Tuesday, September 27, 2005
"Hello? I have this picture....."
That's what the phone call started out like today. While most people searching among the thousands of posted pets online send emails initially, Maggie shored up her chances by calling too. Her daughter lived in New Orleans and owned a store. She evacuated, but thinking this time would be like all others, she left Selma behind with some food and water in the store, intending to return after the storm blew over.Only this was one storm that didn't just blow over. Not without leaving hundreds of thousands and people and pets homeless.
Maggie's daughter is trying to get her life re-settled, and Maggie, her mother, is trying to help her find her "grand-cat".
It's rare that any of the Hurricane victims have a photo, but still, I am not optimistic. You see, we've had dozens and dozens of inquiries, but so few have even gone to the next step. The addresses don't jive. The gender is wrong. The animal wasn't altered and the one we found was. or vice versa. Even the most confident owners find that subsequent pics reveal that, indeed, that black-and-white cat we have is not their black-and-white cat.
So I encourage Maggie to send her grand-cat's picture to me, thinking at least this way we can let her know right away that it's the wrong pet....
And then I look back and compare Selma to this photo, of the pet we call "Sophia:"
That black stripe up the nose....the pink splotch on the nose leather....the horizontal black swath going from the nose up the right side of her face.
Even the sultry gold eyes. Oh my gosh. It's got to be.
RL then confirmed an address from something scrawled on the original Louisiana paperwork.
Sophia is now Selma, and Selma's mom, while losing so very much in recent weeks, will soon be reunited with the one thing that is irreplaceable.
