ROANOKE, Va. – Dozens of cats and dogs are no longer in Hurricane Dorian's way.
Angels of Assisi took in more than 70 pets from the Lenoir County SPCA in Kinston, North Carolina, Wednesday morning. Volunteers from the SPCA drove more than five hours from Kinston with the pets to drop them off in Roanoke.
"It's extremely overwhelming, just knowing when you leave them that they're safe and going to be OK," said Sherry Tripp, the Lenoir County SPCA's shelter director. "We don't have to worry anymore."
"You see their little faces and their tails wagging and you know their lives have been saved," said Angels of Assisi Executive Director Lisa O'Neill.
Angels of Assisi and the Lenoir County SPCA worked together in an eerily similar situation last year, when Angels of Assisi volunteers drove down to Kinston to bring animals back to Roanoke before Hurricane Florence hit.
"It's horrendous, just the thought of the possibility of another flood where people will be displaced and lose animals," Tripp said.
Now that most of Lenoir County's animals are in Roanoke, it gives the North Carolina shelter space to harbor pets caught in the chaos of Hurricane Dorian.
"The ones that are displaced that need us and maybe have gotten lost during the storm," Tripp said. "We will have room for those."