NEW ORLEANS GETS ITS JAZZ BACK !!!!!!! WE ARE ALL SO VERY HAPPY FOR YOU, SHALANDA

Above: Jazz escorted by Mimi Smith, one of Shalanda's lawyers.

Below: SHALANDA REUNITED WITH HER JAZZ

Update on the upcoming return of Katrina dog to her New Orleans owner

This is from yesterday's Time Picayune:

Rescued dog set to return to Kenner

DNA evidence sways Texas appeals court

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

By Paul Rioux

Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina separated them, a Kenner woman and her pet cocker spaniel appear poised for a reunion now that an appeals court has overturned a ruling granting a Texas woman ownership of the dog.

"I broke down in tears of joy when I found out," Shalanda Augillard said Tuesday evening. "I don't have any kids. But Jazz is like a child to me, and I fought for her just like anyone would for their child."

Augillard racked up thousands of dollars in attorney fees and traveled more than 10 times to Texas during the two-year custody battle with an Austin woman who had adopted Jazz from an animal rescue group and renamed her Hope. Attorneys are trying to work out an agreement to transfer the dog, now 11 years old, to Louisiana. "I can't wait to get her back," Augillard said. "I'm glad someone finally realized that she needs to be back home with her family."

A three-judge panel on the Third District Texas Court of Appeals on Friday unanimously overturned a trial judge's ruling that Augillard had failed to prove the dog was Jazz.

Augillard's case, tried in June 2007, included testimony from a DNA expert who said there was less than one chance in 1 trillion that Hope and Jazz were not the same dog. But Judge Bill Henry concluded a DNA sample reportedly taken from a dog brush at Augillard's home was not "authenticated or identified, thus indicating a high potential for tampering."

The appeals court dismissed this as "mere surmise and suspicion," saying there was no evidence of tampering and no indication that Augillard even had an opportunity to collect a hair sample in Texas from Hope.

The dog remains in the custody of Tiffany Madura in Austin, Texas, and it's unclear when she will be turned over to Augillard, said Susan Phillips, one of her attorneys. Madura has 45 days to appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. Her attorney, Michael Murray, told the Austin American- Statesman newspaper that an appeal was unlikely. Todd Smith, another Augillard attorney, said he is trying to negotiate the dog's return without a court order.

As Katrina bore down on southeast Louisiana in August 2005, Augillard left Jazz with her mother and other relatives in a two-story house in New Orleans' 7th Ward. The family was later evacuated from the second floor, leaving Jazz behind with a three-week supply of food and water.

Augillard returned nine days after the hurricane to find the door kicked in and Jazz gone. She spent months checking shelters and scanning Web sites with photos of Katrina pets before concluding that Madura had adopted Jazz from an Austin animal rescue group.

She tried to initiate a meeting with Madura, then sued her in May 2006.

The case is one of more than 100 Katrina-related pet custody battles making their way through the courts across the Gulf Coast.

In a footnote to their opinion, the appellate judges noted the "obvious dissonance" between the emotional investment of pet owners and a legal system that treats pets as property.

"Given both parties' considerable expenditures in this case," they wrote, "it goes without saying that Jazz's significance as a cherished member of Augillard's family -- as well as her importance to her caretakers of almost three years, Tiffany Madura and (her companion) Richard Toro -- far exceeds her market value."

Court returns Katrina dog to New Orleans owner

By Eric Dexheimer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 21, 2008

A cocker spaniel rescued during Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and adopted by an Austin woman must be returned to a New Orleans woman who says the dog is hers, according to a ruling Friday by the state 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. The ruling appears to end a bitter fight over the watermelon-sized pet that has been waged by a half-dozen attorneys, taken more than two years to resolve and rung up an estimated $100,000 in legal costs.

Tiffany Madura adopted the black dog and named it Hope in fall 2005. A rescue worker had plucked it from a shelter outside New Orleans in the chaotic days after the hurricane.

Shalanda Augillard contacted Madura several months later after she saw pictures of the dog on an animal rescue Web site. Augillard's then-8-year-old black cocker spanielnamed Jazz had disappeared after the storm.

But Madura maintained that the dog wasn't Augillard's and refused to let her see it. Augillard filed a lawsuit in state District Court in Hays County in May 2006 saying that the dog belonged with her. In July 2007, Judge Bill Henry awarded the dog to Madura.

Friday's ruling reversed that decision. Written by Justice Diane Henson, the opinion found that Henry improperly ignored a DNA comparison of skin flakes taken from Hope and a sample from an old brush that Augillard had used on Jazz. The test indicated that Hope and Jazz were the same dog.

During the trial, Madura suggested that Augillard's brush sample had been secretly taken from Hope. Henry determined that Augillard's witnesses were not credible and disregarded the DNA evidence.

Friday's reversal "absolutely turned on the DNA evidence," said D. Todd Smith, Augillard's appeal attorney. "It's pretty hard to refute scientific evidence like this."

Augillard could not be reached for comment, but according to one of her lawyers, she was eager to be reunited with the dog. "It's been a long time," attorney Susan Philips said.

Madura also could not be reached for comment.

"I'm devastated," said her attorney, Michael Murray. "I can't believe this has happened. This is a travesty."

While Smith said he was paid for his work, both Murray and Philips said they donated most of their legal services, which they estimated would have cost $100,000. Philips said donations from pet advocacy organizations covered some of the costs.

Murray said he was unlikely to appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. If he doesn't, the dog, now almost 12, could be returned to New Orleans in a matter of weeks.

As many as 10,000 pets were rescued from New Orleans in the weeks after the 2005 hurricane and subsequent flooding. Many were returned without incident after the owners were found, but several dozen of the rescues resulted in court disputes. The Hope/Jazz case was one of very few instances nationally, if not the only one, in which a disputed pet that had been rescued after Katrina was not returned to a New Orleans claimant.

The Hope/Jazz dispute has been similar to other cases. In lawsuits, adoptive owners have claimed that they were reluctant to return the animals they rescued because the pets had been poorly cared for. Because the original owners were largely inner-city African Americans and the majority of rescuers were white suburbanites, some animals rights advocates say the cases have exposed a cultural divide.

While Augillard, who is black, insisted that her dog was in good health before Katrina, Hope/Jazz had a skin condition and large bladder stones when she was adopted by Madura, who is white. In court, Augillard contended that the dog's condition resulted from wandering around in the flooded city before being rescued.

In her ruling, Henson went out of her way to acknowledge people's passions when it comes to their pets, which by law are considered property.

"Given the parties' considerable expenditure in this case, it goes without saying that Jazz's significance as a cherished member of Augillard's family — as well as her importance to her caretakers of almost three years, Tiffany Madura and [her companion] Richard Toro — far exceeds her market value," she wrote. "We recognize that there are important non-economic interests at stake in this case."

edexheimer@statesman.com; 445-1774

Katrina dog gets reunited yesterday !!

Thank you Sue G. (i.e. Spiritsmom) and Susan F. (Stealth Volunteer) for your dedication to reuniting Katrina dogs with their families; and continued thanks to Sue G. for all the time and work you've devoted to maintaining your Flickr site.

Sue G. first posted Gracie on her site in 2006 with this Petfinder page, hoping that her owner might see her.

Fast forward two years when Sue then found this on Craigslist - Gracie was returned to the same shelter when the man who had adopted her was killed in Iraq.

Susan F. then worked hard to track down Gracie's original family who were located in New Orleans and Kentucky. When they saw the photo of their dog that Susan emailed them, they drove to the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society, Inc. to reclaim their beloved family pet.

Click on the title link to read the full story and see photos and video of the reunion.

It is no surprise that the word "Grace" translates to: thanks, fortune, luck; the exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another.

Thank you Sue and Susan!!
Thank you Fayetteville Animal Protection Society.
Thank you to the family of the serviceman who returned Gracie to the shelter - I am so very sorry for your incomprehensible loss, and so grateful that in the midst of your grief, to think about his dog and make sure she was returned to the shelter. I hope that this reunion gives you a feeling of peace knowing that your small act of kindness helped to heal a family.

Simba has been REUNITED !!!

It's been over two years since Ben, Dionne, Nicholas and Jordan saw their dog Simba. On December 22 they drove from their temporary home in Virginia (where they've been living and working while awaiting their return to New Orleans) to the shelter in NJ where they were reunited with Simba.

Chedder Homecoming Video

Even though Chedder was one of the dogs I helped to reunite a long time ago, I just saw the full video again of his homecoming,and it made me remember why I have been doing this. Thanks again to Scot Haisley at WARL for fighting with us, rather than against us,to get Chedder back to Renee and her son. This is the original post about Chedder/Chat.

Click here to see the video of Chedder's homecoming.

REUNION: Chedder (Chat) the beagle is back home

Chedder ("Chat") was reunited with his family yesterday in Houston after a long, drawn-out battle with BREW, the beagle rescue group that Chedder had been given to. The Washington Animal Rescue League had taken in Chedder after Katrina and had been told he was owner surrendered, so they gave the young beagle to BREW Beagle Rescue who in turn adopted him out to someone in Richmond, VA (whose identity is unknown at this time). Almost immediately, Renee - Chedder's owner - identified him from photos from a news program and also from the shelter's website. Once the Executive Director of WARL was made aware of the situation and looked at photos, he did everything he could to get Chedder back from BREW. From the outset (over two months ago) BREW claimed that the dog they had was not Chedder even though the photos proved it was. They refused to allow Renee or anyone to see the dog. When asked to send additional photos, they sent the same photos that were on the website. BREW's lawyer added insult to injury when she stepped in and talked to Renee in a degrading and insulting way. WARL asked their lawyer to intervene. On and on.

Then, a few weeks ago it seemed as if BREW was finally ready to cooperate but it soon became obvious that it was another of of their stall tactics, hoping that Renee would give up and go away. You would think that a dog rescue group would have a little better understanding of the unbreakable bond between people and their pets.

Story of Chedder's Katrina experience: Renee and the rest of the family were sent on to Houston and her father stayed behind with Chedder. When the flooding began and he was forced to evacuate, he and Chedder went to the Convention Center. When the busses finally arrived to take the evacuees to the Astrodome in Houston, Renee's father and Chedder boarded a bus. The bus driver said that Chedder had to be removed from the bus. As if he knew what was going on, Chedder crawled up to the luggage area and burrowed in. The bus driver insisted the dog be removed, so Renee's father tried to get off the bus with Chedder but was not allowed. He had no choice and did as the bus driver ordered, and as the bus pulled away he watched his daughter's beloved puppy chase after it.