Harwood man lends hand to four-legged flood victims

After floodwaters burst through levees and inundated the Iowa countryside last week, the call went out for help rescuing animals. So Harwood's Bob Rude loaded up his van with supplies and headed west.

"We've been putting in 18-20 hours a day," he said yesterday by phone from flood-ravaged Oakville, Iowa. "I am out trying to rescue animals all day, then I work into the night at the fairgrounds helping with aggressive dogs. I have experience and they asked me to do that, too."

Mr. Rude, who along with his wife, Kathy, runs Rude Ranch Animal Rescue, a small animal welfare outfit in south county, got...