Okla. It takes about 23 hours to drive this distance.
Neither the miles nor the hours deterred Suzi Goldsmith and her staff at Tri-County Humane Society.
Within minutes of seeing televised accounts of the EF5 tornado that struck Moore on May 20, Suzi Goldsmith, founder and director of this no-kill shelter based in Boca Raton, was in action mode.
And, within 24 hours, she had dispatched two Tri-County Humane Society vans with five staffers and stocked with food/medical supplies to help the displaced pets and overflowing animal shelters in the path of this tornado that reached winds in excess of 200 miles per hour.
“Although our service area is Palm, Broward, Miami-Dade and Martin counties, when a disaster strikes, we don’t have boundaries,” says Goldsmith. “We immediately contacted the shelters in Oklahoma and told them we wanted to help. It’s what we do.”
The team of Matthew Gaquer, Anthony Jackovich, Kim Spencer, Paul Motz and Vladimir Delva stopped only to eat and re-fill their gas tanks.     
Their mission: to bring back dogs and cats housed in four Oklahoma shelters to make room for pets displaced and injured by the tornados in hopes they could be reunited with their worried owners.
“This was a life changer for me,” says Delva, a veterinarian technician of 15 years from Fort Lauderdale. “Seeing what I saw there really helps put life in perspective. I walked by cars flipped upside down. I saw people walking in the middle of fields with trash bags, trying to gather some of their belongings like car keys and family photos. There were distraught and lost looks on the faces of so many people we met there.”
At each shelter they visited the Tri-County team in their yellow logo-shirts worked with shelter staff to assess the medical conditions and temperaments of the cats and dogs they were planning to transport back to South Florida.
By the time the team was ready to leave, their vans contained a priceless cargo of 80 cats and dogs, ranging in size from 8-day-old puppies to the aptly named Mr. Big, a harlequin Great Dane. Oh yeah, and unwanted passengers — far too many ticks.
“I’ve never seen ticks this big — except in photos in my veterinary books,” says Delva. “We bombed the vans and sprayed before and after, but it was rough. When we stopped midway home at a pet-friendly hotel, we had to give medicated baths to all the puppies and some of the other adult pets. Thank goodness for the understanding hotel staff. They gave us a hose to clean and donated about 500 towels and blankets to care for all the pets we were bringing back.”
The vans reached Boca Raton at 10:30 p.m. on May 29 in the middle of a downpour — naturally. Goldsmith and her staff that stayed were waiting, and after exchanging hugs, began unloading the rescued pets. The first one to depart from a van was Mr. Big.
“We were thrilled — there were tears coming from our eyes because we realized we just saved 80 animals from death,” declares Goldsmith. “We assisted during Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, but this was our biggest rescue ever — 80 animals at one time.”
Now, Goldsmith and her team are busy finding homes for these pets who survived one of the nation’s nastiest tornados.
“This trip definitely brought us together,” says Delva. “It’s always been like a family environment for us at Tri-County, but after working 24 hours together day after day in Oklahoma, it definitely has made us even closer. We did quick assessments on all the pets we brought back, then gave them food and water and showed them that they were coming to a place of love.”
Love — now that’s something Goldsmith and her Tri-County team never have in short supply when it comes to reaching out to animals in need.

Jeff Stuck reaches down to pet his new dog Gretchen, at Tri-County Humane Society. Stuck and his wife, Carol, drove down from Sebastian with their dog Rosie, to adopt a new dog. Gretchen came from a shelter in Oklahoma. ‘We just fell in love,’ Carol Stuck said.

Arden Moore, Founder of Four Legged Life.com, is an animal behavior consultant, editor, author, professional speaker and master certified pet first aid instructor.  Each week, she hosts the popular “Oh Behave!” show on Pet Life Radio.com.  Visit www.fourleggedlife.com.