Evacuation from the storm

Published 2:15 pm Sunday, September 16, 2018

As Hurricane Florence rages, evacuees are figuring life out in their temporary homes away from home. Whether it be a friend or family members’ house, a hotel or an RV — evacuees in Milledgeville have plenty to explore and try to enjoy in order to keep their minds off of things back at home. 

While humans can get out and visit area shops, historic sites and restaurants, sometimes the fur babies can be left behind. Most of the hotels in the area are accommodating for evacuees with pets, allowing the four-legged friends to visit, even when most are not pet-friendly under normal circumstances. 

One local business, Off the Leash, is offering services so that evacuees can have a place to take their doggos to play since oftentimes hotels do not want the pups left alone in the hotel rooms. 

“When I heard about Hurricane Florence,” Tim Milburn, owner of Off the Leash said, “I told my wife, I’m not going to wait ’til last minute, we’re going to let the hotels know now.”

Milburn made flyers and passed them out to area businesses and places to let their visitors know about his services and what all he offers for the visiting dogs. 

“There’s only one hotel here in Milledgeville that allows pets,” Milburn said. “The other hotels said ‘we will definitely send the animals your way’ because they don’t allow pets.”

One couple took Milburn up on his offer and brought their two dogs, Wally and June, to Off the Leash for a day of play. Taylor Trabant of Charleston, S.C. evacuated and came to Milledgeville with two dogs and one other person. She said that they have spent almost all of their time in the hotel and while it is nice and accommodating, their fur babies just don’t have enough room to get their energy out and play, so Off the Leash was the perfect solution. 

“They are super-bored. It’s a really nice hotel, but we just haven’t really been able to leave much; we aren’t familiar with the area … they’re [the dogs] just super-bored, and we saw a flyer for this place in the hotel lobby. We stopped by yesterday and we played with the dogs a little bit and we met him [Milburn] and he’s super nice and our dogs loved it and so then we decided to do a day of daycare for them so that they can run out some energy and socialize with other dogs.”

Milburn has had dogs his whole life and so bringing in new dogs to play is nothing new for him. From skating around to throwing the tennis ball — he has lots of ways to entertain his four-legged friends. 

“They’re here just to play,” Milburn said.

Milburn is also offering free baths to displaced families’ pets. 

“We do care about them, we can be good neighbors and we can support them in any way they need it…,” Milburn said. “Yeah, a hurricane displaced them and made them leave their homes, but I want them to know that their pets are welcomed here — they’re safe, they have a home here.”

For more information on Off the Leash’s services call Milburn at 706-816-7753.