Tyler

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

Roscoe and Max don’t know each other, but they have similar tales to relay to their canine friends back home -- tales of how they were first evacuated to escape a hurricane and then how they survived on their own after they got away from volunteers trying to help them.

Dennis Limon and his family fled the Port Arthur area when they learned then Hurricane Gustav was headed their direction.

The Limons including Roscoe, their a 3-year-old Jack Russell terrier, wound up in Tyler to seek shelter and stopped at Faulkner Park where evacuees were being registered.

As part of the protocol, no pets can go to human shelters so Limon handed over Roscoe to workers at Faulkner Park to be taken care of by volunteers and transported to the East Texas Fairgrounds where most of the animals were held.

It was two days later when Limon went to check on his beloved family member that he learned Roscoe was missing.

“I had no idea for two days that my dog was missing. I went to the animal shelter to check on both of my dogs and that is when I learned Roscoe was missing,” Limon said as he voice wavered with emotion when he talked to the Tyler Paper Tuesday morning. “I assumed he was OK and that he was being taken care of.”

Tyler Animal Control Director Shawn Markmann said Roscoe was lost when workers tried to kennel him.
“They put the dog in one of the pet carriers someone donated and the back of the cage came apart and the dog, being scared, took off running,” he said.

Markmann said volunteers and animal control officers immediately tried to capture the animal but Roscoe was able to elude them and remains unaccounted for this morning.

“We came up here together and we want to go home with all of us together,” he said. “I am upset that I wasn’t contacted when this happened. I might have been able to help in getting him back by now,” he said.

Limon said he didn’t know what would become of Roscoe, but the family had left Tyler and was eating lunch in Lufkin when a man, who he had talked to earlier saw Roscoe and called the Limons.

“We turned right back around and it took almost three hours, but we found him. He’s a little tired and shaken, but he’s OK,” a happy Limon said in a phone interview. “Now our entire family is going home and we want to thank everyone who helped in locating our Roscoe.”

Limon said he wanted to thank TylerPaper.com for getting the word out.

Roscoe was not the only four-legged evacuee to have an adventure.

Smith County Assistant Fire Marshal Marilynn Wilson said Max, a mix breed with some coyote in him, was able to paw at the latch on his kennel and escape from the animal shelter at the fairgrounds sometime Saturday.

“We spent two days trying to find the dog and I finally had to go to the shelter and tell the owner his dog had gotten away and we couldn’t locate him,” she said.
Wilson said the man asked if he could be taken to the shelter area and to any areas that teams had searched for Max.

As they walked around the area, Wilson said the man asked her what the object on the grassy hill at Rose Stadium was.

“I said I don’t know and about that time the guy yells out ‘Max’ and the dog came running” she said. “I gave him the leash and he put it on the dog and that was that.”
Wilson said teams had put out traps for the Max, but he had simply eluded them.
“He was pretty happy to get the dog back because when I told them, the whole family was crying.”

Wilson said Max was a Katrina adoptee the family took in after his owners were never identified three years ago

“They got this dog after Katrina and went through Rita with him and then through this evacuation. I’m really happy the dog was found and back with his family,” she said.

Markmann said animal control officers, volunteers and veterinarians had cared and sheltered more that 200 animals since evacuees arrived in Tyler and except for the two dogs there had been no problems that he had heard about.