Tomas Gimenez, Dr.Med.Vet, is a professor of animal and veterinary sciences at Clemson University, an instructor in emergency and disaster planning and rescue (along with his wife, Rebecca, PhD, a Major in the US Army Reserves mobilized to Active Duty this year), and a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Veterinary Medical Assistance Team 2 (VMAT-2) that was deployed under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Mississippi in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He is also new dog owner. “Tupelo” traveled home from Mississippi to South Carolina with Gimenez as a happy example of one of the many stories of animals saved in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. See Tupelo and other Mississippi rescue photos here.

“We were searching for animals one day and ran into the Tupelo, Miss., Rescue Squad doing house-to-house searches (for people and animals),” said Gimenez. The rescue squad and police noticed there appeared to be mud that was moving just as we (the VMAT-2 team) pulled up. This poor dog was buried in mud and wrapped in power lines, but he was alive. There’s no way to know how many days he’d been there; he was skin and bones. Between police officers and rescue workers and us, we put in quite a bit of time with our water bottles and gave him a bath and took him in. Everyone got pretty attached to that dog.

“I ended up adopting him and brought him home,” said Gimenez. “His name is Tupelo.  We will be searching the Internet lost and found pet sites to see if we can find his true owners, meanwhile he is getting his injuries (pierced prepuce, lacerations) and starvation treated.  If we never find his owners, he will have a good home with us on our farm