Poodle Story

 Posted by Jeanine Curcione, Bichons & Buddies

I received the most heartbreaking call anyone can imagine.  Diane
Brown, a Louisiana resident, called me after seeing our group listed
as one who received a Katrina poodle in the hopes that it was her
dog.  She told me the horror story of how she, her husband and their
young daughter we stuck on the freeway and the buses were sent in to
rescue people.  The national guard and police were just shoving
people on the bus with no concern for families beings separated and
of course were not allowing pets.  They passed up the first couple of
buses not wishing to risk being separated from each other and
desparately wanting to take their 8 year old poodle.  Max was a
rescue from a shelter a couple of years earlier when they lived in
Michagan.  They sold everything they had and moved to Louisiana in
May!

They spent the night on the wet grass on the side of the freeway
(along with many other stranded people) and she told of how Max
protected them all night and would bark anytime someone came near
them.  That morning another bus came and she pleaded with the driver
to let them take their small poodle on.  He consented and she got on
the bus with her daughter and her husband who was holding the poodle
was behind her.  She walked past a national guardsman down the aisle
and as her husband got on the bus, he said "I'm not giving up my seat
for that dog!"  He refused to let the husband on with the dog.  When
Diane tried to get off the bus with her daughter they refused to let
her off and while standing in the doorway of the bus with other
people crowded behind him, the husband had to make the onerous choice
between his wife and child and his beloved Max.  A man standing
behind him said, "hand him to me."  Feeling he had no choice, he
handed over Max and got on the bus.  That was the last they saw of
him.

He was wearing Michigan tags still and is an apricot neutered poodle
about 8 years old with cloudy eyes.  He was shaved pretty short
unlike this picture when they first got him.  She has been searching
through thousands of pics in an attempt to find him and they are now
back in MI staying temporarily until allowed back to their home which
is most likely completely destroyed.

Hearing her story and the anguish in her voice AND the recounting of
the callous treatment they received ripped my heart out.  I still
can't stop crying every time I think about.  It's one thing to read
all the stories and to know hers is but one of a thousand similar
tragedies....it's another to talk to a person and feel that kinship.

When I told her with tears in my voice that I was SO VERY SORRY for
all she lost, she said quite simply that all they wanted was their
dog back - that everything else can be replaced, but not Max.  She
told me her husband feels horrible and is terribly depressed because
he let Max down.  He had promised him that night on the wet grass
that they would get through this.

Please, help her find out if Max is alive somewhere.  She knows about
Petfinder database and mentioned another.  What are all the sources
that she can look to?  Attached is a flyer she made with the picture.
Can this be posted ...... where??  Please tell me how to get the word
out EVERYWHERE and I'll help this person in any way I can.