Mine

Mine (Documentary film)

Written by Erin Essenmacher, Geralyn Pezanoski
4 stars
Reviewer: Nichole

At first, this movie appears to be a documentary about custody battles for dogs who were displaced during Hurricane Katrina.  And it is.  But that’s buried deeper in the film than I thought it would be.

First we learn a heartbreaking fact when people were evacuated before, during and after the storm hit, they were forced to leave their pets behind.  For many people, this was like having the government tell you to leave a family member behind, and in a highlighted case, an elderly woman stayed behind with her chocolate lab, refusing to leave him, and they both ended up on the roof of her house, water up to the eaves.  When the rescue helicopter came to help her, they had to pry her dog out of her arms and lift her away, screaming and crying for her dog Murphy the whole time, and Murphy was left on the roof.

Then we learn about the rescue efforts to save the animals left behind, because there was no precedent for this type of disaster and no organization in place to help the animals.  A sobering piece of information is shared that as rescuers go door to door, pounding, looking for survivors, dogs bark but other pets cannot call out for help.  So dogs got rescued more than any others.

And then, how do you reunite families who lost everything with the pets that were rescued, when these families didn’t even know their pets were rescued?  The truth was, reunions were few and far between.  There was no real system in place.  So, months go by, and through much digging and research and hard work, some families are able to locate their dogs.  But then the problems begin.  Who’s to blame for the fact that the shelters who took in the dogs waited 6 months for owners to claim their dogs, incurring huge expenses, and then finally had to adopt out the dogs?  And now these dogs have new homes, new families, and don’t want to give up their beloved pet.

I will say, before you discount this as a trip down Depression Lane, it’s not just an eye-opener of a movie, but a majority of the stories have happy endings, and even Murphy is reunited with his elderly owner a year later.  It will make you feel good.  It will make you love your dog a little bit more.  And it will comfort you to know that the disaster (on so many levels) that Katrina brought, has righted some wrongs in our evacuation system, and people are no longer forced to leave their pets behind.