• James Mercadel
  Seventh Ward, New Orleans
• Andy & Morgan Kennedy Skilling
  Gentilly/Fairgrounds, New Orleans, LA
• Victoria Cooke
  Mid-City, New Orleans, LA
• Brittany Gaugis
  New Orleans East, New Orleans, LA
• Scott Black & Julia Cohen-Black
  Uptown, New Orleans, LA
• Roy & Ume Maggio
  Esplanade Ridge, New Orleans, LA

Sadly I had to leave my dog behind. Patches is a Lab/Akita, about 80 pounds. I left town Saturday before the storm hit. I never thought the storm would cause that much damage to one city. As I watched the news every day and saw that the water in my neighborhood was rising I thought to myself, “I know patches is dead.” We thought we would be doing a great thing for him by putting him inside the house in the bathroom. The days go by and I cry and cry because the guilt that I felt was taking over my body. So about 2 weeks pass and the thought kept running through my head that Patches was dead. We left him food and water but I knew that the rising flood water had taken over the food that we did leave for him. Sunday 2 weeks after the storm one of my neighbors went back to our neighborhood and gave us the great news that my dog was not dead, he had survived. My Patches chewed a hole through the bathroom door and escaped to a place in my house where the ceiling was higher. The wonderful people of the Humane Society had gone to get him from my house and we were happily reunited with Patches last Tuesday. He was happy to see me when I went to pick him up. I cried and cried and cried and although dogs can’t understand what people say I told him a hundred times in the car that I was sorry for leaving him behind and I’ll make up for it and he licked my face and I said thank you god for letting my dog survive. I lost everything else I ever owned but I’m glad I got my dog back!