Hanging on

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

Katrina victim building new life in Mankato

By Dan Linehan
The Free Press

MANKATO —
Days after being injured by floating debris and tossed on the street by Hurricane Katrina, Brian Heckler was forced to abandon his best friends under a causeway ramp.

Heckler, 35, is still furious he wasn’t allowed to bring any of his six dogs, who he calls “family,” from the floodwaters of New Orleans.

But, as a 2-year-old Rottweiler-Lab mix named Mai demands his attention by nuzzling against his legs, Heckler says he’s found in Mankato a place for himself and his love for animals.

“I never knew a little town could be so nice to somebody,” Heckler said.

But he can hardly recall the help from local neighbors and strangers — along with dog lovers across the country — without recalling his treatment in Baton Rouge, La., and San Antonio.

Heckler’s anger flares as he remembers the “squalor” and “inhumane” conditions in a temporary shelter under a bridge in Louisiana.

“Filthy needles were everywhere,” he said, adding that he was forced to use nearby bushes as a bathroom. “They treated us like I’ve never been treated in my life.”

Initially, Heckler said he tried to bring food and water to neighbors. That’s when a piece of debris cut open his thigh, and a rapidly spreading infection sent him first to shelters in Louisiana then to Texas. His home, near the flooded French Quarter, had several feet of standing water.

Actually, he did sneak out one dog — a black, shaggy 11-year-old cocker spaniel mix named Xena — by putting her in a large bag and telling authorities that it contained medicine.

But his leg was becoming increasingly discolored as he was put on a bus and, he says, brought to Mankato by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He stayed at a hotel for a few days before finding a place to live in a mobile home community.

Dog lovers step up

Heckler received antibiotics and was treated at Immanuel St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mankato, then began searching online for his other dogs. He didn’t get far before a social worker from Tacoma, Wash., named Elaine Fidler read his story online and wanted to help.

First, she used connections in New Orleans to send a team over to search his house, but the door was open and the dogs were gone.

Then she scoured the Internet for any sign of the animals on local and national forums for missing pets.

“I almost pulled an all-nighter, scrolling and scrolling and looking,” Fidler said, until she found a picture of a Rottweiler that looked like Heckler’s Big Boy.

After weeks of travel miscues and bureaucratic hold-ups, Brian and Big Boy were reunited in mid-October.

“I was very attached to him and I trusted him with my life,” said Heckler, who has sleep apnea, which causes interrupted breathing at night. He could wear a breathing machine, but preferred to have Big Boy wake him up if he stopped breathing.

“They were soulmates,” Fidler said.

But the reunion was cut short about six weeks later when Big Boy died of a stroke in Heckler’s arms.

“I fought so hard to get him back to me, then he left me,” he said.

A Rotty for Christmas

Kim Guseman was one of dozens who read Heckler’s story in online missing pet forums.

Guseman, a 38-year-old from Pittsburgh, wanted to help disaster efforts, but also wanted to act on a personal level.

“All he wanted for Christmas was a new Rotty,” Guseman said.

So she searched for a service dog, preferably a Rottweiler.

“Here’s someone who not only lost everything, but then got (Big Boy) back just to have his heart ripped out again,” she said. “How much can one person go through in a year?”

She found a Rottweiler at a nearby training school, paid a $100 rescue fee, then drove the 2-year-old, 110-pound dog to Mankato on Dec. 10.

They connected immediately.

“Just to see him interact with the dog was like the most touching thing I’ve ever seen,” Fidler said.

Heckler and his new service dog, also named Big Boy, get along well, the huge dog rarely straying more than a few feet from his owner’s side. They can travel almost anywhere together because Big Boy is a service animal protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Like his predecessor, he’s trained to awaken Heckler if he stops breathing. That’s happened twice in the past few weeks.

“I’m taking time to trust him and it hurts,” Heckler said.

Settling in

Heckler said he isn’t going anywhere, though he might return to New Orleans briefly to search for his family, as well as the two dogs that haven’t yet been found and sent to foster homes.

And his remaining dogs — Xena, Mai and Big Boy — are getting free medicine and reduced-price care at the Nicollet Veterinary Clinic, said vet Gala Beckendorf. She said the clinic learned about Heckler and decided to help.

“Because, obviously, his dogs are his whole life,” Beckendorf said.

But Heckler is still trying to get his own life in order.

He said he’s looking for work, and adds that the housing subsidies he’s received are making his rent affordable.

His decision to stay in Mankato has largely grown from the help of people like Angie Nissen, a professor of communications at Bethany Lutheran, and Dave Coughlan, owner of University Park, the mobile home community where Heckler lives.

Nissen’s service-learning class raised just over $6,000, most of which will help hurricane victims in Louisiana. Some money went to help cover Heckler’s veterinary bills.

Coughlan remembers Heckler’s first visit into his new home.

“He walks into this house and he goes ‘This is the nicest place I’ve ever seen,’ so I thought ‘Oh man, he does not have high expectations,’” Coughlan said with a laugh.

Typically, he said, Rottweilers aren’t allowed in the park due to what he called “aggressive tendencies.” But he made an exception for both Big Boys.

Both Coughlan and Nissen said they were only a small part of the effort to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“I would just encourage the community to not give up on people who were impacted by the storm,” Nissen said.

“Their fight is not over.”