HARDIN — Around a dozen dogs were displaced from Hamster Boy and Tiger Lilly Animal Rescue’s building after the city of Hardin saw days of heavy rains and intense flooding.
Their building is just one of several that were flooded and the founders of the nonprofit are hoping for the community’s help.
“It just has rained, and rained, and rained,” said Tammy Devers, co-founder of Hamster Boy and Tiger Lilly Animal Rescue on Sunday.
Devers and her co-founder Chris Schneider take care of 22 dogs through their rescue, but they had their hands tied this weekend when their building flooded.
“So, Chris, my daughter and my daughter’s husband waded through knee deep water, had to carry most of the dogs,” Devers said.
Those pups were temporarily displaced to one of Schneider’s old mechanic shops after their building’s power had to be cut while it was underwater.
And it was far from the only building in town that was flooded out.
“Last count I heard, it was probably from 15 to 20 that had water backing up, sewage backing up because of the overload and backflow,” said mayor of Hardin, Joe Purcell.
Mayor Purcell said that water from irrigation ditches overflowed into the roads, flooding them out and affecting multiple events in town like Little Big Horn Days and the PRCA Rodeo.
“It was a wet Friday night and then Saturday night they had to cancel it ‘cuz the road washed out. Couldn’t get spectators in, couldn’t get livestock out so everything just kind of shut down,” Purcell said.
He said a water main did break around 11 Saturday night, leaving some homes without water.
“At this time there’s probably five to six homes that are completely out. Some other ones are limited,” said Purcell.
Now that the rains have stopped and the sun is shining, Hamster Boy and Tiger Lilly Animal Rescue hopes the community will help them pick up the pieces after a wet weekend.
“We’ve lost medications, we’ve lost vaccines ‘cuz that stuff has to be refrigerated. We’ve lost food, we’ve lost bedding,” Devers said.
The rescue needs those items as well as monetary donations. There is a drop off location for donation items in Billings at 2706 Arvin Road.
You can also donate to the rescue via PayPal or Venmo. The PayPal username is @tamaradevers and the Venmo username is @hammyrescue.
