The Cat in New Orleans

A lot of you already know about the trip that Jess and I took to New Orleans in May of '05... and given the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina just three months later, we considered ourselves fortunate to have visited the Crescent City before all of the devastation. We've both wondered aloud about whether the things we saw will ever return to the way they were... Le Pavillon, Cafe Du Monde, Snug Harbor, the Aquarium of the Americas, and even the Lucky Dog stands have all been in our heads and our hearts since August 29th, 2005.



But as I was paging through the photographs on my computer this afternoon, these two shots made me take pause. Jess and I had been enjoying a hot Sunday morning on Royal Street when we happened upon this cat in the front window of an art gallery. (The gallery was closed... otherwise, Jess might still be there!) I wonder: what happened to the cat? Did its owner(s) leave town and take their feline companion with them? Was the cat left behind? What is its life like now? Thousands of pets just like this one were affected by Hurricane Katrina and they - along with their owners - should not be forgotten. It'll be a long and hard recovery for animals and owners alike.