Today's Extreme K9 is Bobbi the bobtailed dog!
"When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 2005, thousands of pet owners were forced to rush to high ground without their animals. Most left food and water to tide their pets over, expecting to collect them within a day or two. But few were able to return home, and at least 250,000 domestic animals were suddenly on their own.
Scores of pets died. Many hit the streets, relying on their most basic instincts to survive. Some joined packs for protection. These two found each other.
The dog, a female, had a bobbed tail. So did the cat, a male. The dog had been tied up but had broken away, and a few links of chain still hung around her neck. The cat followed the clinking strand as it dragged on the ground. hey were likely wandering the city that way for many weeks. No one knows if they shared a home before the storm, but when a construction worker first took an interest in the animals, they were clearly together. In fact, the dog was quite protective of her feline friend, growling if anyone got to close to him.
Rescuers from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary brought the pair to a temporary shelter in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb, and named them Bobbi and Bob Cat, for their cropped tails.
"We were set up to house dogs and cats separately," says the sanctuary's Barbara Williamson, who handles media relations and also helped watch over the two Bobbies after their capture. "But Bobbi wasn't having it. She had a piercing bark that would go right through you. And as long as they were separated, she got very upset and loud." So the volunteers cobbled together a cage inside a longer cage, to give the animals access to each other without taking a chance on either getting hurt. "As long as Bobbi was near her kitty, she was calm," Barbara says.
The discovery that Bob Cat was fully blind, probably since birth, made the animals' relationship all the more touching. Bobbi the dog had truly been leading him and keeping him safe. "You could tell by the way she managed his movement," Barbara says. "She'd bark at him, as if telling him when to go and when to stop. She'd bump her hind end against him, herding him the right way. It was incredible to watch." Despite his handicap, Bob Cat "was very confident, almost regal," Barbara says, "while Bobbi was more of a clumsy teenager. The contrast was a riot."
News about the dog-cat duo quickly got out through the media, and Best Friends found just the right person to take these special animals. But sadly, long after the adoption, Bob Cat became ill and died. The new owners decided the best medicine for the dog was the bring another rescue cat into the household, and they found one that, coincidentally, had a cropped tail. Bobbi the dog accepted the new feline right away.
"For me, the Bobbies demonstrated the depth of feelings animals have for one another," says Barbara.
Luckily, that emotional depth does at time include humans. The pet salvage operation after Katrina was one of the largest ever accomplished following a natural disaster. Caring volunteers and rescue organizations worked tirelessly to help find new homes for thousands of animals."
Article from: Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer S. Holland, pp. 14-17
