Bella and Deiter — two remarkable canine survivors — were among some of the animals recently rescued from the earthquake debris in Haiti.

It wasn’t the first time the pair of dachshunds survived a disaster. In 2005, they were left stranded in New Orleans when the city was evacuated after Hurricane Katrina. Best Friends rescued the dogs and adopted them out to Paul and Christine Fowler, New Orleans residents.

The Fowlers relocated with their dogs to Haiti, where Christine worked as an AIDS relief administrator. Then, in mid-January of this year, the 7.0 earthquake hit. Paul Fowler searched unsuccessfully through the rubble and thought for sure his dogs had perished. But as he was about to give up hope, he heard Deiter bark. The dogs were on the third floor of their apartment building buried under a bed that was covered in debris.

"I think the bed saved them," Fowler said in a phone interview. "They must have run under there when they first felt the earthquake."

Fowler was outside by the apartment swimming pool with his 7-month-old daughter when the quake hit. His wife, with her sister, had gone to the store. After the quake and two aftershocks, he ran upstairs, looking for the dogs. After searching through the rubble, he started to leave when he heard Deiter.

"It was like out of a movie set. I thought sure we were all going to die. And I thought for sure the dogs hadn’t made it," he said.

Relieved, Fowler walked out of the building. "I carried them out, a baby under one arm and two dogs under the other," he said.

He met up on the street with his wife and sister-in-law, and then, together with their dogs and baby, they made their way to the U.S. Embassy.

In the immediate days that followed, arrangements were made for the Fowlers and other Americans to be airlifted out of Port-au-Prince by the U.S. Air Force. When the Fowlers learned that the Air Force would not be taking along pets, they were crushed.

"I promised Best Friends I would take care of Deiter and Bella," Fowler said. "They were left behind in New Orleans and now we were forced to leave them behind again." A friend who runs a Port-au-Prince orphanage that was damaged but not destroyed agreed to take the dogs in temporarily.

Once on American soil, Fowler’s sister began making phone calls to rescue groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, asking for help in getting their dogs out of Haiti. HSUS contacted American Airlines, and, two weeks after the earthquake, Bella and Deiter were reunited with the Fowlers in Florida, where they were staying with family.

Fowler recalled how he first met his dogs.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Fowlers wanted to do something to help the animals that were left homeless after the storm. They had heard that Best Friends had a temporary center at Celebration Station, a former arcade, so they went to the center and met Juliette Watt, one of Best Friends’ staff members on the ground in New Orleans. They also met Dieter and then Bella, a dachshund mix.

A backyard breeder in New Orleans had abandoned Deiter, and Bella’s person, who was relocating out of Louisiana, had left Bella at a shelter to be euthanized. Instead, Bella was rescued and taken to Best Friends’ temporary animal rescue center.

"I filled out a three-page adoption agreement," Fowler said. "I was impressed with the thought that went into adopting out Katrina animals. I promised Juliette we would take care of them."

Watt, a group intern coordinator for Best Friends, said she could not have asked for more. "I remember Paul, and I remember the doxies," she said. "It makes that whole time at Celebration Station and all the hard work completely worthwhile when you see that he really did follow through for the dogs."

The Fowlers will be returning to New Orleans to live once more with their dogs. "We’re relieved and grateful to everybody for being able to get Deiter and Bella back and not leave them behind," he said. "I kept my promise to Best Friends and to our dogs."

By Cathy Scott, Best Friends staff writer

Photo by Ginny Dixon of the South Florida Sun Sentinel/WSFL-TV courtesy of Paul Fowler

For more information: 

Best Friends is part of the Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti (ARCH), a collaborative effort of national and international animal welfare organizations. For more information on this activity visit the Rapid Response group on the Best Friends Network.