“The Little Shelter That Could”

While thousands of people were evacuating from Ruidoso the week of June 17 due to uncontained wildfires, the Humane Society of Lincoln County was left with the question of what to do with the animals in its care as the flames grew closer. Española Humane was one of several shelters throughout the state that acted quickly to come to the rescue.

Julie Martinez and her husband Mike have been volunteers with Española Humane for five years. They drove to Ruidoso early Tuesday, June 18 in their separate personal vehicles and successfully brought eight rescue dogs back to Española.

“Once I arrived, there was that overwhelming experience of just wanting to take all of them,” Martinez says.

Chris Shows—shelter manager at the Humane Society of Lincoln County—says she immediately felt the stress come off of her shoulders upon the Martinezes’ arrival.

The Humane Society of Lincoln County had approximately 70 rescue cats and dogs in its care, along with about 30 pets that Ruidoso residents had dropped off during their sudden evacuations. Shows and Mattie Allen—director of communications at Española Humane—first talked to each other about the situation on Monday, June 17 after Shows had started driving out of Ruidoso with as many animals as she could. They exchanged a call when Shows was able to get cell phone service on the side of the road, knowing that there were still animals remaining at the shelter.

“When I was talking to Mattie, I think, is when it really hit me. All she had to say was, ‘Are you OK?’ And I completely broke down and started crying and just, at that moment, felt helpless,” Shows says.

After the phone call, Shows realized that the flames wouldn’t reach the shelter overnight. She drove back to stay with the animals and organize their evacuation.

Allen helped organize the two volunteers to drive down from Española the next morning. The quick response came, in part, from the shelter’s experience helping with the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fires near Las Vegas, New Mexico, as well as the Blue 2 Fire near Ruidoso just a few weeks ago. Española Humane helped evacuate animals from both of the previous situations.

“As prepared as you can be, [you] also have to be pretty agile and flexible—and do the best that you can in a chaotic situation full of adrenaline,” Allen says.

After the initial phone call exchange between Shows and Allen, the Martinez couple spent the night preparing kennels and supplies for the animals. They left Española at about 5 am the following day and were able to arrive to Ruidoso a few hours later to pick up the eight dogs—just in the nick of time, Martinez says.

Upon their arrival, Shows was “completely overwhelmed with just joy and relief, knowing that within hours they jumped into action and came,” she says.

The Humane Society of Lincoln County received help from others throughout the state to evacuate the rest of the animals to Roswell and Albuquerque. Bernalillo County Animal Care is working in Roswell to reunite pets with their owners, Shows says. The rest of the shelter’s animals were evacuated due to the efforts of Animal Humane New Mexico and Best Friends Animal Society in Roswell.

“We call [Española Humane] ‘the little shelter that could,’—they always make room. Nobody gets left behind with them,” Martinez says.

“I don’t know if I can say thank you enough to those people that have offered and have helped us,” Shows says.

Now, Shows and Abel Guzman—executive director of the Ruidoso shelter—are staying at the shelter, along with other staff members. They are watching nearly 30 cats and dogs that have since been brought in or returned after the evacuation, while preparing donations and resources for Ruidoso residents upon their return.

“It’s just going to make it that much easier for evacuees when they return to have something, at least, to come back to—even those who have lost homes,” Guzman says. “It just goes to show the importance of caring for one another, the importance of being there for one another. This is something really big and we could always all come together and make it work out.”

The shelter is accepting donations to assist with the aftermath. Further information is available on its website and Facebook page.

“The people are resilient there. They are going to rebuild that town,” Martinez says.