NEW ORLEANS -- We're travelling down Humanity Street in a boat the size of a coffin in a neighbourhood that's been left to the dogs.
The brown sludge that passes for water is still up to the roof line of some homes, to the front porch of others, and there is everything in it: oil, dirty diapers, old basketballs, fridges, T-shirts, tampons, rusty lunch boxes, Coke cans, beer bottles and dead people.
"I think there are a couple of dogs in this house here," says Jeff Popovich, an animal rescuer from the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society.
Mr. Popovich remembers hearing them on a previous pass through the area and as soon as he whistles, the barking begins in virtually every house within earshot.
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The dogs inside the house we've floated up to have their heads stuck out a side window, and like 80 per cent of those Best Friends will rescue in this neighbourhood -- one of the poorest in the city and most devastated by hurricane Katrina -- they are pit bulls.
Ethan Gurney, on a separate boat, climbs into the putrid water and heads toward the open window. He hoists himself in while the pit bulls snarl viciously inside. Mr. Popovich, meanwhile, bangs against the front door until it pops open. After a few minutes of coaxing, the two men restrain the dogs with the help of long aluminum sticks with nooses at the end -- catch poles.
"They had them locked in a room with no water, no food," Mr. Popovich reports. "It had to be 90 [degrees] in there."
The two men bring the dogs onto the front porch where we have placed a bowl of water and some dog food, which are devoured in less than a minute. The rescuers slowly and cautiously begin petting them and eventually scratch behind their ears while whispering, "that a boy," "good doggie," "yeah, that tastes good, doesn't it?"
Soon the dogs, both of them bearing disfiguring scars that suggest they had been used to fight, are licking the faces of their rescuers. They are no longer aggressive but instead two scared animals profoundly thankful for the kindness they have been shown.
We load the two dogs onto our little boat and head off to the home across the street, where a brown mutt can be seen on the roof.
Again, Mr. Gurney jumps into the water and begins scaling the house, eventually getting on the roof. But as soon as he begins approaching the dog it gets scared and jumps into the water. For the next half-hour, Mr. Gurney and Mr. Popovich try to corner the animal, wading through water up to their nipples. They are forced to climb over fences and squeeze through bushes.
How many people would do this for dogs they don't know? How many people would do this, period? This is a story as big as any in this flood-ravaged city.
Out of all the animals abandoned because of Katrina, many have already died or will soon if not rescued quickly. It's a number that Paul Berry, who is directing the Best Friends operation here, estimates will be in the tens of thousands.
And as poorly organized as the rescue operation to save humans here was, the one to save animals has been worse.
You see, there wasn't a plan.
"It's a disaster and a national disgrace," says Mr. Berry, whose group is based in Kanab, Utah. "The national agencies, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], the Humane Society, someone should have been in control of animal welfare but it didn't happen. A couple of organizations have picked up pets that were stranded on the periphery of the city but the majority of animals are in these hard-to-get-to areas that we've been going into."
Imagine this: many people who evacuated their homes brought along their pets. But when the buses arrived to take the residents to shelters, they were told they would have to leave their animals behind -- right there on the highway. Consequently, there were upward of 1,000 pets, mostly dogs, roaming the freeways here.
Several were hit by cars and killed. There have also been reports of dogs being rounded up and shot by authorities. Some dogs being picked up are in good shape, says Debbie Rykoff, a vet from Chicago working here with Best Friends. Others are barely alive.
You can identify every rib in the bodies of many dogs, they are so malnourished. Several have a horrible-looking crust built up around their eyes. These are the ones lucky enough to be alive. Coast Guard officials say they have seen several dog carcasses floating in the water and also spotted a few rotting on the roofs of houses.
"We covered a 20-block area and extrapolated the numbers of pets we took from there and then applied that to the entire city, and we're talking 30,000 to 40,000 pets that are in there," Mr. Berry says.
"And they're just being left to die for no reason. We can get these animals. We're doing it, but we're just one group. The Humane Society has raised millions of dollars and they're calling us for boats. It's ridiculous. The response has been totally inadequate and a complete disgrace."
In five hours of rescue work Friday, the 15-person crew from Best Friends rounds up more than 20 dogs and a couple of kittens, bringing to nearly 800 the total number of animals they have saved. The pets are being cared for at a 700-acre sanctuary in Mississippi. Anyone who had to leave a pet behind will be able to get information about those rescued by Best Friends in New Orleans by going to http://www.bestfriends.org. Those that aren't reclaimed will be available for adoption.
Well, almost all of them.
On Friday, a Coast Guard crew aware that Best Friends was in the neighbourhood brings in a black lab puppy estimated to be 12 to 13 weeks old. It was found stuck in a shrub by the side of a house.
"It was probably swimming and got stuck in there and figured it wasn't a bad place to be," the Coast Guard official says.
"He smells like he's been dead a week," says Troy Snow, a rescuer from Best Friends.
"We'll have to call him Lazarus," says Mr. Berry, after the New Testament man who rose from the dead.
At the end of the day all the dogs are loaded into a big transport truck, all except Lazarus, that is, who rides in the front of an SUV with Dr. Rykoff, who has wrapped the little thing, dead quiet, in a pink blanket. It is dark outside and Dr. Wyckoff cradles the little dog in her arms the way you would a baby.
Lazarus leans up and starts licking her face.
"I just may have to keep you," she laughs. "You are a beautiful sight."
That he was.