Lismore lost everything as the floods tore through town, but for these pets, it meant a temporary home

Residents and volunteers had spent weeks cleaning up the mess left behind from the devastation of the floods.

Like Ms Bird's sister, Jenny Waters, many lost everything with nowhere to go. She said goodbye to her companions, Tilly, Ollie and Red, the cat not knowing when she would see them again.

Ms Bird heard from her sister the night before the floods swept through her home.

"I saw the news and called her straight away. She assured me she was four meters above ground and had food, batteries and torches and a gas burner, 'I'm fine', she kept saying." Ms Bird said.

Before sunrise, Ms Waters woke to find water cascading through her Fillmore house.

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"I never expected her to call me the following day with water up to her neck, her two dogs and cat in a cage on a kayak ready to swim to safety.

"She had no room for herself," Ms Bird said.

"I got off the phone, turned to my husband, and said nope. I'm going; I have to go up there."

But then the unimaginable happened, and Ms Bird didn't hear anything from her sister for hours.

She loaded up her car with toilet paper and food and drove over 1000 kilometres to be there for her sister.

"The whole time, I thought something must have happened to her. I was terrified," she said.

"I thought, oh no, the silly woman went ahead and swam, and they've been washed away.

"But then she called me, 4-5 hours later and said strangers had rescued her and the animals on their tinnies.

"Graeme and I brought the pets here because we want to do our part in this horrible, heartbreaking ordeal."

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