A woman in the Bahamas who has made it her mission to rescue and shelter dogs in her home has taken in nearly 100 strays as Hurricane Dorian lashed the Caribbean islands.
As the storm, then a Category 5, parked itself for a two-day-long stay over the Bahamas beginning on Sunday, Chella Phillips was hunkered down with 97 dogs she had rounded up from the streets and into the safety of her Nassau home, she wrote on Facebook.
She wrote that 79 of the dogs were in her bedroom, and she was cleaning a lot of nature's callings, but the dogs were "respecting my bed and nobody has dared to jump in."
"The music is playing in all directions of the house and the AC is blowing for them," Phillips posted with pictures of the pack of pooches.
She said the dogs were getting along and welcoming "the newcomers with tail wags," and appealed for people to volunteer to adopt the rescues once the storm passed.
While Dorian caused heavier havoc on the Abaco Islands, killing five people there, Nassau was also affected, and Phillips said Monday that her home had flooded and lost power.
"I pray for the other islands who have unimaginable damages and I don't see how any dogs or any living being could have survived outside. My heart goes out to them," she wrote.
Phillips told NBC News in a phone interview that with 97 dogs in the house she's been cleaning nonstop, even if they are all pretty well-behaved.
"It's been insane. So many dogs, I can't even get one step without a dog being on my foot," she said. "But I'm not complaining because ... everybody’s safe and that was the main goal for this."
She also said that the island has more than 65,000 homeless dogs who roam the streets abused, hungry, and sick.
"97 is nothing. It's like a drop from this pouring rain," Phillips said.
She told NBC News that she and her brother care for the animals without help from any organizations, though sometimes people send funds to assist with the weekly dog food costs, which is more than $1,000.
Her main goal is to find the dogs homes off of the island, usually adopting them out to people in the United States or Canada, Phillips said.
"I don't want to put them on street. They don't deserve that. So I want for people to help me," Phillips said. "Help me adopt them, take them home."
Dorian was downgraded to a Category 2 storm on Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of about 120 mph and was moving northwest toward the U.S., according to the National Hurricane Center.
