By Julie Falconer

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita upended the lives of thousands along the Gulf Coast. Homes, photos, heirlooms, jobs, dreams, loved ones—all of this and more were lost to the storms. Which is why the reunions of pets with their owners take on such special significance. Not only do they give rescuers and volunteers hope to keep going in their race to salvage as many lives as possible, but they also give the human victims of the storms an important piece of their life back—maybe the only piece.

Sampson Stearns

Sampson Stearns, a 13-year-old dachshund, has always loved the water.

"You couldn’t keep him out of the swimming pool," said 23-year-old Shad Stearns, a Louisiana State University graduate student whose family was caught in Katrina’s wrath. "He was always jumping in and taking a lap."

It was a skill that eventually saved Sampson’s life.

When the floodwaters rushed into the Stearns’ home in St. Bernard Parish on August 29, Arthur Stearns tried to save his family by busting a hole through the ceiling into the attic. His wife, Marion, and Great Dane, Jetta, couldn’t climb out the hole and drowned.

But Stearns, his 20-year-old son, Stephen, and Sampson escaped and swam from rooftop to rooftop until they reached the tallest house in the neighborhood, where they waited to be rescued. They spent the next night in a shelter, but during a relocation to a different shelter on August 31, Sampson became separated from his owners.

Stearns lost his wife, his home, and his car to the hurricane, but he still had hope of finding his dog.

Three weeks after Katrina hit, Arthur and Shad Stearns walked the aisles of the Lamar-Dixon sheltering facility in Gonzales in search of their elderly dachshund. A volunteer helping them looked through the intake records and found that Sampson was indeed alive. Brought to Lamar-Dixon on September 9, he was later shipped to the SPCA Cincinnati, where he underwent treatment for hypoglycemia and surgery to remove a tumor.

As soon as he's well enough to travel, the plucky little dog will be coming back to his owners.

President of the SPCA Cincinnati Harold Dates promised, "I'll find someone to get that dog to New Orleans or I'll drive him myself."

The Stearns were thrilled to learn that Sampson—who they say is "as good as a dog can get"—is in good hands and soon to return to them.

Bones Seymor

Russell Seymor became a cat owner not by choice, but through some well-applied family pressure. His sister Rhonda Bonds had taken in a stray kitten who showed up on her doorstep covered with fleas and ticks. When her own cat objected to having a roommate, she decided to give the stray to her brother.

"I know you're not bringing me a cat" was Russell's first response. But indeed she was, and it wasn't long before Seymor fell in love with the skinny Bones' wonderful personality.

When they evacuated New Orleans for the hurricane, Seymor and Bonds left their cats behind, never suspecting that they'd be unable to return for them.

"We evacuate so often," explains Bonds.

Leaving food and water for several days was a strategy that had worked fine in the past. But once Bonds realized how much danger the cats were in, she got busy. She registered both animals on Petfinder.com and hoped for the best. But with every passing day, she became more frantic. She snuck into the city and rescued her own cat, but was unable to get to Seymor's apartment.

When they arrived at Lamar-Dixon, Seymor and Bonds knew that finding a black short-haired cat with no distinguishing markings would be "like looking for a needle in a haystack."

Bones wasn't in a haystack, but he was in one of the barns converted to a makeshift animal shelter. An hour later, Bones was going home. And Bonds had learned a lesson she'll never forget.

"Wherever we go, we'll never make that decision again. Where we go, they'll go."