Reasons to be thankful

Three years ago this week I was at a Hurricane Katrina rescue center in Tylertown, Mississipi, covering the holiday for Best Friends Animal Society. Writing about rescued animals. Working with them. Writing about volunteers. Getting to know them. What a difference three years make. Animal consultant Sherry Woodard took time out to play with a dozen pups (pictured above) -- all post-Katrina victims, born on the streets. They were lucky. Last year I was in Pahrump, Nevada, spending an outdoor Thanksgiving (photo above) covering an unTurkey dinner (delicious) with volunteers who spent their holiday caring for 800 cats confiscated from a hoarding situation. Lots to be thankful for this year. Wonderful job with Best Friends as a staff writer. Nice gig in my spare time writing books. Great old friends. Great new friends. Great family. GREAT companion dogs. Speaking of, I'm taking my three critters hiking in Red Rock Canyon Thanksgiving morning -- just my dogs and me -- then to a friend's house for dinner with my good friend and fellow writer Chip. Good company with my dogs in the morning in a beautiful, quiet natural setting, then good company later with friends in a festive environment. Peace and a happy, safe Thanksgiving to one and all! Photos by me.

New interview: 'Calm After the Storm'

Here's the latest interview with me about Pawprints of Katrina, this one in Best Friends magazine in its Sept/Oct issue (circulation 300,000). To read the interview, click here. To learn more about the book, click here.

Book review: 'Raw emotion'

Pawprints of Katrina Reviewed by Kathryn Reed Reprinted with permission by Mountain News Tears flowed nearly every time I picked up Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned. Part of it was the raw emotion of remembering driving around last summer during the Angora Fire with Bailey, my 14-year-old black Lab who I had to put down in February. Part of it was knowing this month marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and still New Orleans has only half the population it did prior to the catastrophe. And part of it was learning about the senseless loss of so many four-legged family members. Most of it was the incredible dedication of so many volunteers who spent hours helping save thousands of animals who otherwise would have perished. Cathy Scott, the author, captures the chaos, the love, the drama, the sense of urgency, the harrowing rescues and dedication like a true journalist. I suppose I'm a bit biased, but I think journalists write these sorts of books the best – they are trained to observe and then tell a story. Scott immersed herself in the rescue efforts, sleeping on the ground at Camp Tylertown, a refuge set up by Best Friends Animal Society. I’ve known Scott since we worked together at the Las Vegas Sun in the 1990s. She was a reporter, I was an editor. She’s written several books, though the only other one I’ve read of hers was about Tupac Shakur. Scott lived in Vegas when the rapper was killed. This book, about saving the pets of Katrina, is so much more compelling. Even though I had read countless newspaper stories and seen television coverage of the animal rescues, it wasn’t until I read this book that it sunk in how devastating and miraculous it truly was. Scott went to the hurricane ravaged region to write a story. She ended up staying. Working. Leaving. Returning. And finally she wound up with a full-time writing job for Best Friends Animal Society’s magazine and website. The book is not just about the animals. It also delves into who the rescuers are. The lengths rescuers went to to reunite people with their animals was incredible. The hours involved in nursing so many back to health. The foster families, the adopted families, the owner who didn’t give-up on finding their animals, the owners who knew it was better if someone else took over the caregiving. Pawprints of Katrina touches on the multitude of rescue organizations, though it focuses on Best Friends. And then it talks about lessons learned, including federal legislation that mandates animal shelters be set up when people shelters are erected. That was one of the horrors of Katrina, people being separated from their pets. Tears flowed for the happy stories – like Red, a disabled Staffordshire Terrier, who learned to get around with a cart. Not every story has a happy ending. But the struggles and heartache are real. They needed to be written about and need to be read. Amazon.com lists Pawprints of Katrina as one of its “Hot New Releases.”

Book tour goes to Louisiana and Mississippi

I'll be on the road for Pawprints of Katrina for the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. With me will be Mia (so named for MIA -- Missing In Action), rescued by Best Friends Animal Society after the storm from the American Can Company in New Orleans (her owners were never found).

On Aug. 29, the anniversary, I'm participating as an author at a vegetarian luncheon at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel on Canal Street in the French Quarter, for a memorial sponsored by the Humane Society of Louisiana. Then that evening, Mia and I will be at a super-sized Barnes & Noble on Veterans Boulevard in Metairie (a suburb of New Orleans).

On Saturday, Aug. 30, we'll be in Baton Rouge at Books-a-Million, at a new store on S. Mall Drive.

Then Sunday, the 31st, I'll be in Jackson, Mississippi, at Lemuria Book Store, an animal-loving independent book store. Leigh and Terry Breland, who volunteered after Katrina, are having a reception at their home in the town of Terry, Mississippi. (very rural with natural ponds dotting sprawling, southern, green-belt properties).

Then it will be home again until the next one!

Click here for the book events/signing schedule.

Ali MacGraw helps launch 'Pawprints of Katrina'

By Sandy Miller Courtesy Bestfriends.org At Best Friends Animal Sanctuary last Saturday, July 26, a full day of activities celebrated the release of Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned, Cathy Scott’s moving book about the animals rescued in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Cathy, a veteran journalist who covered the rescue for Best Friends’ magazine and Web site, was much more than just a casual observer with a notepad. She worked right alongside other Best Friends staffers and volunteers rescuing the pets left behind by Hurricane Katrina. It became the largest animal rescue effort in U.S. history, with approximately 15,000 animals saved. Best Friends played a major role in that effort, rescuing and helping to place roughly 7,000 animals, Cathy says. For the book, Cathy did hundreds of interviews to capture the animals’ journeys from the time they were rescued to their care by volunteers to their reunions with their people or placement in new forever homes. She also pays tribute to the incredible volunteers who left their homes and their jobs to go to New Orleans to rescue and care for other people’s pets. The book also features more than 70 touching photographs taken by Best Friends photographer Clay Myers. Like Cathy, Clay played an active part in the rescue. Cathy and Clay were joined Saturday afternoon by actress Ali MacGraw, who wrote the foreword to the book, and K-9 handler Cliff Deutsch, a Katrina rescuer featured on the book’s cover, for a book signing at the Best Friends Welcome Center. “I loved the book,” Ali says. “It made me weep.” Ali, who has starred in a number of stage and film productions, including the 1970 classic, “Love Story,” now makes her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She says she has been an animal lover her whole life. It was Ali’s first trip to Best Friends and she said she was impressed to see how happy and relaxed the animals were. Another cause for celebration that day was a $5,000 donation from the publisher of the book, Howell Book House, a division of Wiley Publishers. The money will help construct a new building for the potbellied pigs at Best Friends’ Piggy Paradise. Representatives from Howell presented the check to Best Friends at lunch Saturday at the sanctuary. It was a wonderful surprise for Yvonne McIntosh, manager of Piggy Paradise. “It’s awesome,” Yvonne says. “It’s just amazing!” At the book signing, Ali knelt down to pet Sprocket, one of the potbellied pigs at the sanctuary who spent most of the afternoon soaking up the attention and cooling off in a play pool in front of the Welcome Center. Also attending Saturday’s festivities were Ali’s son, filmmaker Josh Evans, and his wife, actress Charis Michelsen-Evans. “I got teary-eyed,” Charis says about touring the sanctuary. “To see all the animals so happy, well, it just touches my heart.” Pawprints of Katrina is quickly gathering nationwide attention. Cathy has been invited to participate in the 2008 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, which will be held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on September 27. Photos by Sarah Ause, Barbara Davis and Clay Myers Pictured in photos (top) Ali MacGraw, Clay Myers, Cathy Scott; (center) Ali MacGraw and rescued dog, Lois Lane; (bottom) Cliff Deutsch and Marina, Cathy and her dog, Mia, Clay Myers.