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Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival

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I was looking for some books for my son and came upon the Two Bobbies purely by accident. I picked it up because I love animals and saw the mention of Hurricane Katrina. As I paged and read through the book, the tears ran down my face. It's a beautiful story and one that both children and parents will love.

My husband wondered what made it so emotional (as he gaped at me crying in the middle of the store!) and I said that it was really just a simple story of friendship that made it special. So many poor animals suffered from Hurricane Katrina. It was nice to read this special story.

Children's authors have commonly found that the only way to really write about a huge recent disaster for small tykes without irreparably scarring them for life is to find some kind of human-interest story to focus on. When 9/11 happened it was "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" that ended up being the best picture book to make reference to the tragedy, and it didn't even talk about it all that much! Similar books like "Fireboat" and "September Roses" made their focus a boat and a delivery of flowers but somehow neither really twanged the heartstrings effectively. What's particularly interesting about these three books is that none of them involved animals in any way. Critters were few and far between around the Twin Towers that day. As a result, authors had to scramble especially hard to find something, ANYTHING, to that kids could relate to. Newbery Honor winning author Kirby Larson and her partner in crime Mary Nethery have it a little easier. Focusing on an animal interest story from the time of Hurricane Katrina, Larson and Nethery could have easily phoned in the tale of Bob Cat and Bobbi, but the story that emerges here is one of grace and delicacy. Steady hands present us with the story of this cat and dog team. It is an actually touching story, with none of the faux emotions or cloying techniques sometimes employed with lesser true-life dog/cat tales.

They were abandoned like many pets when their human owners evacuated New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A dog with a bobbed tail and a cat, also with a bobbed tail, the two stayed close together in the time that followed. Fighting starvation and thirst, they walked the streets trying to find sustenance. A kind construction worker fed them, and in time the two were taken to a nearby shelter where they were named Bob Cat and Bobbi. To the surprise of the workers there the two did not want to be parted. Stranger still, it was determined that Bob Cat was completely blind. When no one adopted them their story was told on "Anderson Cooper's 360" and they found a new owner with a ranch and other dogs. There the two have stayed every since. A note at the back of the book includes a photograph of the real Bobbi and Bob Cat.

There have been quite a few inter-species friendship stories that have fared well as children's books. "Koko's Kitten", the tale of a gorilla and her pet cats, was one of the earliest. More recently there was "Owen & Mzee", in which a baby hippo was "adopted", in a sense, by an old tortoise. These stories inevitably involve tragedy (dead kittens, dead mothers, etc.), making them ideal subject matter for the author's pen. So I admit to being a little surprised that only Larson and Nethery had the wherewithal, after seeing the "Anderson Cooper 360" piece, to realize that this was picture book heaven. Jeannette Winter must've been napping that day.

Newbery Honor winning author or not, human interest stories done as picture books can still fall flat if their accompanying illustrator is less than great. I can just imagine the discussions surrounding what kind of illustrator would work on "Two Bobbies". Would they go with someone with a cartoony style? Someone who would, in a way, make the material younger and more small-child-appropriate? Or what if they found enough actual photographs of the real Bobbies and told the story that way? Grounding it in truth, if you will. Of course, the problem with that style is that Larson and Nethery begin their story long before any photographer thought to take a picture of the two pets. You'd have to make up for it in creative, questionable ways instead. The solution appeared to be somewhere between the two of these styles. Realistic illustrations would fill in many of the gaps in the Bobbies' past. Enter Jean Cassels, an illustrator prone to drawing more than sixty nonfiction nature titles. Best of all, Cassels is a New Orleans native, one who took her husband and her three dogs out of the city a mere day before Katrina hit. Cassels' style fits the story nicely. Once you hit the big reveal that Bob Cat has been blind all along, you can go back to the images and see that this makes a certain amount of sense. Pictures of Bob Cat show him placing one paw carefully in front of himself at all times, testing the ground in front of him. Other images of him show that he never looks at Bobbi. Not directly.

Now there were times when I wondered about the factual leaps taken by the story. I suppose Cassels, Larson and Nethery felt inclined to draw some conclusions from this tale. For instance, they seem to believe that Bob Cat and Bobbi were together from the start. We don't actually know that they were owned by the same people at the beginning, but it's something that seems natural to assume, given how close the two were. A story of a dog befriending a blind cat in the midst of a hurricane is a whole different kettle of fish anyway. Cassels then draws the kind of house they might have lived in, which is sketchy territory. Other stretches of the imagination don't bother me as much. The pair being snapped at by other abandoned animals or their wait on the porch of their home while the water recedes, both leaps in logic sound about right. You have to make some basic assumptions if you want to render this a fully fleshed out tale. I just think great care must be taken when we render supposition to be fact, particularly when we're dealing with four-year-old audiences.

Hurricane Katrina has lent itself to few changes in my library's children's collection. We've upped the number of hurricane books (and I suspect that the coming years guarantee that to be a sound investment) but those that actually discuss the hurricane itself are few and far between. How do you inform small children about government failure, loss of homes and lives, and general chaos? Cute animals can help, but only if their stories are real and (harder still) interesting. "Two Bobbies" hits all the right notes without falling too far into the realm of assumption and speculation. A great tale in general for cat people, dog people, and we-want-our-kids-to-read-great-books people.

Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery bring us a completely satisfying story of friendship that reaches across the canine-feline divide and lifts us two-legged critters to a higher plane of existence. We can only hope to achieve the same quality of love and compassion that comes so naturally to Bobbi and Bob Cat. The tale of these two survivors of Hurricane Katrina and its manmade aftermath will lay its paw print on your heart. It might even make you a better person.

I highly recommend this book for friends with and without fur. (I gave one to my friend, Jack the wonder dog, and he enjoyed it tremendously.)

(Note: Results are just in (3-1-2011): "Two Bobbies" was picked by third through fifth graders in Louisiana as their favorite book from nominees for the 2011 Louisiana Young Readers Choice list. That same age group also selected it as favorite in my school. It was also my personal favorite. Congratulations to the author and the illustrator!)

"Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival"--this story touched my heart profoundly, beginning with the cover illustration and the title. But then I know the story of Katrina and its devastation. I know that animals were left behind, not out of indifference or neglect, but out of necessity. Who knew that people wouldn't be returning to their homes any time soon? That means animals essentially, through no one's fault, were abandoned. Artist Jean Cassels captures the essence of devotion behind this oh-so-poignant story: dog looking at cat with closed eyes. A flooded street is depicted in the background. These two were "abandoned." But there is much more to this story.

Typically, when I write reviews of children's books, I test the book on at least one group of students in my school library. I am the librarian. This time the book arrived in a box of books via Fed Ex after school closed, so I am the testee. Frankly, I was moved to tears by this story. Much of it is speculation. How could Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery know exactly what Cat and Dog did during their journey to the animal shelter? But the two animals had to have a history together, so the two writers imagined one.

Young cat, young dog, both bob-tailed, perhaps were taken in together by their owner as two of a kind. Perhaps the dog was chained when the floods came, when the owners left, thinking they would return soon. Perhaps these owners left enough food for a few days. When days turned into weeks, apparently Dog broke his chain and he and Cat took off together. Perhaps they came across other strays, big and vicious. Perhaps they starved a bit (when they were finally taken in, their ribs were showing).

Whatever their scenario, they survived together for several months after the hurricane and before the next set of humans adopted them. The two companions, Dog and Cat, finally found a work site where a worker was keeping his dog. These two had a place and sure food--finally--for just one week. That's when the boss man said the two had to go.

They were taken to one of the animal shelters that spring up when animals need taking in. This is the place where an amazing discovery was made. When Cat and Dog were separated by race, Dog howled and barked and carried on until Cat was put in his cage with him. Finally, a human made the discovery that Cat was blind and Dog was his seeing-eye dog!

Now look again at the cover. Go back through the book and regard each illustration again. Cassels shows the viewer/reader this little tidbit--the cat's blindness, the dog's solicitude--in each illustration, but subtly.

The story does have a happy ending. The two are adopted together. This part of the story is also precious.

Bobbie (the Dog) and Bob Cat survived the storm, the flooding, and hardships lasting months. Their friendship and their survival are doubly special because of their unique situation and circumstances. Because of the merger of wonderful illustrations and a sensitively rendered story, this book is highly recommended!

This is one of the best stories of animals left behind in Hurricane Katrina! A wonderful outcome but not without trials for the two "Bobbies" a dog and cat! I read this to daughter at home and she wanted to take it to her Pre-school/Kindergarten class the next day! An additional plus for her and the children was this was based on a real animal stories! The kids loved it! Wonderful book that illustrates the meaning of true friendship and dependencey animals have between them! You can not go wrong with this book!
Savanna

I really liked this book. It's a story of two animals, a cat and a dog, who are left behind during Katrina. The story has a twist at the end, and you find out something about the animals that brings them together. The story is heartwarming, and the best part- it's true. The pictures are great as well and the story is written very well. The book covers many topics- abandoned animals, friendship, compassion, hope and Hurricane Katrina. As a teacher, my students love this tale of companionship. It did make me want to cry, so be careful reading it aloud!

As an aspiring author/illustrator of children's books, I read a lot of them. But this is the first one that ever made me cry! I don't have any kind of insightful critique to write about this book. I will just say that Its narration is simple and straight forward. And its illustrations are done in a realistic, but warm style. Simply put, it is an incredibly powerful story of love and friendship.

This is a beautiful heartwarming story about two abandoned pets, a dog and a cat. They stay together, and struggle to survive for four months without human assistance after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005 before they are rescued and taken to an animal shelter by a kind construction worker. The two animals were briefly separated at the shelter but Bobbie the dog howled inconsolably and Bob Cat paced back and forth in his cage until the next day they were brought back together. Then the shelter workers realized that Bob Cat was blind, and all this time had been dependent on Bobbie for his survival. After being featured on CNN, the two were adopted together by a wonderful woman named Melinda. The realistic illustrations are lovely. The authors are donating 10% of their proceeds to the Best Friends Animal Society that cared for Bobbie and Bob Cat and many other desolate animals in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

This is one of those wonderful stories that remains with the reader forever. Maybe it's because the two animal characters are real, maybe it's because the illustrations are magnificent, or maybe it's because the story itself is so captivating and so heart gripping.

I read this book on someone else's recommendation, have read it twice since, and will read it again. This story of bonding, devotion, and love between a dog and a cat is timeless and inspirational.

Excellent Book!!! My daughter & I checked out the book at our library and when we finished the book she said, "Mama, Can you please buy me this book". We've read it 5 more times & I've shared with co-workers too.