Houston came to HART several weeks ago from Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  He was taken directly from his rescuer by HART volunteers, covered in a thick black tar substance.  As soon as Houston arrived in Northern Virginia, he began treatment for an extremely advanced case of heartworms.

During the last 12 days, Houston was under the constant care of Dr. Rhymes at Parkway Veterinary Clinic, who consulted with specialists (cardiologist, internist, and vet school faculty) to ensure that everything possible was being done for him.  On several occasions, including last night, Dr. Rhymes spent the night watching over Houston.  Houston seemed to be rallying over the past week.

We are very sad to tell you that this morning, notwithstanding these efforts, Houston collapsed and could not be resuscitated.

Those of us who were lucky enough to know Houston saw in him an extraordinary spirit.  One of HART's volunteers spoke for many of us in commenting that in all her years in rescue, she had never met a dog who pulled at her heart more than Houston.  He was gentle and sweet and regal and wise and had a way of looking at you that pierced your heart.  To say that we lost a dog today does not begin to impart the grievousness of our loss of Houston or the heartbreak we are feeling.

Patricia and Carmen, thank you for bringing Houston from New Orleans to HART.  Unlike many of the tens of thousands of dogs and cats who perished in Louisiana and Mississippi, or the tens of thousands who die every day across this country in shelters, Houston did not die alone.

We have to believe he knew how much he was loved. We will always carry him in our hearts and wonder what might have been.

We have found the owner of the Katrina cat named Jefferson. There is a group called stealthvolunteers that is trying to reunite Katrina animals with their owners. One of the volunteers had a law librarian research the owners of Jefferson based on the address where he was found. They found the family living with relatives in Memphis, Tennessee.

The family had evacuated New Orleans before the hurricane except for the man. He stayed to take care of the animals. His house was flooded and he was forced to evacuate without his animals after the hurricane. They returned to their house to find that their dog had drowned and the cat was not in the house. They searched for their cat but could not find him. Jefferson's real name is Coby. The family was ecstatic that Coby had been found.

Coby will be reunited with his family in Memphis on Friday, Oct. 14.

Carol

11/8/05: Here are photos of Coby being reunited with his family:

Ana is one of the dogs we got in from Louisiana last week and we now know that Ana's real name is Sandy.

Tonight I spoke for a long time with a remarkable young woman named Cherie who has had Sandy since Cherie was 12 and Sandy was just 8 weeks old. Sandy's identity was traced through her rabies tag directly to Cherie and through Petfinders, where Cherie had posted information about her beloved Sandy.

Cherie gave Sandy to her grandmother many years ago when Cherie and her mother had to move to housing that didn't permit dogs. But Cherie and her grandmother lived near each other and Cherie continued to be responsible for Sandy for all these years -- taking her to the SPCA clinic every year for her shots, giving her heartworm preventative, and taking her to the clinic to be treated for her constant urinary tract infections. Sandy, now in our care, is undergoing treatment for a urinary infection.

Cherie and her family evacuated the day before the storm (as they have done 6 times over the years for other hurricanes) and Sandy was left behind in her grandmother's home which stands on stilts. Like other people, they were not permitted to take Sandy when they left New Orleans but Cherie did not stop thinking about her or looking for her. Cherie had looked through all the pictures on Petfinders and read every description of every dog that did not have a picture in search of news of Sandy. She told me that the last time she saw Sandy was August 28.

Cherie told me that she has prayed that even if she never saw Sandy again she wanted to know that she made it out of New Orleans and is alive and well. She told her family that no matter what they lost in the hurricane, if Sandy were alive and ok, that was all that mattered.

I told her that Sandy is now living with a wonderful foster family and that Melania and Andy are taking great care of Sandy and are already devoted to her.

We talked very preliminarily about when she can take Sandy back. As you can imagine, her life is very much up in the air. Cherie will be 22 next week and has a baby and another young child. The family is now living in San Antonio, Texas, and Cherie's grandmother will probably be moving temporarily to Chicago to live with her sister. Cherie realizes that it will take several months before she will be in a position to take Sandy back.

But however long it takes, Cherie now has her wish that Sandy made it out of New Orleans alive and is safe and sound, and for that she is very happy.

I told her that Melania would be calling her to tell her about Sandy. She was thrilled to hear this and told me that she wanted Melania to hold the phone to Sandy's ear so Sandy could hear her voice and she could talk to Sandy.

We ended the call with her telling me that the only thing she could say was "Thank you." She said it sounded so inadequate for how she was feeling but wanted us to know how thankful she is we helped Sandy.

When I got off the phone I called Melania and filled her in on all the details. She said something to me which I want to share with all of you: she wanted us to know how "blessed she and Andy felt for being part of this journey." Melania added that when she called Sandy by her real name for the first time, Sandy ran around and "went berserk" as though we had given her her identity back!

A lot of people came together to help make this a happy ending. Huge thanks again go to Patricia and Ed and Carmen and Ken and all the volunteers who went down to Louisiana last week and brought Sandy and the others back to us. And thanks also to Amy who has been doing overtime (over-overtime) responding to all the emails regarding the dogs and people wanting to foster. And finally, thank you to Andy and Melania who could not wait to get Sandy home with them when they came to meet her 6 days ago. Sandy is blessed to be in their home and under their observant and loving care.  Charlene