>>Debra...
I cant seem to log on to the board to make any kind of response. I thought I would state here what happened and perhaps you could cut and paste for me...let me know if this does not work. Please post to your friend at the Rottie board, Dagmar? also, if that is OK.
First of all, I want to thank you all for the prayers, the cards, the donations - even from a special person on the Rottie Board...but, most of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for being a friend to my Mother. After my father died, this Board, rather the people here helped ease her pain and loneliness, along with the chows and Herman the lab.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell what happened that day....therapy for me, and maybe to answer some unanswered questions and maybe help someone facing the same situation (God forbid) in the future.
Sunday before the storm arrived, a friend of mine moved in with me..she is 65, a fellow nurse at the nursing home we both were employed at. Her daughter left her with me, and the lady who will remain unnamed asked if she and her poodle could stay with my mother and I for the storm. Mine and my mother's reply was "ok".....she would have to sleep on the couch because of the 4 big dogs...and, we would never turn any friend away. On Sunday, I worked to evacuate the residents where I worked....the last news I had of Katrina was that she was to hit the Fla/AL coast. After work, I went to my Mother's house...she lived about 1 minute from the nursing home. She told me the storm was expected to hit closer to home and I should pack up "anything near and dear to me". We both went to my house..about 5 minutes away, packed away some antique glassware, grabbed insurance policies and of course, Teddy and Max. My friend followed us in her car with her poodle to my Mother's home. From there, we made ourselves comfortable...as my mother and I had weathered many storms at her house....we had become "pro's". We pre-made coffee to put in thermos', food....had batteries ready for flashlights and battery operated TV, etc. That evening, things were calm, the dogs were fed and settled in their respective rooms with the occassional, "I know you are there and I will tear your ass apart if I see you type "bark". We all chit-chatted and watched a movie and then went to bed for the night. As usual, I kissed my Mother on her head....I never knew that would be the last time I would get to do that.
The next morning, I woke up around 7am, my Mother and friend were already awake. By this time, the wind was howling, and I heard a huge thump..it was then that I knew a tree had fallen on the house. We looked around without going outside and could not see any damage. So we then fixed coffee and watched the continueing local news coverage of the storm. One of the last things I remember before the wave was a local reporter who I will name..Rhonda Weidner....stating..."I bet those people who didnt leave are sure wishing they had left now". I thought..what a terrible thing to say....many, like my mother were not healthy to leave, but not sick enough for a hospital..and shelters do not take animals. She was NOT leaving her dogs, and I was NOT leaving her. It was at that time I walked to the front window and noticed the water in the street....it was moving fast....one of the fastest currents I had ever seen. Being from New Orleans, I mistakenly thought it rained all night and this was run off water from the rain. I told my mother of it and we all thought the same thing and went back to drinking our coffee. Exactly one minute later, I checked the water again...it was at my mother's front door and started to come into the house at an extremely fast pace. What we did not know was that the Bay/Waveland area was being hit with a Tsunami type wave 30-40 ft high. When the water started in, my friend immediately moved into the attic and then asked me for an ashtray....she sat there and watched while my mother and I frantically tried to move things.....old pictures..etc. I kept thinking...."this will stop..we will probably get about 3 ft of water, but, we would be OK. My mother started moving at a very slow pace. She handed me her medicine to put in the attic...at that time, Herman jumped off the mattress..by this time, water was waist deep...she kept saying "Herman is going to drown". I told her he would not and I lugged him back on the mattress...at that time, Jimmi jumped down and I chased him down to put him back on the mattress...my dogs were still locked in my room. At that time, my mother got onto the mattress in her room with her dogs, leashed them and told me she was breaking out. I then went to see about my dogs...as I got onto the mattress, Teddy and Max both cuddled up to me and were shaking...now the water was about 6 ft deep. Furniture..huge pieces of it were floating, the water was very dark and the sky was dark. I could not find their leashes or my shoes...nothing. I came across a picture frame and attempted to break out of a narrow window..I realize this seems stupid, but when you are panicking, nothing seems stupid at the time. Of course the water just poured in even faster. At that point, I looked up and saw the ceiling was just a few inches from me and that if I stayed I would drown. I told my puppies to "stay"! and they did. I swam to the attic stairs..which were located in a very narrow hall...it was my intent to break threw the ceiling and pull my dogs up....because the only access to the attic from where I was, was to swim underwater. I was so intent on my task, I did not see my mother...and I assumed she was breaking out. However, I think in the back of my mind how much she wanted to be with my father, I think she had thought about how circumstances would be post storm..ie: the heat..she couldnt survive without AC, no dogfood..etc. By this time, I reach the attic and tried to punch a hole in the ceiling to get my dogs....this was in vain....what I did not know at the time..because it was so dark, was that there was plywood in the way...and then when I started kicking into water, I then knew it was too late. I rushed to my mother's side of the attic to find the same thing....I could not break through..and that lady was just sitting there watching with her poodle. I can never express here my thoughts, frustration, anguish, the screaming and the silence......the silence is what haunts me still. And the water kept rising. I looked around for something..anything to break out of the attic and that is when I noticed a screened, "A" framed vent. I crawled over to it and began kicking it out....it worked..and as I did so, a rat started running towards me. When I screamed, he jumped into the water..which by now was about 12 ft deep. It was at this time that this lady, with poodle in hand, tells me she cannot swim. I would be lying to say I gave a [bleep]....because all I could think about was my drowning mother and my dogs..and the silence. I noticed a floating trash can..it was my mother's...and I slid into that dark, cold water..with the rat and swam over to get the can. After I brought it to this lady, I guided my way to the roof.....the water was "white capping", the wind was howing..and I thought it was strange that I was hearing some noise again. Once on the roof, I had her hand me the poodle..he was on a harness....I secured him to a post of some kind on the roof. I then went back into the water to get this lady and guided her to the roof. We sat there for hours...saw people floating in the current on mattresses..and the entire event just seems so very surreal to me. As the water kept rising, I told this lady we would have to swim to a 2 story across the street...chances are we would have been swept off into some trees..the current was just too strong. But, it was either take that chance or drown. It was at that moment, the "eye" of the storm passed and the wind suddenly switched direction. The water started going down...not as fast as it came up, but still was moving away from us. I desperately wanted to find my mother and dogs...so as the water went down in stages, I would climb down a trellis. It was still too high to find anything. Finally when it was low enough, I did go back into the house. At first I could not find anyone because the ceiling caved in, along with all the fiberglass and cellusose she had sprayed in the attic. It was at that time that I found the plywood that I was unable to kick through. And then I found Jimmi and Herman, and then I found her. She was covered with debris and as I moved it away from her....I think everything inside of me broke down. I then found my puppies....in the spot I told them to stay. It was then that fire rescue came and removed my mother....some friends of mine not far from me at work helped me with the dogs.
I guess we call all look at this and find so much fault, everynight I try to sleep, I can only think of a thousand ways I could have done this or that. All I know is that at this point, I miss her terribly, I miss calling her almost daily to talk about some movie coming on, or something one of the dogs did or just gossiping in general. I miss our lunches or suppers out, I miss her incredible Sunday dinners, I miss her very dry wit....I just miss her. She was a most compassionate nurse, a wonderful artist, raised countless animals including ocelots and margays and also fostered some lion cubs when we were younger. That is why she called Elsa that particular name...she was reminded of the movie "Born Free"...which was one of her favorites.
Herman the Lab was 13 and he was Jimmi's best pal. Jimmi was a Canton chow with the sweetest dispotion I have ever witnessed in a male chow. Teddy was a rescue with personality plus and a bit of a bitch, but this girl always showed her devotion - she once brought me a cardinal she had hunted...and my Max, another rescue...never was there a better bodyguard - he was never more than 6 feet from me...he would even lay across the threshold of the bathroom whenever I was in there. When Max first came to me, he would never let me hug him....after a few months, he came looking for his morning hugs.
Thanks to Debra and some friends of her on the Rottie board, the puppies are being cremated as per my mother's wishes..to be spread with she and my father on a piece of waterfront property they used to own....all of the dogs, with the exception of Jimmi had once lived there too.
I want to thank everyone again for the love and support shown.....I honestly do not remember when I have witnessed such kindness and generosity. We may not always agree on how to raise dogs..but one thing we all do have in common is our great love and committment to them, to their welfare and to those of us who love them.
God Bless.
Sincerely,
Kim Knoblock
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Debra
ebraDownSth@aol.com" target="_blank">DebraDownSth@aol.com
