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AdminPermalink Reply by LM Fowler - Admin on February 15, 2009 at 8:33pm

Fire Destroys Mississippi Sanctuary For Rescued Animals

By Toni Lepeska (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, February 14, 2009

Her home was in ashes, her husband was in the hospital and her heart was in pain, but Linda Money couldn't leave.

Not the night of the fire. Not the night after the fire. She stayed on the property. She nursed the psyches of the traumatized dogs that survived and the wounds of Gophy, the first dog she ever rescued.


"I've never lost everything before, but I can tell you this, it's impossible to walk away. I'm his everything," Money said Friday, speaking of the dog she found living in a drain pipe. "I'm the first human who ever touched him."

Her husband, Kevin Clements, exhibited the same devotion. That's why he ended up in the hospital, first at one in Holly Springs, Miss., then at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, for smoke inhalation.

Clements was released from the hospital Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a fire Thursday engulfed the couple's home in Red Banks, a Marshall County community best accessed by U.S. 78.

The couple operate the Mid-South Animal Rescue League from the property. Dozens of dogs live there, dividing their time between indoor and outdoor kennels, outside romping areas and the house. Most are up for adoption.

About 30 dogs perished. Some cats did, too. The surviving ones, many already emotionally wounded in their past by abuse or neglect, were traumatized by the event. The smoke. The sirens. The strangers.





The animal rescue community, shelters, friends, neighbors and associates have taken in some of the dogs left and taken care of Money and Clements, providing bottled water, leashes and crates.

As Clements was making his way back home Friday, a recreational vehicle sent by a local veterinarian pulled up to the property, one of many gifts.

Money was grateful for the provision. She had spent the first night in her van tending to Gophy, whose eyes were swollen shut.

"This is my responsibility," she said. "This is my job. If it was your dogs, I would be here helping you."

The cause of the fire remained under investigation, the county fire investigator said Friday, but one fire chief said several things contributed to the house being a total loss. Firefighters had to give up and just watch it burn.

"It was a defensive attack from the start," said Kenny Holbrook of the Holly Springs Fire Department. "It was one of those days when the fire won."

At one point, Clements, home alone at the time of the fire, rushed past firefighters and dived into a front window after water beat back the heat from one room where he knew dogs remained. Shane Hicks, a Byhalia volunteer firefighter, went in after Clements, then helped him carry out those dogs.

Money said people have told her to be grateful no one was hurt, and she certainly is, but she cannot help but grieve what is gone and can't be recovered.

And she is not focused on where she and her husband will sleep next week. She wants to know where the dogs will sleep, what they will eat and will someone kind be there to rub their ears.

"All of us who do this," Money said, "it's the dogs first."

Helping fire victims

An account has been set up to help Linda Money and Kevin Clements with the dogs that survived the fire at their home this week. You can make contributions to the Mid-South Animal Rescue League Fund at Regions Bank.

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