Katrina Evacuee Reunited With Dog. [husband of "Here Lies Vera"]

Max Keene seemed to have lost everything to Hurricane Katrina, but he got a piece of his life back early Halloween morning.

Keene's wife, Vera Smith, was killed by a hit and run driver in the chaos following the storm, and her body went unburied for days - until he and his neighbors took it upon themselves to construct a tomb for her right on the New Orleans sidewalk.

Images of Smith's makeshift grave and unforgettable epitaph, "Here lies Vera. God help us", appeared in newspapers and television broadcasts all over the world and became one of the symbols of the tragedy in New Orleans.

Keene was later forced to leave his home at the point of a National Guardsman's gun, he said. "Someone aims an M-16 at you, you go, right?"

Hello - Could you tell me something about this poodle from PETA. We are still working nonstop to reunite owners with their pets and various shelters are making it more difficult than others. Has the owner of this poodle been found or even searched for? There are hundreds of owners trying to reunite with dogs. Your help to reunite these families, who have lost everything, including their pets, would be a blessing. This shelter took the pets 9/22 and kept them 23 days before formally adopting them out - hardly enough time for people, who have lost their homes, their jobs, their loved ones, etc, to get on a computer all day to try to find their other loved ones, their pets, don't you think? Thank you in advance.

Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it...but by appearances, it's not true many attempts(or any) have been made to find the owners by many, many shelters. How do we know? Because we have been attempting to reunite the owners with these pets for almost 6 mos. One owner was told by this shelter, nope we didn't get that dog, when clearly the dog is on a video arriving there, another owner was told, nope, not your dog....the dog is home now with his rightful owner, after 3 mos of heck to get it. Another dog disappeared off the website when told the owner identified it. So if the foster/adopting family did not look for the owner, then no one probably did. HSUS is working to get the dogs back to their rightful owners from all the shelters that are not cooperating. Many of the shelters took it upon themselves to determine the owner should not have their pets back because they "abandoned" them, even when told at gunpoint to leave their pet. Many of these poor critters are still running under the causeways (6 mos later) after the owners were told to leave them on the sides of the road while boarding the buses...they are still trapping all sizes, little chis, shiz-tzus, maltese mix, terriers...these little ones are hanging around waiting for their families...and the families are just as heartbroken trying to get their pets back from the shelters who won't give them back. The lawsuits are starting..so sad.

All I know is that this dog is now loved, and has been so for several months now. This would not have happened without these good people taking it in. If a disaster struck this place, I know for a fact that these people have the means and motivation to take all of their pets with them and not abandon them when the gummint tells them too.

I notice that the only posts you have made since joining this site just 2 days ago have been on this topic. If you have no further business here, please move on.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.