Sammy Beckett

Because he's cute and today's his birthday.

When I came back from New Orleans, I thought I would never feel right again. I had been taken outside of my comfort zone like never before. We stayed in the deserted city even though we weren't supposed to on the second floor of the house with a generator. It was like the wild wild west. People were driving around after dark – even though there was a curfew – with guns looking to rob houses. Food was scarce. We couldn't bathe. Everyone's possessions were being pulled out into the street for trash pick up. Dogs ran wild in packs throughout the city and reminders of animal suffering were everywhere.

I did the most I could but I hurt. I came home and everyone sat outside my Adams Morgan Starbucks and walked their dogs and I wanted to tell them, your life is not secure. This could be gone tomorrow. All of it.

And then, 10 days later, while sitting in my office, I heard a sound like a bird's and looked outside my window. It was that day I found Sammy, a small orange and white 2-pound deserted kitten. He was wailing and it took me two hours to catch him, but I finally brought him inside. Over the next three weeks, I nursed him. He had coccidia, worms, fleas, ear mites and needed all kinds of medicine. He's now a happy healthy full grown cat. The vet estimated he was was born on August 29, the day New Orleans flooded.

I am an existentialist intellectually and I think we are all pagans emotionally, but I know God gave me this cat. It is through him I was able to heal.

Support your local animal shelter, the Humane Society or the SPCA. They continue to do good work and animals everywhere need you.

Just One Block

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These photos were taken within a one block radius. Later that day, Paul and I went in search of an open grocery store and discovered an entire neighborhood of forgotten pets … cats sitting on porch fronts, dogs hysterical and missing all of their hair. Maybe some of them were strays. I still suffer for these animals while I write this post. I gave them all of our canned tuna, wrote down the address, and became obsessed with helping them.

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From my cell phone, I called the Friendship Animal Hospital in Washington, DC and Jennifer Trujillo called someone she knew with the Humane Society who went down the very next day to see about the dog. The owner had "been hit hard" but was coming back to take care of his pets. The dog would be okay.

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Eventually, I received confirmation that food and water stations had been set up for the cats. I don't know who came through for them, but thank you to everyone who listened to me. I emailed every organization, called anyone I thought might care, and talked to everyone I met while in the city.

Gone to Texas

When I got out of the truck to take this photo, I almost stepped on a dead cat. Big, like my cat Oscar, with his mouth wide open and his cat fangs gasping for air, I presume.

Animal Rescue

The woman who drove this van lives in New York. One week after the flood, when we were all watching the misery of the Superdome on TV, she got into her car and drove to New Orleans. She fed animals through windows until the water went down and then she set up feeding stations throughout the city. She said at first the stench was so bad even the birds evacuated. And she told me, the big dogs were eating the small dogs in order to survive. It wasn’t pretty but she was and I admire her proactivity to this day.

The Carrie of New Orleans

This woman stands proudly by her shoes. She took me upstairs to show me all of the matching dresses. Her husband was pulling down the dry wall inside their house. The black mold was everywhere and they didn’t have insurance.

They also showed me the roof top where his brother sat for three days while the water rose. He didn’t want to leave their dogs. Finally he had no drinking water and he had to get in the canoe that came to rescue him. He left the dogs upstairs with a lot of food. When they came back the small dog was okay. They don’t know what happened to the two big dogs.

Searching for ... Buttons

Three years ago this Friday, Katrina hit, the levee broke and New Orleans flooded. I went down to help with the clean up six weeks later. This photo looks like the 1930s depression era but it’s October 2005 and this woman is looking for her cat Buttons. She and her brother had to leave in a hurry when the city was evacuated and they couldn’t find their cat. As it turns out Buttons climbed up under the house and when the water rose, she couldn’t get down.