Shelters work to reunite pets, owners

Animal shelters that had taken in scores of pets during Tropical Storm Irene are now trying to get them adopted or returned to their owners.

"We have a wonderful selection . . . dogs, cats, kittens, puppies," including three dozen that were abandoned during the storm, said Sylvia Ottaka, senior director of operations of the North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington, which helped other animal shelters handle the influx of pets brought in as Irene struck.

The owner of an animal rescue group in Freeport, Bobbi Giordano, says she is grateful that North Shore Animal League, Long Island Veterinary Hospital in Plainview and other facilities in Queens temporarily housed some of the 200 cats she had to evacuate from Bobbi and the Strays in Freeport. "I was taken aback by all of the people that wanted to help."

Robert and Maria Hager of Oceanside spent Saturday night in a shelter at Nassau Community College and brought their two cats, Alex and Mel, who were housed nearby in a pet shelter operated by the Pet Safe Coalition. They said they were "very pleased with what they did."

At Town of Brookhaven Animal Shelter and Adoption Center in Brookhaven, director Dori Scofield issued a plea for families to provide proper identification for their pets.

"It was quite a busy weekend, and it's still going on," Scofield said Wednesday. She said the animal league provided a mobile unit that enabled her agency to house about 20 additional animals, many of them having wandered away from home when fences fell during the storm.

Now Scofield said the task is to try to reunite lost pets with their families.

"I can't urge residents enough about putting proper identification on their animals -- up-to-date phone numbers, get the microchip registered," Scofield said. "We get many dogs with microchips, but guess what? If it's not registered, it does me no good."