German Shepherd Survives With No Food for
Seventy-Two Days

An unfathomable story of survival and dedicated animal rescue ...

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans it set off the greatest Animal Rescue operation in history. More than 250,000 pets, dogs, cats, birds, fish, snakes, and critters were left abandoned by their owners - most whom left their pets to face the hurricane alone with a prayer for their safety.  Expecting to return a few days later, some left food and water for their pets. They left their pets in crates, garages, bathrooms, some tied up and locked up, some on beds, others in attics. There were also thousands more farm animals, horses, ponies and livestock hurriedly left in barns and stables and in semi-protected areas.

Hurricane Katrina hit.  The levy's broke.  The Mayor could not let the people return to the flooded city.  When days turned into weeks, these animals started a desperate fight for their survival.  Their only hope -- the animal rescuers who circumvented military checkpoints armed with their backpacks, a couple of bottles of water and a few cans of pet food. 

MuttShack Animal Rescue arriving a few days after Katrina send out a call for volunteers, and as they discovered the magnitude of the task of numbers of animals needing to be rescued, they knew they had to find a permanent triage center.  Lake Castle School in East New Orleans became the epicenter where the most amazing group of rescuers converged, resulting in rescues and stories that melt you painfully from the inside out.   Here's one that became the landmark of survival, the longest in home canine survivor.   

During the city's lock-out this there was a one day window of opportunity for residents to come back.  One day, because as soon as things got better they became a lot worse.  It was just before hurricane Rita.  Those who did not make it on that day were barred by the new mandatory evacuation order, which was only lifted several weeks after Rita.  But this story was of a dog rescued even later, only after Wilma - a third hurricane came through seventy one days after Katrina.   

On this seventy-first day, MuttShack dispatcher Lucy Pribbenow received a call from someone who identified herself as "the mother in law" a member of the family.  "The family has moved out, removed all their valuables, and the dog is in the house," she said, "they don't want the dog." 

By this time rescuers had been finding mostly dead and dying animals. Many residents, afraid of expensive vet bills when they had nothing left, unceremoniously put out their animals, still alive, in the trash.  Other pets were found dead. They died while escaping, crashing through glass windows, were strangled by their leashes, suffered toxic burns from chemical waters, or drowned when the water rose.  Most of them were just starving, day after day after day.

MuttShack animal rescuers went to the house and found this abandoned skeletal German shepherd.  They brought her in to the MuttShack Triage.  Dr. Sandy Taylor, and Dr. Hugh Rogers administered emergency fluids to stabilize her.  She was not a dog, but a puppy who could not have been more than six months old.  She was terrified and struggling and had to be restrained with a Ketch pole.  Considering she had been abandoned for almost two and a half months, she could not have been more than three months old when they left her in the home.

It took many days of care. Of feeding morsel by morsel.  Of teaching her about people.  She may have been six months old, but had very little or no human contact.  Her life as she knew it was one of solitude and confusion living in an abandoned world.  She had no social skills and had to be muzzled.

This shepherd was named after her rescuers and the name of the street where she was found.  She was adopted by Dr. Sandy Taylor and flown to her home town Pt. Edward, Ontario Canada where she is receiving ongoing treatment.

Incredibly this grassroots organization MuttShack Triage at Lake Castle School saved thousands of animals and allowed many residents to be reunited with their animals when they were finally allowed to return to the city.  MuttShack operated a dog and cat clinic to support the local New Orleans population who had to leave their animals behind during the Katrina evacuation. They also offered to take in any animals who were sick, injured or ill, or were found abandoned, or simply needed new homes when their owners could not confront keeping them in their shattered lives. MuttShack volunteers ran the emergency rescue unit and a fully fledged dog shelter and cat shelter for several months.  At times there were as many as 200 animals at the facility.   

Volunteers came from Canada, Alaska, New Zealand and all over the United States to help in the shelters, veterinary clinics, and to do search and rescue.

MuttShack and the volunteers integral to it, have received awards from the City of Los Angeles's Wendy Gruel and U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman.