Kirkwood Community College, particularly its veterinary science program, is sheltering hundreds of pets displaced by the floods. According to this story by Kathy Kaiser, of the Kirkwood News Service:

A dedicated team at Kirkwood Community College has taken in hundreds of pets rescued from the record flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Iowa Equestrian Center on the college campus has been transformed into an emergency animal shelter to assist the Cedar Rapids city facility overwhelmed by the flooding situations of mid-June 2008.

Along with the hundreds of cats and dogs in the Kirkwood flood shelter you will see geckos, a green lizard, an iguana, a rabbit, a macaw, birds of all sizes and a cage full of rats.

There are some local “celebrities,” too: The dog rescued from a roof by firefighters, Sam the cat featured in the local newspaper. Others have stories that may never be told until and unless they are reunited with their human companions.

As the more than 370 animals arrived, they were evaluated by one of three teams consisting of a veterinarian, a vet technician and vet assistant. Kirkwood Animal Health Professor Anne Duffy estimates 85 percent have owners. The others have been separated from their families, were from the animal shelter or simply strays.

Some animals arrived with their families who lost everything and were heading for one of the local shelters set up in school gymnasiums and churches. After losing everything they owned in the floods, it was difficult to leave their pets.

Kirkwood also has a Community Training and Response Program, and its affiliations include AgTerror , a program whose purpose is to make agricultural targets less attractive to attackers, and more resilient in case of attack. Pretty cool for a community college.