The stories about dogs that were separated from their owners almost four years ago during Hurricane Katrina are still being told. But not all have had happy endings.
"Mine" -- a documentary that tells the story of people who came to New Orleans to rescue lost pets, then found themselves in legal disputes when the owners came to reclaim them -- is a tale about what can happen when a cherished dog or cat is loved by two families.
The film, which won an audience award at the South by Southwest film festival in March, is scheduled to be broadcast next year on PBS. Geralyn Pezanoski, the San Francisco-based director and co-producer, told the Associated Press that she found several owners whose pets had been adopted by others.
"I wanted people to see what I saw," she said. "It wasn't a really simple solution."
One of the owners, Jessie Pullins, threatened to sue a rescue organization that had placed his dog, J.J., with two sisters, then allegedly refused to help him reclaim his Labrador-Shepherd mix.
It took more than a year of legal maneuvering, but the sisters finally agreed to return J.J. to Pullins, whose family was forced to evacuate New Orleans when the hurricane struck. They left the dog behind with ample food and water, believing they would return in a day or two.
But as we all know, many people were never able to return, and those who did often had to wait weeks or months to go home - if their homes were still there.
Pullins and J.J. (pictured above) were finally reunited recently. As Pullins said of his desire to reclaim his cherished pet, "J.J. is a part of me, a part of me that was missing for a long time."
(AP photo by Bill Haber)
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