“One need not be a chamber to be haunted,

One need not be a house;

The brain has corridors surpassing

Material place.”

Emily Dickinson

August 28, 2005

Eight years have now passed

And I still remember their pain

So many of their lives, and mine

Will never again, ever be the same

I had planned to travel to the Gulf Coast once

But many of us realized we couldn’t stay away

I ended up journeying down there four times

And most of my memories, are still vivid today

It has now been estimated, that nearly half a million

Companion animals were left behind, in this hurricane

We eventually managed to rescue about 15,000 of them

The rest were lost, in the howling wind and merciless rain

Those surviving, forced to somehow fend for themselves

And, it was the haunted look, in far too many of their eyes

That will live on in my mind, for the rest of my natural days

That still make so many of us who went there, still want to cry

But I also have some extremely fond, everlasting, remembrances

Of extremely dedicated rescue volunteers, from all over our planet

Who helped each other cope with the horrific images we all beheld

Renewing our vows, to never take our animal neighbors, for granted

And eight years later, I still have three Katrina survivors in my home

Who remind me every day, just how precious companion animals are

And very often, I have to wake the three of them, from their nightmares

For all four of us, no matter how much time passes, this storm is never far

It was because of this devastating hurricane that I began rescuing animals

I never thought that eight years later, I would still be out there, helping them

Because of our abysmal economy, pets are now being left behind, everywhere

And today, I sadly often wonder, if our national pet abandonment, will ever end

©August 28, 2013, Mr. Ed