Rock Solid Memories

By Cathy Scott 
Reprinted courtesy of Best Friends Animal Society 

Glance at a painting of a dog named Mia, and her eyes appear to be looking back at you, glistening. Mia is one of the animals now memorialized on painted rocks. Walk around Angels Rest memorial park at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and you will see a sampling of those painted rocks.

They’re the work of volunteer Linda David, who has painted more than 1,300 rocks for Best Friends. As Mary Pat Dutton, who worked at Angels Rest until recently, said, “She does it as a hobby that has turned into a labor of love.” 

Mia was my dog, rescued from four feet of water by a Best Friends team in the Gulf following Hurricane Katrina. She passed away from heart disease in 2009 and is buried at Angels Overlook on the Sanctuary grounds. Now, thanks to the generous artistry of Linda, when I look at Mia’s rock, her brown eyes appear to look back at me, her face has that same pouty look she often wore, and it’s like a piece of her is with me again. She was an old soul, and that too was captured in Linda’s portrait. 

“That is my favorite part to paint--the eyes--and I have to put them in near the beginning, and then they start to come alive to me,” she says. “When I see a picture of an animal, I know instantly if I want to paint it. Usually the eyes speak to me, and with a story such as Mia's, I always hope it will find its way to someone who will cherish it."
 
Cherish it, I do, as do others who cared for pets who are now memorialized on stones.

When she finished the latest paintings of animals, Linda suggested they be offered to the employees for whom these animals were extra-special, which is how I was given Mia’s rock. The others were placed at the head of their graves, complimenting the atmosphere at Angels Rest, where, as you walk around to view the graves and the rocks, you hear the sound of 900 chimes in the wind. 

The comments Linda gets back about her paintings is what makes it all worthwhile. “It is so nice to hear from people and to know how much they are enjoying the rocks,” she says. “That is why I do it.” 

She’s also done paintings of some of the animals who are still with us, like Georgia. Her story particularly touched Linda, which is why she chose to paint her image. “Georgia is one of the Victory dogs who have gone through so much and can still have so much love in their hearts. That is so amazing to me. They have such inspiring stories that we can all learn from,” she says. 

She also paints a variety of portraits as well as rocks with just the names of the dogs, cats, rabbits, potbellied pigs, horses -- you name it. “Some are the portraits of specific animals, some breeds, and some have things such as hearts and butterflies and names on them,” she says. 

Linda, who had a grooming career for many years, has always loved animals. Once she retired, she was a pet sitter for a few years. “Now I am enjoying painting the rocks, which I started about 10 years ago. I had watercolor lessons many years ago, and my teacher was very inspiring,” she says.  

In exchange for her artistry, it’s the response from the people who cared about the pets that is payment enough for her artwork. “One of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten was from a man who lost his dog, Lobo,” Linda says. He said if his house was ever on fire, his Lobo rock would be the first thing he would save. That's all the thanks I need.”

Photos by Molly Wald

You Can Go Home Again

"How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. You can never go home again." 

--James Agee

By Cathy Scott

My friend Barb Davis, a photographer in her spare time, shot this beautiful photo of Mia (above) that I just had to share.

The photo was taken in New Orleans when Barb, Carol Guzy and I were there for Best Friends Animal Society's participation in the annual Barkus Parade (a part of Mardi Gras).

It was on that same trip that we took Mia to her previous home, to the American Can Co., a Mid City apartment complex converted from a factory and from where Mia had been rescued.

No one had come forward to claim her, even though her face and her story were on the Internet pretty much everywhere. She was listed on Petfinder as well.

When we pulled into a small parking lot at the front of American Can Apartments on Orleans Avenue, Mia sat up and looked out the window, her head darting in every direction. She looked up at the building, then looked back at me. I lifted her out of the car and she wiggled to be put on the ground. When I did, she practically dragged me on her leash up the steps to the main door. It was locked. She stood there looking up at it, wagging her tail, then looking back at me to open it.

It was quite a moment. Barb was right behind Mia as she pulled me toward the door. "It was so sweet," Barb said. "It was like she wanted to show you where she had lived."

We walked around the large complex of buildings to the back, from where Mia had been rescued on the swimming pool deck from four feet of water. It wasn't until the second rescue day at American Can that the rapid response team members Ethan Gurney and Jeff Popowich could get her and one other Chihuahua from a small corner of dry concrete they'd huddled on. The day before, Mia and two other Chihuahuas swam away from the rescuers.

Once we walked onto the patio deck, Mia wanted to be held. It was obvious she remembered what had gone down there, and her demeanor changed dramatically. She jumped up on my leg to be picked up, so I carried her the rest of the time. We returned to the front of the complex.

We didn't know at the time that Mia had just a little more than a year left to live. Reflecting back now, it was a fitting reunion for her, and a trip to the American Can I'm thankful we made. It was as if Mia had gone full circle, like visiting an old friend. She was home again, and she knew it.

As the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, rescuers are having their own reunion in New Orleans. And Best Friends, to remember, is posting two stories a week on its Web site, beginning June 1, until the August 30 anniversary.

Who says you can never go home again? On a February day in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mia went home again. And she was happy for it.

My book, Pawprints of Katrina (above), covers Mia's and other stories about the tremendous animal rescue efforts, the largest ever in U.S. history. Read it here.

Photos by Barb Davis. Book cover by Clay Myers.

Special TV Tribute to Mia

Mia, my late Katrina girl, and I were guests in 2008 of host Randy Swallow on his "County Critters" show, which was co-hosted with chief animal control officer Joe Boteilho.

Afterward, when Randy learned that Mia had passed away, he and his production crew put together a tribute piece that recently aired on CCTV Channel 4's public access station. I'm including a photo (above) of Mia from that shoot. The camera guys took great shots of her. Halfway through the 15-minute interview, Mia climbed onto my shoulder and stayed there for the rest of the segment.

Here's the touching tribute that Randy said to viewers on "County Critters."

"We have some sad news to pass along," Randy began. "You'll remember Mia, a dog rescued by author Cathy Scott during the devastation in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Cathy and Mia were guests on 'County Critters' last year as Cathy published a book about Mia and hundreds of other pets rescued during the hurricane and flooding called Pawprints of Katrina.

This sweet dog won the hearts of all of us here at Channel 4. Mia passed away in June after a brave battle with heart problems and other medical issues. Mia was just 6 years old."

Thanks so much, Randy and the folks at "County Critters." It's a sad but very special memorial to Mia and one that's greatly appreciated. Mia lives on in so many hearts.

Mia Improves!

Mia -- finally -- is stabilized. Between regular applications of stem cell-derived cord blood serum (exudate) on her chest and more pure (CarniPure) L-carnitine, along with twice-a-day doses of ubiquinol CoQ10, vitamin C, E and magnesium, Mia now goes half a day without coughing. This morning, she didn't cough at all. And the crackle sound in her lungs is gone -- at least for now. I had run out of the ubiquinol form of CoQ10 and was using up a bottle I had of regular CoQ10, and she wasn't coming back as quickly from the bronchitis. So I bought a new bottle of ubiquinol. What a difference! Also, instead of giving Mia coconut water from a carton, I've been getting baby coconuts and giving her fresh coconut water (and also giving it to Rosy, my basset-heeler mix who has melanoma -- but so far shows no signs that the cancer is progressing). Mia likes the fresh coconut water much better than in a carton. It costs me a dollar more per day for the fresh coconut, but it's worth it. I also give her half a teaspoon of coconut oil twice a day. She hates it, so I open her mouth and pop it in (it's OK; she gets a big hug afterward). The way i've been able to manage Mia's disease is to periodically shake up what I do. What worked yesterday sometimes doesn't work today. My plan is to try my best to keep her at this level, where she's comfortable. When she has a set back, it takes about two weeks to pull her back to where she was before. She's a little trooper; it's as if she knows that the few minutes it takes twice a day to pop in her supplements are good for her. When the supplement bottles come out, she walks over, sits next to me and waits to take them. It's just part of our day. She used to cough for a few minutes at the start of our walks, and she's not doing that now either. So it feels like she's in a good place. All I have to do is monitor her and try and maintain it. Photo, top, of Mia at a book signing for Pawprints of Katrina, and, inset, Mia on a walk in Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach during a recent trip to San Diego.

Ginger and Mia together again

I just noticed that a photo of Mia with Ginger, another rescued Katrina dog, is on Pam Smith's Blogger profile. (Very nice surprise, Pam.) The photo was taken last summer at the book-release event for Pawprints of Katrina. Lois Lane, a rescued Chihuahua puppy I took back to Utah with me, came from the same yard as Ginger. It was heartwarming to see Ginger and Lois Lane together, because they knew each other from their former back-yard breeding home in Franklinton, Louisiana. For all we know, Ginger could be Lois Lane's mother. Their owners moved out three weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit, abandoning 21 dogs -- most of them breeders and some in cages -- to fend for themselves outside in a yard. Just days after the storm in one of the earliest animal rescues, Ginger and Lois Lane were saved together, along with a handful of other dogs from that property. Ginger's story didn't end there; she became quite the celebrity (read it here) after an overzealous volunteer took her home without telling anyone (she was later returned and Pam and Gene Smith, from Alabama, adopted her). Back in the Tylertown triage center in the make-shift office, Ginger was there for a week with Mia, Lois Lane and me. It was so cute seeing them together again, at the Best Friends sanctuary, three years later, like no time had passed. Photo of Ginger, left, and Mia by Pam Smith.

Ubiquinone or Ubiquinol ... That is the Question

Mia has been coughing a lot more lately, which definitely worries me. She's been coughing regularly throughout the day. Then it occurred to me why; I was using up the remaining bottle of Q-absorb (100 mg) instead of giving her the ubiquinol form of CoQ10. So, I braved the slushy snow today (yes, it snowed most of the day in the Las Vegas valley) and drove to the vitamin shop near me that sells ubiquinol CoQ10. Mia was sleeping when I got back, so I let her be. But when a coughing episode awakened her, I gave her 300 mg's (three capsules) from the ubiquinol bottle. The coughing ended almost immediately and she hasn't coughed in several hours. I won't do that again, try to use up a bottle just because I happen to have it in the house. The absorption rate of ubiquinol has been proven to me several times over to be far superior than ubiquinone. CoQ10 in ubiquinol form is about $15 more for a bottle of 60 gel capsules, which, at a minimum of 600 mg's a day that Mia takes, adds up. My No. 1 goal, however, is for Mia to be comfortable, and just a few days without the ubiquinol form of CoQ10 caused her discomfort. It's well worth the added cost to see her rest easy.

Gene Discovered in Mitral Valve Disease

Study: 'Close but No Cigar' A study has discovered a gene present in adult patients diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse.

It's not a new study -- 2005 -- but it's new to me. I read everything I can get my hands on about the disease. There has yet to be a comprehensive one done with dogs. I do know from reading about the disorder in canines, from what literature is out there, that it's found more often in certain breeds and that it's considered genetic. Mia's vet told me it's sometimes seen in overbred dogs, which makes sense with Mia, since she's a full long-haired Chihuahua.

It's also widely seen in the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. mitral valve disease in these dogs has shown them to have lifespans of just one to three years. Not good statistics. In other breeds, especially the smaller ones, like Mia, the disease doesn't cause early death because it often doesn't develop until they're older. In Mia's case, however, she developed it young. She was rescued from the storm water in New Orleans when she was only 2 or 3. Now she's around 5 or 6 years old.

We knew when Mia was first examined at the triage center that she had a heart murmur. Little dogs often do. But it's most often because of innocent flow murmurs, not MVP. Then, when she became lethargic (as described in an earlier blog post, below), I took her to the doctor and ultrasound and radiographs were done, and that's when we learned the sad news. She received a Grade 5 (V) -- graded from 1 to 6 -- which meant her murmur was quite loud, with the vibration felt with fingertips without a stethoscope and with a precordial "thrill." Not good. The latest gene study, however, gives me hope, because they've isolated the gene, which means we now know what the tissue consists of and, for Mia, what supplements she can take to help her valve tissue heal. In the meantime, I'm still doing CoQ10 enzyme therapy, along with other supplements, to keep her ticker ticking. To sum up, here are the words from Dr. J Am Coll Cardiol from the American College of Cardiology Foundation:

"Having identified 3 chromosomal loci for mitral valve prolapse does not in itself load the train with genes, but it does suggest that the caboose is waiting to hitch it," the study says. "Let us hope that with our ability today to rapidly sequence DNA and evaluate new candidate genes we will enable the train to leave the station soon."

Photo, by Cathy, of Mia sleeping, with Lois Lane (a chihuahua puppy who was with Mia and me for two months), under the desk in Tylertown, Mississippi, at the triage center for Katrina pets.