Austin Pets Alive: Disaster Response and Recovery Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
Austin Pets Alive! (APA!) began responding to the Texas Hill Country Flood Disaster on the afternoon of July 4, 2025, when the news broke of the tragedy unfolding in Kerr County, about two hours west of Austin. Our grant funds were utilized for a crucial need: portable digital radios that were continuously used by APA! staff and volunteers as they worked in disaster-affected areas.
These radios allowed staff and volunteers to rapidly communicate information on found animals during search-and-rescue efforts and to coordinate transport of found animals to our temporary "M.A.S.H.-style" veterinary clinics, which administered on-site medical care to sick and injured animals as well identified lost pets for return to their families.
This means of communication was critical because APA! was on the ground in six different locations in the Texas Hill Country, including many areas where normal communication methods were been disrupted by the floods.
The radios were also utilized to organize the transport of hundreds of pets from Hill Country shelters when those shelters were evacuated due to the flooding or simply had no more room for pets, thus ensuring no animals faced the threat of euthanasia because of the emergency conditions.
Radios were also utilized to coordinate multiple supply deliveries to the many rural communities in the flood zone. As the days after the flood wore on, our on-the-ground teams reached rural communities in the Hill Country and learned from the residents that they hadn’t received much help to that point. Once this need was communicated, APA! sent search-and-rescue groups to these smaller communities to help families search for missing pets as well as to address the needs of stray dogs and cats through supply donations and medical care.
Ultimately, in the month after the disaster, we transported more than 1,900 animals that were either already in Hill Country shelters or were owner-surrenders from the flood zone to our Austin shelter, where many went immediately to foster homes or were vaccinated and prepared for adoption.
Today, we are still responding to needs created by the floods, recognizing that for many Hill Country families, the process of recovery will be long. We are still fostering owned pets from the Hill Country until their families are ready to take them home again. We also continue to pull animals from Kerrville Pets Alive! and the Kerr County Animal Control & Shelter when their capacity is strained, and are in constant contact with them in order to provide support for the long haul.
The portable radios funded by the Petfinder Foundation provided invaluable support during our emergency flood response, and continue to be utilized at our shelters sites in Austin to communicate amongst animals care and veterinary staff.
How many pets did this grant help?
870
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Mallory was a dog from the small city of San Saba, located northwest of Austin. During the July 4 deluge, the San Saba river reached 34 feet, destroying homes and farms, displacing residents and their pets.
About a week after the flood, members of the APA! team discovered that the San Saba community had received little help, for people or pets. When APA! search and rescue teams communicated San Saba’s needs to the rest of the organization, staff and volunteers were immediately deployed to San Saba, and were literally crawling into and under destroyed RVs in search of pets needing rescue.
One of the pets rescued was a dog named Mallory. We learned that she lived in a house in San Saba with another dog and 22 cats. Her owner had passed away a couple months prior to the flood, and a housekeeper had been feeding the animals every day — until the rivers flooded. No rescue group could reach Mallory and the other pets for several days, meaning they were likely scared, confused, and without food and water during that time.
Coordinating amongst the rescue teams, APA! was able to bring all the animals from the home to our shelter in Austin. After her experiences, Mallory was extremely nervous and shut down, her trauma apparent as she tried to avoid caretakers at the shelter.
Within days, Mallory was taken into a foster home, where she initially preferred to lie quietly most of the day, tolerating a bath and finding the cozy spots her foster had prepared for her in the home. Mallory received treatment for her anxiety and medication for skin and ear allergies through several visits to APA! vets at our recently opened Regional Shelter Pet Hospital.
Over the next few weeks, Mallory slowly began to perk up, her happiness especially evident when she got to ride in a car. Today, Mallory is relaxed, happy and healthy in a forever home in Austin.
