Although Carolyn Habhab of Fairhope passed away in July, she left a special gift for the folks at the Baldwin County Humane Society in her will.

“We had a bequest that was about $200 more dollars than this cost,” said Baldwin County Humane Society Executive Director Stephen Savage, pointing to a new 22 kilowatt generator. “This is a really great thing to have.”

Don Rooker, a board member, built a fence to isolate the generator from the animals playing out back.

“It’s a matter of in the summertime, during hurricane season, the thought of having all those animals in there; and there’s no reasonable way to evacuate 20 to 30 animals,” Rooker said. “It’s hard for people to evacuate, let alone with animals. You can’t really evacuate animals, so this way, no matter what happens, they’ll be cool, comfortable and safe. That’s the intent.”

The humane society has three portable generators, none of which can be combined for power. At most, they can run some fans and a few lights.

“We also had a plan of evacuation and/or sheltering in place, but as Don said, evacuation isn’t an answer,” Savage said. “We had an agreement with the greater Birmingham Animal Shelter that we could bring our animals to them, but driving to Birmingham is four hours away on a very nice day. Even if we thought timewise it made sense, we don’t have the transportation system. We’ve got a van with about 11 or 12 kennels and we’ve got anywhere from 30 to 40 animals.”

In the case the humane society’s building loses power, the generator automatically jumps into the fray when it’s time.

On Feb. 10, several board members, volunteers and office staff were on hand for a dedication ceremony.

“It’s sincere gratitude when someone thinks of us,” Savage said. “It’s so unselfish to make a bequest in your will for someone or in this case, these animals.”

Savage also mentioned this particular generator has been on his wish list since he became executive director of the Baldwin County Humane Society.