My Dogs Are Missing

A Bad Memory

2006-10-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

An article from Bark Magazine: a bad, year-old memory, but one I need to link to.

Pix

2006-10-19T12:24:00.000-05:00

More pix can be found here.

One Year Later

2006-10-19T07:09:00.000-05:00

A year and a month after last posting to this blog, Julia and I finally feel at home in our new city of Austin, Texas. We've had our two Boston Terriers, Spencer and Sydney, for twelve months now and are generally pretty happy, which is fairly amazing given the fact that we had to begin again from nothing.

Recently I found some pictures of Griffin and Zoe that I'd thought were lost. I will be posting them here so that they can live on in the collective internet memory.

2005-10-01T17:17:00.000-05:00

It's hard to think of having dogs other than Griffin and Zoe. It's even harder to think of having dogs that aren't pit bulls. All I want is another red-nose boy, but I know the odds are that I won't be able to have one. Austin is populated almost entirely by apartment complexes and fourplexes and duplexes and none of them are very welcoming of so-called "vicious" breeds. My wife is warming to the idea of having a male/female pair of Boston Terriers. They're bully-type dogs, but much smaller and not subject to the type of discrimination that Griffin and Zoe were. It seems that this will be the way we have to go, unless it turns out that we decide to move somewhere else.

2005-09-29T20:19:00.000-05:00

I feel compelled to respond to some posts that I have read elsewhere concerning Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, as regarding to people and their pets.

The fact is, neither I nor my wife made a choice to let our dogs die. I'd lived in New Orleans for thirty-plus years and survived many a hurricane. We didn't expect the city to be devastated. No one expected the city to be devastated. Call it naivete. Call it ignorance. Call it stupidity. Call it what you want. But we fully expected to be back in a couple of days to get our dogs.

And, frankly, we would have been if the levees had not been breached. The catastrophic flooding that occurred in New Orleans was not directly caused by rainfall. It happened because three major levees broke wide open, allowing the city (which is below sea level and resembles a bowl) to fill up with water from the lake and river.

If we'd had any inkling how bad things were going to get, we never would have left Griffin and Zoe behind. And, if we'd had any idea that the SPCA was not going to rescue them at the same time they rescued EVERY other animal in the hospital, we would have broken through the police barricades and risked sniper fire to save them. We loved those dogs more than anything in the world and will never, ever leave our animals behind in the future, no matter what the circumstances.

2005-09-29T19:51:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know this handsome, red-nosed boy? He was rescued from Lamar-Dixon by a kind soul who is currently searching for his owner. He is said to be great with people and other dogs, but not so fond of cats.

2005-09-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

An email from the LA SPCA has been forwarded to me. In it, the LA SPCA claims that my dogs were dead at the time of the rescue. I want to believe that the LA SPCA is being truthful, but it is hard for me to do so. After the rescue we were immediately told that TWO dogs were found dead: a collie and a shepherd. There was no mention of two dead pit bulls. This is the FIRST time anyone has mentioned that there were FOUR dead dogs.

It's hard for me to believe that two extremely healthy 2 1/2-year-old pit bulls could not survive without food and water for three or four days. A sickly 14-year-old boxer mix survived. A 9-month-old bulldog puppy survived. Many much smaller dogs survived. All the cats, including a kitten, survived. But my strong, young dogs did not? It is possible, I know, but it is also very hard to believe. Time will heal my wounds, no doubt, but I will always wonder about my dogs' deaths. For those who have followed Griffin and Zoe's story, I ask you to just remember them as the wonderful, loving dogs that they were and keep their memory in your heart. This will be my final post, unless events warrant otherwise.

2005-09-23T07:41:00.000-05:00

In response to a comment on a previous post:
I am fully aware that the LA SPCA is a relatively pit bull-friendly organization. I also am aware that its' head is a pit bull owner. (By the way, I never stated that my dogs were left behind because they were pit bulls.) I am further aware that many groups went in to rescue animals. However, I did not simply assume that the LA SPCA did the particular rescue at the veterinary hospital where I worked and where my dogs were boarded. I was told this by both Audubon's vet and by a co-worker with initimate ties to the organization. I have since been told by the same co-worker that someone within the LA SPCA has already decided to quit because of what happened to my dogs. If this - any of this - is untrue, I'd be happy to hear it. Personal emails to the LA SPCA's head from my wife and from my co-worker have gone unanswered for three days now.

2005-09-22T08:28:00.000-05:00

If you are so inclined, you may ask the Louisiana SPCA why my dogs were left behind to die. Their general email address is info@la-spca.org. I have personal email addresses for many people in the organization, but will not publish them here unless I have to.

2005-09-21T17:10:00.000-05:00

I just received word that Griffin and Zoe, my two precious, loving dogs were the only animals left behind by the SPCA rescuers. WHY?! Why would the SPCA do such a horrible, horrible thing? Just when I thought my heart couldn't sink any deeper, it has....

2005-09-21T00:02:00.000-05:00

By my mother-in-law:

Zoë & Griffin - In Memoriam
On the morning of August 28, 2005, my daughter and her husband made a decision – they left their home in New Orleans and went with their two young dogs to his place of employment, the Audubon Veterinary Hospital on Nashville Avenue. They intended to remain there with the other animals during the pending Hurricane. At the last minute following the Mayor’s mandatory evacuation order, they were forced to leave. Unfortunately, they were also forced to leave their beloved pets along with the other boarded animals. They had every intention of returning as soon as possible; never imagining what would happen on Monday morning. They soothed the dogs; assured them they would soon be back, leaving them with sufficient water and food for several days. When the disaster occurred, they worked frantically to get notification to rescue groups and finally were told that all of the animals had been rescued and taken to Lamar-Dixon. The following weekend, we made the long trip to Lamar-Dixon only to encounter more nightmares. No one seemed to be in charge, volunteers had no reliable information, and information differed from one person to another. So, we searched every square inch of the center with no results. Despite intake forms, no information was available as the forms were piled into a box. We gave every one we spoke to the information on the dogs. Some animals from the hospital seemed to be there, cats. Lastly, she was assured by a member of the SPCA that the dogs would be found . . . would be found. Then we went to LSU Ag Center. Much more organized and humane, but no information. One dog from the hospital was at LSU, but despite looking at all the animals, courtesy of a wonderfully compassionate vet, their dogs were not located. Our efforts, including pleas to check to make sure all animals were out of the hospital via e-mails and phone calls on a daily basis resulted in no information EXCEPT “all animals rescued from the hospital”. Search efforts now expanded to other states. These dogs had microchips; surely they would eventually scan the rescued animals. However, from all the information we received, this had not been done. Still our efforts continued. Phone calls, hours spent looking at web sites with pictures. Calls to shelters out of state, organizations, every avenue pursued. No information EXCEPT “all animals rescued from the hospital”. Hope remained, perhaps they were among the animals shipped out of state, perhaps they were at Lamar Dixon, inadvertently overlooked. Today, on September 20, 2005 at 4:11PM, my daughter and son-in-law received a phone call from the vet who had gotten back to the hospital and discovered that their dogs had been deliberately and cruelly left to perish of starvation and dehydration, alone, with no further attempts made, despite our unceasing efforts to locate these beloved family pets. Who left them to perish in such an inhumane, cruel manner: the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. It is terrible, heartbreaking, with no possible explanation that will suffice to ease the pain for our family. Every one of us has lost everything, except our selves: homes, possessions, keepsakes, photographs, any evidence of our family history. We held on to the hope that our pets would somehow be reunited with us – now that hope is gone. We will somehow survive all of this. My goal now is to make certain that such inexplicable actions on the part of an organization that assured us over and over that these animals had been rescued do not go unquestioned.

2005-09-20T18:34:00.000-05:00

I have very sad news to report. Unfortunately, today my boss/our vet informed us that the SPCA only rescued some of the animals from the vet hospital and that Griffin and Zoe were among the dogs left behind to die. Julia and I are emotionally devastated and quite angry. This is not the ending that either of us wanted.

2005-09-19T09:21:00.000-05:00

We now have the country's largest pit bull rescue group, Bad Rap, involved in our search for Griffin and Zoe. If they can't help us, I doubt that anyone can. They will be taking hi-res pictures of our dogs, along with their Avid microchip numbers, with them to Lamar-Dixon when they go this week. My only worry is that Griffin and Zoe may already be far away. Hopefully, though, they wouldn't be shipped across country before being scanned for chips. Hopefully.

2005-09-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

These dogs may be Griffin and Zoe, but I can't be sure. When I contacted the person(s) who posted the pics, I was told that I'd have to travel to Gonzales to see for sure, despite the fact that the post says to "check in before making the long trip."
One
Two
Three
Four
Five

2005-09-16T21:59:00.000-05:00

Baby picture of Griffin and Zoe.

2005-09-16T20:38:00.000-05:00

'Scott Black, 37, and Julia Cohen-Black, 35, thought they could ride out the storm at the Audubon Veterinary Hospital in New Orleans where he worked as a kennel manager. But as the storm raged, they realized how bad it would get. They piled into the veterinarian's car and there was only room for one dog – the veterinarian's golden retriever. Their pit bulls were left behind with more than a dozen other animals.

"I never would have left if I thought I wouldn't be back," said Cohen-Black, heaving with deep sobs. "Those are my babies. I raised them from the time they were 5 weeks old."

She, her husband and her mother drove five hours to get to the shelter and spent two more peering into every dog cage. Neither Zoey nor Griffen was there.

The couple are living with friends in Florida. They said they would return again and again until they found their pets. After that, they will plan out their future.

"We are trying to figure out where to move, but it certainly won't be New Orleans," Black said, trying to catch his wife's eye. "We are hoping this will be an opportunity for something new."

She didn't notice.

"The dogs are all I care about," she sobbed.'

2005-09-16T14:58:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, my wife and I had jobs, a home and two beautiful dogs. Then, Hurricane Katrina came along and took it all away. Our jobs no longer exist, our home has been under at least eight feet of water for nearly three weeks, and our dogs Griffin and Zoe are lost somewhere in the emergency animal shelter system. They were rescued from the uptown veterinary hospital where I worked six days after the storm. They were initially taken to the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana and last weekend we spent five hours travelling from Florida, where we have evacuated, to Baton Rouge and Gonzales just on the off chance that they might still be there. We looked at hundreds of dogs, but could not find Griffin or Zoe.

Because they have Avid microchips, we figured that it would only be a matter of time before they were found, but it seems that none of the rescued animals have even begun to be scanned for chips.

In the meantime, my wife and I have contacted every person we could think of who might be able to help, including the head of a Houston pit bull rescue group and numerous volunteers at Lamar-Dixon.

On Wednesday we noted that the LSU Veterinary School web site listed my vet hospital as having dogs at the AgCenter. But, when we called, they told us that our dogs were not "in their database."

The entire situation has been heartbreaking for both of us. All we want is get our dogs back. We don't care about our house or our jobs. We just want Griffin and Zoe. And, all it should take for us to get them back is for those taking care of them to scan them for microchips. If anyone working at Lamar-Dixon or any of the in-state emergency animal shelters (or anyone who may have seen my dogs) happens to read this, please get in touch with me!

P.S.: Griffin is a neutered red-nose pit bull. He is approximately 80 lbs. Zoe is a spayed, black pit bull. She is approximately 70 lbs. and has a circular scar on her rear.