New Orleans Man Comes Back To City, Saves Cat

From the NY Daily News:

Ray Lambert came home for the first time since Katrina yesterday, and the first thing he did was batter frantically at his house with a sledgehammer.

The front and back doors were both blocked from the inside by furniture washed up against them, and somewhere in there, in the mess and the slime and the ruins of his life, were his eight cats.

"Bebe! Mamou! Anybody?" he called, poking his head into the holes he was bashing into his house.

Lambert, who had been on vacation with his wife in Maryland when the hurricane hit 16 days ago, got past military checkpoints with the help of a friend who is a cop. His was the only homeowner homecoming in a post-apocalyptic scene of miles and miles of trashed houses on the deserted streets of the 9th Ward yesterday.

[...]

"Tammy! Whiskey! Magnolia!" Lambert called, hope starting to drain from his voice.

And then, from nowhere, a hysterical ball of brown fur came flying out of a dark corner and Lambert grabbed it up, weeping joyously.

"Mamou! Little Mamou!" he crooned. "This is the one I felt the most guilty about leaving. She always senses when I'm going away and gives me the pitiful 'Please don't leave' look."

Lambert gave the cat food and water, put her in a carrier and plunged back into the hellhole that was his house to look for the others.

The article does not mention whether or not he ever found his other seven cats. One assumes he didn't. Or if he did, they were already dead.

Nevertheless, it is good to know that at least one feline life was saved.

These are the lengths pet-lovers will go to save their beloved animals: Talking/bluffing their ways past military checkpoints, smashing at their own homes with sledgehammers, and weeping with joy when a survivor is found.

Pets are not merely animals who happen to live in someone's house; they are truly a part of the family.

To many people, their cats or dogs are their best friends. And many people in New Orleans have lost these close companions due to this natural tragedy.

But you can help. Click here, and donate a few bucks. Shelters have been set up to help temporarily house pets who were lucky enough to survive the carnage. The Humane Society wants to help reunite these pets with their owners.

But in the meantime, it costs money to provide shelter, food, and medicine to these animals. Please help the Humane Society remain financially able to deal with this crisis.

Thanks in advance.

Article Author: RJ Elliott

RJ Elliott is a three-time graduate of the University of Central Florida. His passions in life are sports, politics, and nature. He dislikes daytime television, anti-American dictators, and people who talk like Garrison Keillor. …

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