“Stay!” - Katrina hurrican dog back with owner
Published: November 4, 2005
The rescue boat’s arrival at Paula Messick’s Hurricane Katrina-flooded home necessitated an immediate decision: The New Orleans woman could either ride the boat to safety or stay behind with her beloved pit bull terrier, Carmine, and take her chances.
Tearfully she ordered her pet to “stay” and pushed him away when he tried to follow. Then for two months, she agonized over his fate.
On Thursday, Messick, now living with her brother in Katy, and Carmine, who traveled from a Louisiana shelter to Mississippi and, finally, New Mexico, were again brought together at a suburban pet store in what may have been one of the most unlikely dog-and-owner reunions of the hurricane season.
It was a moment made of dog spit and stardust.
“I don’t have any words to describe how I feel,” Messick said as she fought back tears. “I just want to blow my nose and cry. … He’s my life, my love, my happiness.”
As many as 50,000 cats and dogs were left homeless when Katrina hit the greater New Orleans area early Aug. 29. Lou Guyton, director of the Humane Society of the United States’ southwest region, which includes Louisiana, said that number represents almost a third of such animals thought to have been in the city.
Eight thousand animals have been rescued by Humane Society volunteers alone. Guyton estimated 1,200 of them have been reunited with their owners. Carmine was one of them.
Thursday’s reunion was facilitated by California actress Linda Blair, best known for her performance as the demon-possessed child in the 1973 movie The Exorcist.
Blair, founder and president of the animal-welfare group Linda Blair WorldHeart Foundation, traveled to the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast to assist with animal rescues. She took responsibility for Carmine and 50 other dogs at the Humane Society’s crowded emergency shelter at Gonzales, La.
“Cats and dogs died on the trucks waiting to get into the shelter,” Blair said Thursday at the PetSmart at 140 FM 1960 East.
Blair transported the animals to a makeshift shelter near Jackson, Miss., from which the animals were moved to other areas. Carmine ended up at the clinic of Alamogordo, N.M., veterinarian Dr. Chris Staley, and Messick spotted his photo on a hurricane-oriented lost-pet Web site.
As Messick relived her ordeal Thursday, Carmine washed her face with sloppily affectionate dog licks. Then, pulling free from her grasp, he roamed the store before returning with a fuzzy squeak toy.
“He’s spoiled rotten,” Messick said of her pet, who will be a year old later this month.
The toy was among welcome-home gifts provided by the store. Others included an oversized dog bed, crate and 40-pound bag of dog food.
Messick, who told reporters she is terminally ill, said neighbors had noted how Carmine’s presence seemingly had reinvigorated her.
“They said they could see it on my face,” she said. “They noted how much more life I seemed to have.”
Messick spent several days in her house, which was flooded with waist-deep water, before the rescue boat arrived.
“People say they would rather die than leave their pets,” she said. “I don’t know — I certainly didn’t like sleeping in the wet. It was a hard decision, but I think it was the right decision. I felt that someday I would see Carmine again.”
With that, she looked at the pooch sprawled at her feet and gently rubbed his head.
“Carmine,” she said. “Carminita-mine.”
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