Warning; this story has a happy ending. It started out like any ordinary trip to New
Orleans (NOLA), excitement, relaxation, a chance to take 10 steps back and just watch
the world go by. The drive was always a bear; but the reward made it worth it. I always
took my trusty sidekick Ellie to enjoy the time and visit my son. (Okay, really because I
didn’t trust anyone else enough to leave my dear Yorkie behind in someone else’s care.)
This trip would be a little different this time. It was Thanksgiving weekend, which in
itself was not different; we usually spent Thanksgiving in NOLA with my son Travis. But
this year, I was moving him home to St Louis to live.
Ellie always seems to know when I am taking a trip. If it’s work and a small overnight
bag, she mopes and lies on the bed next to the bag with huge sad eyes and stares at me.
If it is the larger bag AND food supplies she knows something is up and she will get to
tag along! Thursday morning it started….the packing, the pacing, the jumping on the
bed, running from the kitchen back to the bedroom, to the front door. WE ARE GOING
BYE BYE! Finally the Jeep was loaded, the dog blanket loaded, the new leash and collar
with matching harness in tow. You have to be stylin’ to walk the streets of NOLA! Nine
hours of driving with a fur neck wrap. You see Ellie rides on my shoulders.
EVERYWHERE I take her. An eleven pound fur scarf with a heartbeat; I wouldn’t have
it any other way.
Friday was spent loading the U-Haul with all of Travis’ ‘worldly possessions’. Travis was
managing the Magazine Perks Coffee shop and living in the apartment above;
convenient for him and for our short visit. It was such an unusually warm day that I
decided we should prop the shop door open to feel the breeze. Saturday was the day to
leisurely drink coffee at Magazine Perks coffee shop with Ellie by my side on the pew
along the wall in the shop. NOLA is a very dog friendly community, and I mean VERY.
Saturday I would walk Magazine Street, visiting the shops, and enjoying the mild
temperatures of November in the South. Then off we went, walking down Magazine into
all the quaint little shops; Ellie walking proud down the sidewalk. What a beautiful day.
Back after lunching at a sidewalk café, buying antiques at the local shop, it was time to
rest and prepare to take Travis out to dinner with a couple of friends and say good bye to
NOLA till probably next year. With Travis moving back there was nothing but the city
itself to pull me there the usual four times a year. Sunday would be the long drive back
home. Tonight; we party!
We headed out, said my good bye to Ellie explaining I would be ‘right back’ like I always
do, pulled the apartment door closed (I thought) and headed down the stairs through
the coffee shop saying good bye to the young man behind the counter and out the front
door we went. We headed out for a late dinner at a local Mexican restaurant in the
Quarter about 2 miles away. It was probably 9:30 when Travis’ phone rang and it was
the nice young man from the coffee shop explaining something that had Travis upset.
Ellie had just run out the front door of the shop! The same front door I left propped
open earlier that day. My heart sank. I was a mess. We immediately drove back to
Magazine Street; I set out on foot at 10:00 p.m. looking for my little girl. If you have
never been to NOLA, one street is as good as another is scary. I walked the streets alone
until 3:00 a.m. in the light drizzle, tears running down my face, at which time I came
back and laid on the same pew that less than 24 hours earlier I had sipped my morning
coffee with Ellie by my side. And cried. I just knew she would find her way back to the
shop and scratch the door to be let in. She didn’t. I couldn’t leave NOLA without her. I
stayed. My husband drove the Jeep and the U-Haul back to STL. Travis still had more
weeks of school, we would find her. I walked the streets; I went to the library and read
all the local papers online. I posted on Craigslist. I posted on PetFinder.com. I posted
on FindToto.com. I hired a company to make 5000 marketing calls with information
about Ellie with my phone number. They called every land line within a 3 mile radius of
Magazine Street where she originated from. I went to PetCo and posted her picture on
the bulletin board. I physically went to the Humane Society to look for myself. I called
every veterinarian around. I posted pics in every shop window that would let me.
Which was any I went into as who would turn away a 40 something year old woman
with tears running down her face? When I stopped at a local Verizon store to buy a
charger for my phone (as I forgot mine at home) the nice young men gave it to me at no
cost and hung my poster in their window. When I went to the local Pak Mail store to
make copies the nice women who owned the shop saw what I wanted to make copies of
and insisted there was no charge for 300 and to come back when those were gone. So I
did. 500 copies were posted up and down Magazine and St Charles Avenues. Magazine
runs all the way to the Quarter….I walked and biked every day for 3 days until Travis
told me he had to pick up Casey, my oldest daughter, from the airport. He had called in
the reinforcements. I didn’t know this, but he called and told her to get down there, as
he ‘didn’t know what to do with me’.
Friends would tell me someone picked her up. I knew better. I knew in my heart she
was looking for me. She wouldn’t go to anyone; the good and the bad of it. I was getting
calls from people who saw the posters and had seen Ellie in the area but stated she
would not come to them, she only ran away. And boy can she run!
Casey convinced me to come home after another 2 days of looking. We rented a car and
I cried for the entire 694 miles. After I left, NOLA had a freak snow storm, four inches
of snow was dropped. I cried more. My tiny little baby was lying on the ground
freezing. I lost 10 pounds in two weeks. I was grief stricken. It was impossible to work.
It was impossible to eat. I sat on the couch and cried. My phone would ring
occasionally with someone telling me they saw her. I even had one lady, Ginny, that
called to tell she changed her trolley and work schedule to go to work an hour later after
sun up to watch along the way. I still email with her today. I had wonderful people who
called to tell me they were looking and praying for me. Bayou Billy, a local musician
called to console me and offer his assistance on keeping an eye out. The community
couldn’t have been more supportive. Still 13 days later, no Ellie. She couldn’t be ‘taken’
I just knew it. I knew she was running scared somewhere, or ate rat poison. I cried.
Saturday morning, two weeks to the day later, I resolved that I needed to fill the hole in
my heart. I went to the APA to adopt another pet. I left. No pet. There was no way that
hole could be filled with another Ellie. I cried again. I tried to continue my life as
normal, but the grief was overwhelming. I told my kids to be sure and take good care of
each other because they saw what a wreck I was over Ellie, imagine if something awful
ever happened to one of them! I would have to be committed!
I pulled myself together enough that day to go to the grocery store. I will never forget
this day as long as I live. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. I got my cart. I started in
produce, with only a couple of items in the basket and leaning on the handle for support
to pull me through the store, my cell phone rings; another 504 NOLA area code. I
almost didn’t answer it. I couldn’t bear to talk to one more person asking if “I found her
yet”. But I did. “Hello?” The young female voice on the other end said, “This is Jennifer
from Marigney Animal Hospital, is this Ellie’s mom? We have her here at our hospital,
when might you be able to pick her up?” I almost collapsed in the middle of the produce
aisle. All alone I grabbed a young woman’s arm walking passed me and through my
tears told her “they found my Ellie!” She of course quickly moved along – probably
hasn’t returned to that store since….crazy people shop there! I asked Jennifer how late
they were open as it would take me 9 hours to get there. She seemed confused. I
explained our visit and that I was in St Louis but would leave now. I left the cart, rushed
home, packed a toothbrush (no toothpaste mind you), clean underwear and hopped in
the car…..arriving at 3:00 a.m. Being an emergency animal hospital they never close!
Ellie was found in the 17th Street Canal, the famous one that flooded during Katrina.
With the water level down, the sides were slick and slimy. A local resident saw her
running through the canal with no way out and took it upon herself to gather rope,
wading shoes for the mud, a sheet and some local kids playing along the street, another
friend and lower herself into the canal and corner Ellie. Throwing the sheet over her,
she got tangled in the elastic of the fitted sheet and was finally saved. Wendy told me
later that she never grabs a fitted sheet to rescue the many babies from the canal –
always a flat. This time it was an accident that paid off as Ellie got her little nose caught
in the corner.
Losing 20% of her body weight, freshly bathed and trimmed free of matted hair, she
squirmed and struggled to get out of the vet techs arms to get to me. I have never had so
many kisses bestowed upon my face as I did that morning. There was no question as to
whether I was the true owner the Tech said. When asked how much we owed; she said
oh, there’s no charge.
Pets are amazing. Amazing how they curl up inside of our hearts and take over our lives.
They make a nest right there near the left chamber I believe and become one with our
hearts so it makes it nearly impossible to live without them. People really are amazing
too. We go about our lives every day without much thought to our neighbors and coworkers and what they may be struggling with and trying to cope with every single
minute of every day. Or at least most of us do. Then there are the Bayou Billie’s, who
find out Ellie was found and calls ahead to get a reservation at a local hotel that will take
us in for the night that Ellie was found. The Wendy’s of the world that will lower
themselves into a canal to rescue a dog. The Ginny’s of the world that change their life
schedule to help a total stranger. The Pak Mail shop owners who make 500 color copies
for the total blithering crying insane dog lovers. They’re out there, the good people.
They are waiting to be needed. Who needs you?