The Pug that Survived Katrina is written by a long time friend of mine, Martha Faulkner. Although written from the point of view of Napi, the dog, the circumstances are true and explains what happened during that tragic time when rescue boats refused to take pets aboard after the hurricane.
New Orleans Memorial Hospital was not evacuated as most people thought it was built to withstand a storm and many of the hospital staff took their animals with them to ride it out.
Cheryl Landry was one of the nurses and she was forced to leave her beloved pug behind when the rescue boats came.
The animals were left scared and without their owners. An
anesthesiologist stayed behind to try and keep the animals alive for as long as he could, but was prepared to euthanize them to relieve suffering. (During training exercises for a disaster such as
Hurricane Katrina FEMA didn't consider pets and animals important and made no provision for their rescue).
Although this is written for children (Martha Faulkner is a third grade teacher) it nevertheless is a story that adults would enjoy. Martha has been reading the manuscript to her school children for years and finally published it this month. One of her former students, Carmen Rousseau who is now 13, provided the illustrations.
