SHEBA’S STORY: Reunited At Long Last

February 7, 2006

[Editor’s Note: As shelter professionals, helping our shelter animals find a loving home is the ultimate reward. In these post-Katrina times, nothing is more sustaining than seeing animals reunited with families they were separated from during the storm. Sheba’s story is one of those. After a lengthy stay at our shelter, she not only found a home, she found her home.]


For a pitbull that was being cared for in our shelter for almost three months, her brief exposure on a local news segment led to more than just 15 minutes of fame. After being rescued by the Louisiana SPCA on November 9, 2005, she finally found her way home.

On January 11, in the course of shooting footage for a news story, a WVUE Fox 8 cameraman focused his lens on a 4-year pitbull with a brindle coat. The pitbull had been at our shelter since November 9, after being rescued in the New Orleans East area. Later that evening, Joyce Harrison sat down to watch the news and during the LA/SPCA segment the fleeting image of a pitbull grabbed her attention. The pitbull bore a strong resemblance to Sheba, her daughter’s pet, which was lost when her daughter and son-in-law evacuated for Katrina. Joyce’s daughter, Trudy Bowman and her husband Larry, who lived in New Orleans East, were preparing to evacuate when Sheba ran away before they could load her into the car. Trudy and Larry left with the hope that their older son could find Sheba before he evacuated several days later. Many weeks later the family made many return trip homes looking for Sheba. They left notes for rescuers, made calls and made posters. After months of looking and no success, they doubted they would ever see Sheba again. By this time they had settled in Douglasville, Georgia, where they had evacuated.

The next morning, Joyce came to the LA/SPCA shelter to see the dog that was on television. She was 99% sure it was Sheba. Joyce immediately phoned Trudy, and had her daughter pull up Sheba’s photo on-line at www.petharbor.com. It took Trudy seconds to realize that Sheba had been found. She was overjoyed. She talked to the LA/SPCA client care staff and within days she and Larry were back in New Orleans. Once she arrived at the shelter, she confirmed Sheba’s identity, agreed to have her spayed and made preparations to bring her home. The reunion was filled with emotion. “When she first saw us, you could tell she didn’t recognize us, and that was kind of hard,” Trudy said. “One of the staff people took us to the play yard [socialization area] you have. Sheba started playing and then you could see her begin to become her old self . . . and you could see in her eyes that she remembered us.” After months as a rescued stray at the LA/SPCA shelter, Sheba was on her way home.

 

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