Above) More than a year after Hurricane Katrina, Princess was reunited with Nick Eagan, and how happy she looks!

Fourteen months earlier, Princess and a seven-month old Dalmation named Mama were so frightened of the water current and the massive wind that they gave up swimming with Nick.

"I did my best to save both dogs," said Nick, but Mama was not swimming well and was bound to drown, so Nick left her on top of a floating shed, and the current carried her away.

"I was in twenty feet of water. My home was destroyed before my eyes." He stayed with Princess for four days. When the National Guard cruelly insisted, without exception, that no pets would be helicoptered to safety, Nick searched for a safe place to Princess.

He walked to a place where he knew a greenhouse was still standing, prepared food and water for her, left a window open so she could escape if she needed to, and then was airlifted away without his beloved dog.

Princess was "rescued" six weeks later and taken to Tylertown, Mississippi to a shelter. Later it was realized that Princess was finding her own way home when she was picked up. She'd almost made it, to. She'd been one block away from Nick's mobile home when captured.

Nick never gave up looking for her. And the day he showed up at the Best Friends shelter, volunteer Amy Hogg said, "He called her name, whistled, and she ran to him and started jumping up on him. It was pretty instantaneous recognition on both parts. Princess was all over him." [Photo by Amy Hogg]

Below) Wanda Tyler of Louisiana clings to CheeWee and PeeWee after their miraculous reuinion in Spring, Texas, a week after Hurricane Katrina separated them.