Dog rescuer in need of home for self, pups
Now, she’s in need of a temporary home for herself, along with 16 furry friends.
A new space heater started a fire in her Marietta home earlier this week as she was preparing for a job interview.
“I followed all of the safety precautions,” Wood said. “I’m terrified of those things.”
Wood said her first concern was to get all 18 dogs out of her home. The dogs had all been rescued and are in need of new owners. But until she can find them homes, Wood is a single parent to the animals.
“I got them all out to safety,” Wood said. “I climbed over the fence to meet the firemen, and two of the dogs went back into the house.”
Wood wanted to go back in after the two, but firemen restrained her, she says. The two dogs perished.
Wood said she was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation and minor burns. But by later that afternoon, her focus returned to keeping the animals safe.
Cobb County animal rescue officials helped transport all 16 dogs to their facility, and Wood later had the dogs moved to a local veterinary hospital to be boarded.
“Animal control gets a horrible rap, but they stayed with me all day long,” she says.
Local Red Cross volunteers helped get her a change of clothes and an extended-stay hotel, Wood says. Though the fire did significant damage to the home she’s lived in for 17 years, she says it’s not a complete loss.
It’s gutted and the windows are gone, but in four months, she should be able to move back in, a contractor has said.
But it’s what to do during those four months that worries Wood the most. It’s expensive to board the dogs, but they can’t stay at a hotel.
To make the situation worse, Wood is an unemployed paralegal, looking for work.
“This is the culmination of a serious run of testing my faith,” she said.
She’s hopeful she can find a home to rent with a fenced-in backyard for the dogs.
“I need a place to rent so that we can be reunited,” Wood says.
Then, she can start rebuilding her life while her home gets rebuilt. Fortunately, she says her insurance will reimburse some of her expenses while she’s displaced.
“It’s tough in the interim,” she says. “You can’t pay for something up front when you don’t have the money.”
Tags: Deborah Wood, Dog rescuer, smoke inhalation, unemployed paralegal