Katrina dog goes home after 2 + years

This is Rascal who was rescued from his Bywater home in September 2005 and taken to Lamar Dixon. From there he was sent to another emergency shelter in Monroe, LA run by UAN (United Animal Nations). From Monroe, Rascal and 80 or so other dogs were flown to eastern Pennsylvania on a flight chartered by the ABKA (American Boarding & Kennel Association, a branch of the AKC). This airlift was orchestrated by Bob Paine, the owner of Molly's Country Kennels, a boarding kennel and doggie day care center in Lansdale, PA. Bob just happened to be the president of the ABKA at the time.

When the flight landed in PA, the dogs went to Molly's, 44 miles away. Within a few days, most of the dogs were farmed out to 19 or so other boarding kennels/doggie day care centers in the suburban Philadelphia area as well as Maryland and Virginia.

Every piece of information that came with or on the dogs was entered into Petfinder records created by UAN staff and volunteers. Thankfully for those pets and their owners, these Petfinder records were created BEFORE the dogs left Monroe.

Most* all of the animals that were flown to PA by the ABKA/Molly's are OWNED by families in New Orleans. The Petfinder records include rabies tag numbers, rescue addresses, and owner's names if known.

For example, Rocket (who was finally released and sent home from Doylestown by Lynne Welsh last November) had his owner's name and address right there on his Petfinder record. So did Ragnar. Yet it took lawsuits filed on behalf of the owners of both of those dogs to get them returned.

This particular kennel got four Katrina dogs. In a local newspaper article in the fall of 2005, the owner of the kennel states: "Since their rescue, each dog has been given a clean bill of health, vaccinated and microchipped for identification. The four dogs have passed initial evaluations with flying colors."

Yet, despite this claim, one of the four dogs died from heart worm treatment; another one had heart worms so severe that the vet recommended he be euthanized, and Rascal tested weak heart worm positive and treated. The dog that was almost euthanized wasn't known to have heart worms for almost a year - until he was finally adopted in June 2006 and tested when his new owner took him to the vet.

When I asked the owner of the kennel if Rascal has been on monthly heart worm preventative since he completed his treatment, she said "no, we don't have a problem with heart worm around here."

Really?

By some oversight, Rascal's 2005 Rabies tag and ID tag did not make it into his Petfinder record. BUT... the rabies tag number was on his paperwork (paperwork which I saw for the first time a few months ago, after lawsuit #3 was filed over another Molly's dog). All of the dogs were accompanied by paperwork or copies of their paperwork when transferred from Molly's to the other kennels. So even though no one else knew that Rascal had a current rabies tag - both of the PA kennels knew.

It took two phone calls, a post on a neighborhood forum and a few emails with a friend of Rascal's owner to make contact. His owner doesn't own a computer or have an email account so it was a few more weeks before I was able to send him photos to confirm it was his dog for sure.

I won't go into the rest of the negotiating with the kennel story here (it's been shared with friends and other Katrina reunion volunteers and those who need to know) but the bottom line is that Rascal was flown home on Friday.

And this dog who spent the past two years living in a kennel, mostly isolated and described as un-adoptable, is acting like "his old sweet friendly self" according to his very happy owner.

Oh, one more thing. The kennel never bothered to have him neutered in the two years they had him there.