PAWS ‘eternally grateful’ after puppies, cat rescued from flooding in Pemberton

The Pemberton Animal Wellbeing Society is putting out a call for help, after its outdoor facility was flooded in Pemberton.

In particular, PAWS is expressing deep gratitude to a worker from a neighbouring business who rescued five puppies and their mom from rising waters on Tuesday.

“We were very, very lucky that next door we have a company called Blackcomb Helicopters and one of their employees happened to be in the area and saw how quickly the water had started to rise. She did the most amazing thing, didn’t wait for anyone, broke in, got in there, and rescued the puppies before anything bad happened,” PAWS Assistant Manager Imogen Lowery told CityNews Tuesday.

“The water did end up being waist-deep. We are eternally grateful to her.”

PAWS describes the Blackcomb Helicopter employee’s actions as heroic, noting not only did Tia rescue the dogs, but the team at Blackcomb Helicopters also provided “crucial shelter and care for these animals, demonstrating remarkable compassion and teamwork in our moment of crisis.”

The group says a cat was also rescued by a PAWS volunteer, Maireke, and essential supplies were retrieved by members who “braved the icy floodwaters” to get to the indoor facility.

“We don’t know the extent of the damage yet and we won’t know until the water goes down. We don’t know when we’ll be able to take animals back in there, so for now, it’s kind of just about making sure that all the animals in our care are warm and safe and in emergency fosters, and that everyone’s got the supplies that they need,” Lowery explained.

“It was already pretty brutal this morning wading through waist-deep water, and it’s very, very cold, icy water, getting more supplies out that we could. So it’s just a waiting game, unfortunately, to see what it’s going to look like when the water subsides.”

An image shared by the organization shows the outdoor area completely flooded. The rising waters came amid a flood warning for the region that includes Pemberton, as an atmospheric river brought more rain to the area over the last several days.

Lowery notes PAWS does have plans in place for these kinds of situations, given flooding isn’t uncommon in the area. However, she says the flood at the property came as a surprise Tuesday morning.

“Essentially, it was a freak flash-flood in the early hours of the morning this morning. We do, in Pemberton, live in an area with quite high risk of flooding and so, because of that, we have a lot of amazing emergency systems. We have a lot of evacuation orders done before anyone ever really needs to evacuate, so it’s something that we handle typically quite well. Unfortunately, in this situation, the last news that we heard was at 3 a.m. that the river had reached its peak, everyone was safe, no one would need to evacuate. Unfortunately, that was not the case,” she said.

Support from the community

PAWS says it’s now in need of more long-term fosters for the five puppies, ideally in the Pemberton area. The team says the puppies cannot be left alone for long periods of time yet.

It’s unclear when the shelter will be able to reopen. As the organization waits for the floodwater to subside, Lowery says PAWS is grateful for the community for all the support.

“At the moment, we rely very heavily on our wonderful community and they are incredibly wonderful whenever anything happens. We do get extreme weather events up here and things happen, but we just have the whole community rallying around us, which is just so wonderful,” she said.

“We already had hundreds of emails offering support and fostering and things like that.”

In addition to fosters, PAWS is also asking for monetary donations, which will be used to replace or repair anything lost or damaged in the flooding.