DAVIE, Fla. – Cows cornered by rising floodwater showed the toll of the weekend’s wicked rain from Tropical Storm Eta. A usually grassy agricultural site on University Drive and Stirling Road looked more like a flourishing lake.
It was a problem felt even on the most rural side of Davie.
“No, it’s not a call that we get very often,” Davie Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Jorge Gonzalez said.
Monday morning, Davie Fire Rescue received call for a pair of stranded alpaca and three goats.
The barn for the animals was filling fast with floodwater overnight and owner Cherie Kaplan was running out of options.
“These are my babies,” Kaplan said. “I feel so responsible because they’re rescues and they’ve had such a hard life sometimes, so I feel like I need to protect them, and I felt like I was failing. I was really getting worried.”
So, she called Davie Fire Rescue.
Gonzalez said that for the alpaca, they put lines on them and walked them over. “The goats, on the hand, had to be carried because they wouldn’t go through the water.”
“The goats, if they get in the water, they freeze and so they will drown,” Kaplan said.
The rescue was a success. It took fire rescue about 20 minutes to save the animals and to save the day.
“It was such a bad situation and when they showed up, it just turned better,” Kaplan said.