Q: Who was Henry?
A: Henry was an 8 year old house cat from the Uptown/Garden District of New Orleans. He lived with a elderly woman and about a dozen other well-cared for cats, a dog and an African Grey parrot. None of them ever found their way back to their home after the Katrina evacuations separated them all from each other.
Q: Did his home flood?
A: No, the southern edge of the Uptown district did not actually flood but was still evacuated as part of the citywide shutdown that was in order for about a month after Katrina.
Q: Where was Henry taken?
A: A few days after his guardian was evacuated and forced to leave her pets behind, her home was entered by an animal rescue team. Fortunately, she had left food and water for the animals. Henry was first taken to the Lamar Dixon fairgrounds, which functioned as a large temporary shelter. Records indicate he then may have gone to a shelter in Texas for a short time, and finally was airlifted to The Marin Humane Society in Novato, CA. There he underwent treatment for 6 weeks before being placed in foster care in our home in Marin County.
Q: How did his evacuation affect him?
A: His veterinarians suspect the stress of a being separated from everything familiar, sheltered among a wide variety of unfamiliar animals and disconnected from anyone familiar with his veterinary background led to his contraction of FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis). This seems to have been the cause of all the symptoms he battled for the 7+ months he spent recuperating in N. California.
Q: What happened to his guardian?
A: She moved back into her home about a month after Katrina and is still struggling to repair her home. None of her pets who were evacuated were ever returned to New Orleans, ending up in shelters in Virginia, North Carolina, California and other parts of Lousiana. The two pets she still has are the ones who rescuers couldn't catch, including Henry's mother cat.
Q: Was Henry deaf?
A: No, in spite of the fact that he was a white cat with different colored eyes, a frequent indicator of deafness.
Q: What happened to his ear?
A: His right ear once had a hematoma leaving it deformed, but it wasn't related to Katrina. His original guardian tells us it swelled up during a visit to the vet years ago when he was being treated for ear mites. The medication caused inflamation, so the veterinarian flushed it back out but the damage was already done. This suggests Henry was allergic to at least some common medications. That information wasn't known after his evacuation either, which led to complications in treating the maladies he battled post-Katrina.
Q: So what happened to Henry?
A: Henry went into foster care in October 2005 and successfully worked through a variety of problems including URI, diarrhea and vomiting. With his condition stable, he was put up for adoption at the Marin Humane Society in late January 2006. He was fine for a while but after a couple weeks his condition began to slide backwards and further tests indicated he was afflicted with FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) which is not treatable. With his quality of life seriously deteriorated, Henry had to be put to sleep on March 4, 2006.