Author | Cathy Scott |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Nonfiction, Natural disasters |
Publisher | Howell Book House |
Publication date | June 2008 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Hardcover, Kindle |
Pages | 288 |
ISBN | 978-0-470-22851-7 |
Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned is a non-fiction book written by author and journalist Cathy Scott that documents the author's experience with an animal welfare group and the rescue and reunions of lost animals with their owners in the Gulf region. The book, with a foreword by actor Ali MacGraw, was released in August 2008 on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
More than 200 stories with photos by Clay Myers detail rescues, examinations, treatment, reunions, and follow-up care by volunteers.
The book begins on September 11, 2005, at a freeway off-ramp used as a boat launch, with New York City Parks Enforcement (Search & Rescue Team) Department's Captain Scott Shields, known for the efforts of his search-and-rescue dog, Bear, at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
An excerpt from that chapter describes the moment: "Before we set out on a boat to look for stranded pets, the captain asked us to take a moment to remember those lost on 9/11. There, standing amidst the rubble of Hurricane Katrina with the black water just a few feet from us, we bowed our heads, and not a sound was heard. No cars. No lawnmowers. No birds. No planes. No trains. No voices. Not even the couple of dogs rescued and then tied with leashes to the off-ramp railing, awaiting transport, uttered a sound. It was as if, at that brief but somber point in time, they, too, acknowledged the loss of life. It was a poignant moment, observing those lost in the largest terrorist attack on American soil while we were in the thick of rescuing animals in the wake of the biggest natural disaster in U.S. history. The Crescent City was devoid of life, except for those of us out rescuing that day and, of course, the animals left behind."
A story included in the book about Red, a partially paralyzed pit-bull terrier, was covered by CNN's Anderson Cooper. [1] A gray cat whose owner drove 10 hours to reunite with his cat and covered in the book was featured by Dateline NBC . [2]
Reviewer Steve Donoghue noted, in Open Letters: A Monthly Arts and Literature Review , "...this will certainly be the definitive account of Katrina animal rescue." [3]
The Canada Free Press wrote that "Pawprints of Katrina tells the inspiring story of the fate of the abandoned pets, some ending in tragedy, many in against-all-odds happy endings." [4]
Book Hound's review said, "An experienced rescuer herself, Scott conducted amphibious reporting on the ground and in boats, so her book makes you feel like a firsthand witness to history, as animals are saved and the lucky ones get to be reunited with their people." [5]
Reviewer Justin Moyer with Washington City Paper recommended the book on his Katrina reading list., [6] as did the Chicago Tribune . [7] It was on Sacramento Public Library's "Suggested Reading List" for 2010. [8] And the Tampa Bay Times recommended it for spring reading. [9]
The Times-Picayune columnist Susan Larson reviewed the book, writing, "Scott ends her tale of this 'remarkable collaborative effort' on a note of hope: Katrina raised awareness about how important it is to incorporate caring for animals in disaster planning, and she offers helpful suggestions for pet disaster preparedness." [10]
The author spoke at the 2008 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., reading from Pawprints of Katrina on the National Mall. [11] She also appeared on KSFR's Santa Fe Radio Cafe in November 2008 while there for a Pawprints book event with MacGraw. [12]
Photographer Myers was awarded "Best Spot News Photo Coverage" from the Nevada Press Association for the book's cover photo included in a first-person account by Scott in Las Vegas CityLife. [13] [14]
Elizabeth Alice MacGraw is an American actress. She first gained attention with her role in Goodbye, Columbus (1969), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She then starred in Love Story (1970), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 1972, MacGraw was voted the top female box office star in the world and was honored with a hands and footprints ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre after having made just three films. She went on to star in The Getaway (1972), Convoy (1978), Players (1979), Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), and The Winds of War (1983). In 1991, she published an autobiography, Moving Pictures.
Hurricane Katrina was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $186.3 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure.
As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city’s levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee District. The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.
Noah's Wish was a charity that rescues and takes care of animals endangered by natural disasters.
Hurricane Katrina had many social effects, due the significant loss and disruption of lives it caused. The number of fatalities, direct and indirect, related to Katrina is 1,833 and over 400,000 people were left homeless. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without access to their homes or jobs, it separated people from relatives, and caused both physical and mental distress on those who suffered through the storm and its aftermath, such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Hurricane Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005, causing over a thousand deaths and extreme property damage, particularly in New Orleans. The incident affected numerous areas of governance, including disaster preparedness and environmental policy.
It Could Happen Tomorrow is a television series that premiered on January 15, 2006 on The Weather Channel. It explored the possibilities of various weather and other natural phenomena severely damaging or destroying America's cities. This included: a Category 3 hurricane hitting New York City, an F4 tornado destroying Washington, D.C., dormant volcano Mount Rainier re-activating and destroying towns in the surrounding valleys, a tsunami flooding the Pacific Northwest coast, an intraplate earthquake impacting Memphis, Tennessee, wildfires spreading into the heart of San Diego, a huge earthquake leveling San Francisco, a flash flood in Boulder, Colorado, and a flood in Sacramento. More recent episodes included an earthquake in Las Vegas, an F5 tornado ripping its way through Chicago and Dallas, and more.
Many representatives of the news media reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became directly involved in the unfolding events, instead of simply reporting. Due to the loss of most means of communication, such as land-based and cellular telephone systems, field reporters in many cases became conduits for information between victims and authorities.
The National Weather Service bulletin for the New Orleans region of 10:11 a.m., August 28, 2005, was a particularly dire warning issued by the local Weather Forecast Office in Slidell, Louisiana, warning of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina could wreak upon the Gulf Coast of the United States, and the torrent of pain, misery and suffering that would follow once the storm left the area.
Best Friends Animal Society, (BFAS) founded in its present form in 1993, is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) animal welfare organization based in Kanab, Utah with satellite offices in Atlanta, Georgia, Bentonville, Arkansas, Houston, Texas, Los Angeles, California, New York City, and Salt Lake City, Utah. It also has a partnership network with shelters, rescue groups and members in all 50 states and Washington, DC, to promote pet adoption, no-kill animal rescue, and spay-and-neuter practices. Best Friends has a 4-star 'Give With Confidence' rating from Charity Navigator.
Cathleen Scott is a Los Angeles Times and New York Times bestselling American true crime author and investigative journalist who penned the biographies and true crime books The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, both bestsellers in the United States and United Kingdom, and was the first to report Shakur's death. She grew up in La Mesa, California, and later moved to Mission Beach, California, where she was a single parent to a son, Raymond Somers Jr. Her hip-hop books are based on the drive-by shootings that killed the rappers six months apart in the midst of what has been called the West Coast-East Coast war. Each book is dedicated to the rappers' mothers.
The Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS) was a bi-partisan initiative in the United States House of Representatives to require states seeking Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance to accommodate pets and service animals in their plans for evacuating residents facing disasters. Introduced by Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-California) and Christopher Shays (R-Connecticut) on September 22, 2005, the bill passed the House of Representatives on May 22, 2006, by a margin of 349 to 29. Technically an amendment to the Stafford Act, it was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 6, 2006. The bill is now Public Law 109-308.
Joshua Clark is an American author, editor and publisher who resides in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana.
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is a non-fiction graphic novel by cartoonist Josh Neufeld. Originally published as a webcomic, A.D. tells the stories of a handful of real-life New Orleans residents and their experiences during and after Hurricane Katrina. The graphic novel was a New York Times best-seller and was nominated for an Eisner Award and a Harvey Award in 2010. In addition, A.D. was selected for inclusion in The Best American Comics 2010.
An American Opera is a 2007 documentary film by Tom McPhee chronicling the events following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, when pet owners were forced to evacuate without their pets. An American Opera follows the pets, vets, owners, officials, rescuers, and adopters of animals as they try to remedy the situation, revealing that not everyone had the same goal of saving animals. McPhee directed, narrated, and produced the film with the production companies Man Smiling Moving Pictures and Cave Studio.
Hurricane Katrina has been featured in a number of works of fiction. This article is an ongoing effort to list the many artworks, books, comics, movies, popular songs, and television shows that feature Hurricane Katrina as an event in the plot.
John Garcia is a dog trainer, star of National Geographic Channel's four-season DogTown series, and holder of a Guinness World Record.
Clay Myers is an American photographer, videographer and animal welfare advocate best known for his portraits of rescued companion animals.
Buddy is a children's novel by American author M. H. Herlong about a family and a dog affected by Hurricane Katrina. It was first published in 2012 and won the award for William Allen White Children's Book Award in 2015.
RedRover is an animal welfare nonprofit that focuses on bringing animals from crisis to care and strengthening the human-animal bond. It was founded in Sacramento, California in 1987. It is not affiliated with United Animal Nations (International) based in Switzerland.