Dogs’ second chance

When Chance arrived at the Glendale Humane Society Tuesday, after

being rescued from a rooftop in New Orleans, the terrier-mix was

scared and untrusting, employees said.

His file, which had notes from other handlers, warned of his bite.

“To be rescued from the rooftop of a submerged building, I can

only imagine what that was like,” said Marsha Perloff, a dog trainer

at the Glendale Humane Society.

But four days later, Chance, who is probably about 5 -- officials

aren’t sure -- is finally coming around.

“[Friday was] the first day I saw him really excited to see us,”

employee Star Mangasaryan said.

Chance is one of two dogs rescued from Hurricane Katrina being

housed at the Glendale Humane Society.

Faith, the second dog, is a 10-year-old female Dachshund-mix, who,

like Chance, was rescued from New Orleans’ St. Bernard Parish,

Perloff said.

Faith and Chance’s rescues were part of a large-scale rescue

effort spearheaded by national animal organizations like Best Friends

and the Humane Society of the United States, Perloff said.

“I actually got in touch with Best Friends and said we would

reserve two kennel runs ongoing for as long as we need to,” she said.

The dogs are listed on databases with Petfinder and the Los

Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Perloff

said.

And both dogs have AVID microchips implanted in the backs of their

necks -- silicone chips, about the size of a grain of rice, which

assign a dog a unique identification number that correlates to a

database file, she said.

The number can be attained by waving a scanner over a dog’s neck.

Despite these efforts, the Glendale Humane Society has had no luck

yet in tracking down their owners, Perloff said.

“We realize it’s a potentially long delay because of the

situation, particularly to those areas that have been so devastated,”

she said. “Who knows where these people are.”

Once the dogs are out of quarantine, which will probably be

earlier than their mid-October date, they will be adopted out to

foster homes until the end of December, Perloff said.

By the first of next year, if the dogs have not been claimed, the

foster parents will have the option to permanently adopt them as

pets, she said.