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Even though Kate Miller has become attached to the Rottweiler, she wants to reunite her to her owners.

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Katrina pet

by Wanda Combs
Editor

After two years, almost to the day, Zena will be going home. It has been a long journey, one that took her from Louisiana to Virginia. And certainly it has been a difficult experience.
Zena, a Rottweiler, was one of the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As initial rescue efforts concentrated on the residents of New Orleans, the pets were left behind to fend for themselves. Zena stayed afloat on a mattress until help returned.
Search-and-rescue teams took Zena and others to temporary shelter at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, a fairgrounds north of New Orleans. Rescuers left a painted message on the house for Zena’s owners notifying them of the location. But paperwork for Zena was lost.
A Rotweiller named Zena ended up eventually at a dog pound in Wythe County, Virginia. An older dog with medical problems, she did not find a home and was set to be put down when the Wythe County Humane Society came into the picture. The Society claimed Zena and then arranged for boarder care. After the stay with the boarder, however, Zena was found to be emaciated and only weighing 48 pounds. The Society took Zena back.
Enter Kate Miller. An animal lover who has several pets, Kate decided to take one more on a foster basis. Zena was brought to Floyd, where Miller fed her mash for two weeks. Initially the dog was so frail she had to be carried. Slowly Zena regained her strength and weight.
Miller, a member of the Floyd County Humane Society, said she knew this dog, now 9 years old, was someone’s pet “from the day she got here….I didn’t believe her original owners had dumped her at the pound. There was something about her.”
Zena was house-trained, Miller added, and when she first saw a bed, she took a “running leap” to get on it. “I knew this dog had been on furniture.”
One day, when another of her pets had gotten sick and was being treated at the veterinarian’s office, Miller said she tried to distract herself from worrying by surfing the internet.  She went to lostkatrinapets.com. “I was on the petfinder just looking…and one of the posts said, ‘Where’s Zena?’.” Miller said the name “Zena” drew her attention, since that is an unusual spelling of that name and the same spelling of the dog for which she was caring. Fortunately, Zena had managed to take her name with her as she was bounced from place to place after the hurricane, Miller observed.
As Miller read about Zena online and found out more about her age, she connected the dots and got in touch with the owners. Their home being a total loss as a result of the hurricane damage, the family – a mother and three children – were living in a house about 120 miles from New Orleans. They had been looking for their dog for two years and had never given up hope.
Miller said when the family was able to return to their house after the hurricane they saw Zena’s muddy paw prints on the mattress and reading the note they had gone to the temporary shelter to look for her, but she wasn’t there.
Miller was told Zena was the special pet of a boy who had her since he was one-year-old.
When Zena heard the voice of her owners over Miller’s cell phone, she barked. That was the first time Miller said she had heard the dog bark. “That was all the proof I needed.” But Miller said there is other evidence, including the identifying lump in her right ear. Also Zena ha sa microchip, but either the information was not sent it or it was sent in incorrectly. That, Miller noted, was a typical scenario with microchip handling after the pet rescue after Hurricane Katrina. “I would be very, very, very shocked at this point, if she is not the Zena from New Orleans,” Miller added.
The director of findkatrinapets.com will be coming to Floyd this week and will be taking Zena for a pre-flight vet check. Plans are then to bring Zena’s owner to Floyd.
Miller said there are at least 200 Katrina dogs that have not yet been reunited with their owners as a result of lost paperwork, and success stories are few and far between. “I know of one in April where a man in Houston found his pit bull mix. It was 8 months old at the time of the storm.” Another couple was with their dog in a canoe in the flood waters when the National Guard arrived. “They said they would take the dog to a shelter,” Miller commented. The woman said they have not seen the dog since.
Sadly, Miller remarked, there have also been instances in which pets have been relocated and those who have adopted Katrina dogs did not want to return them to their owners. Some of those cases have gone to court.
Miller said she is thankful to be able to return Zena to her owners and that it is obvious how much they love Zena. “They looked for her for almost two years. I cannot imagine having that much determination.”