10 years later 4-legged Katrina survivor calls Wilmington home

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — As we mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a four-legged survivor who lives right here in the Cape Fear has come a long way since the disaster.

Eddie the beagle was rescued by the Carolina Canines Katrina Animal Relief, and he has had anything but a normal dog’s life. Wilmington resident Maria O’Connor said Eddie was one of more than 15,000 animals displaced during Hurricane Katrina.

“He’s been through an awful lot,” O’Connor said. “It really upsets me to imagine he was wandering for two weeks before the people took him in. I mean you look at all that water.”

O’Connor said Carolina Canines Katrina Animal Relief brought 23 cats and 32 dogs to a facility in the Port City.

“He was in Louisiana and then sent to a facility in Texas,” she said.

O’Connor and her husband volunteered at the facility every day for more than two months while Carolina Canines tried to contact all of the pet owners. She said they walked dogs, and her husband did between 13 to 15 big loads of laundry a day.

The couple even got the nickname “M and J Laundry.” But that’s not all they got. O’Connor brought Eddie home to six other rescues she had at the time.

“Eddie was having seizures every day,” she said. “We also found out he was heartworm positive, and they needed someone to take him out of there.”

But O’Connor said they never found his owner.

“I really feel bad for the owner, because he’s just such a loving dog,” O’Connor said. “Somebody really loved him.”

For ten years, though, they have loved him.

“He’s like a nurse, too,” O’Connor said. “When the others aren’t feeling well, he’ll be near them all the time. He’s just a wonderful dog.”

Eddie is a wonderful dog that O’Connor rescued, but a dog that also rescued them.

“He’s been the calm in all the dogs. It’s like a little blessing came along,” O’Connor said.