Marcel and Owner Matched!

IT'S A MATCH!

A few weeks ago, we rescued this beautiful lab, Marcel from the streets of St. Bernard Parish. He had tags, but was blocks from home and his home had been destroyed.

In hopes that his owner might return, we had signs placed on his house with my personal cell phone number on it, letting the owners know we'd rescued their dog. We put him on petfinder, contacted a few investigative rescue groups and posted his picture. Then we crossed our fingers and waited for a ray of hope.

That ray appeared tonight in a phone call. A woman who had been missing her beloved pet Marcel, called to ask me if I knew what happened to him. Of course I did; He was safe in a loving foster home in Louisiana, patiently waiting for his mama to come home.

My words were not hollow. I had lost sleep over this guy, wondering how we would ever track down his owner since his family's house was destroyed, the phone lines were dead and information on evacuees was hard to come by. I wanted badly to reunite him, because I knew he'd come from a good home, but couldn't imagine how we'd ever track down his owners.

When I was able to confirm that Marcel's owner was indeed, Marcel's owner, I said, "Ma'am, this is your dog. We have Marcel. We have your dog." For a fraction of second there was silence, and then the weeping began. This woman who had lost so much had just been given back a piece of her family. And that, folks, is why every part of this experience has been worth it.

Rest well tonight. Marcel is finally going home.