An emotional vigil was held in Northeast D.C. on Thursday for the 10 dogs lost during Monday’s flooding at the District Dogs day care facility.
“Our community is mourning,” said event organizer Alyssa Weiner Sandler.
Weiner Sandler, who runs the Instagram page Real Dogs of Eckington, said the Northeast community of dog owners was shaken to its core by the sudden and unexpected loss. They gathered in Alethia Tanner Park to grieve together.
“A lot of us bring our dogs to District Dogs,” she told WTOP. “There’s this sense it could’ve been us.”
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Many couples, families and friends — some no longer accompanied by their pets — were brought to tears as, one by one, community members spoke about the unimaginable tragedy they had experienced.
“I think it’s very easy to say ‘this should’ve happened, or that should’ve happened,'” Weiner Sandler said. “I think we’ll find is that the truth is a little blurred within there.”
She said that while many questions remain, Thursday’s memorial was not about finding answers.
“Our purpose here is to let the other chatter go, and to let this be what the community needed, which is just a cathartic grouping together,” Weiner Sandler said.
“We are just here to show our solidarity because of such a tragedy that happened,” said Joe Lucas, who told WTOP he’s been a client at District Dogs for years, with multiple pets having stayed at the facility.
“We’ve been customers at District Dogs since they had just one location in Parkview, with our previous Basset Hounds,” he explained.
“It’s just unimaginable,” he said of Monday’s flooding. “I cannot imagine being one of those doggy parents who had to go through that, or even [the owner of District Dogs], or any of his employees.”
Lucas said his current Basset Hound, three-year-old Theodora, wasn’t there Monday when floodwaters poured into the facility, but the thought that it could’ve just as easily been him mourning the loss of a best friend was haunting.
“I texted friends who I know go there, to see if they had their dogs there at the time, because it’s a very scary and real thing,” he recounted.
Lucas also said it’s hard to put into words how people must feel about the whole situation, which is wrapped in controversy over how much could have been done to prevent what happened.
“There’s a lot of people who want to know, and there are not a lot of answers yet,” he said.
But he, like Weiner Sandler, said Thursday’s vigil had one main purpose for their community.
“Just give the people who have experienced loss a little bit of peace,” he said.