New Orleans man reunited with dog lost during Katrina
A New Orleans man has been reunited with his beloved dog nearly four years after the pair were separated during Hurricane Katrina.
Jessie Pullins had to leave J.J. — a Labrador-shepherd mix — when he was evacuated ahead of the approaching storm in 2004, leaving the dog with provisions in an elevated part of his house and expecting to return within days.
But Pullins wasn’t able to return home for weeks and in the meantime J.J. was picked up by an animal rescue group.
The dog eventually ended up being offered for adoption in California three years ago, prompting Pullins, with the help of the Katrina Animal Reunion Team, to launch a legal battle to get the dog back, even finding a lawyer to fight the case for free.
“The woman who adopted him moved with him, so we kinda lost him again,” said Janet Taylor, a volunteer with the Katrina Animal Reunion Team.
Eventually the woman was persuaded to return the dog to its original owner.
“It’s been a long road, but we did it,” Pullins said on being reunited with J.J., Louisiana’s WWLTV reported. “You know I wasn’t giving up on ya’, cause I knew you weren’t giving up on me.”
And Pullins says that even though it took 12 months for him to discover that J.J. was still alive he never doubted the pair would be reunited.
“I never did think he was dead because I figured J.J. to be a survivor just like I was,” he said.