A Special Story from Katrina
I came across a review recently for a children's book called The Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival. I haven't read it yet, but the story behind it intrigued me.
The authors of the book heard a story about a dog, Bobbi Dog, and a cat, Bob Cat, on Anderson Cooper and had to write a kids book about it. Bobbi Dog and Bob Cat were two pets left behind in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. They both had bobbed tails (hence the nickname Bobbies) and were best friends. They were brought to a shelter after a construction worker found them:
The construction worker told us the dog and cat showed up and
started hanging out with his dog. Because they were both very
thin, the worker began feeding them. The man said he tried to
pick up the cat a couple of times but the dog would growl. He
said he also found out that if he tried to separate them, the dog
would “bark her head off.”
The shelter volunteers noticed the dog was very protective of the cat and had to keep them in the same cage in order to keep the peace. It took them a while to figure out that the cat was actually blind and the dog had been leading her through the perils of New Orleans after the hurricane!
Eventually, both animals were adopted by a woman in Oregon who operates a 50-acre ranch with a therapeutic equestrian program for kids. What a happy ending.
I'm excited to read the book. It has the potential to carry many meaningful messages to children - unlikely friendship, loyalty, cycles of change in nature, and the kindness of strangers. I like that it is based on a tragedy but illustrates an example of something positive that came out of it.
One of my cousin's family members experienced a similar "animal miracle" when he was finally able to return home to his house two weeks after Katrina and found that his dog had survived on none other than....toilet paper. Wow.
Here is a picture of the real Bobbies:
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