Bobbi and Bob the Cat

August 26, 2026

Bobbi and Bob the Cat

After Hurricane Katrina, a dog and a blind cat survived for months together in New Orleans. When rescuers finally found them, they realized Bobbi had been looking after her friend.

Four months after Hurricane Katrina hit, a dog and a cat showed up at a construction site in New Orleans. The dog had a chain dangling from her collar, and wherever she went, the cat followed closely behind, apparently following the sound of the chain dragging along the ground. It wasn’t until rescuers took them in that they realized something else: the cat was blind.

After the hurricane struck in August 2005, many pets were displaced along with their owners. Animal welfare groups spent months combing the city to care for lost animals and reunite them with their families. Somehow, Bobbi (the dog) and Bob Cat (the cat) managed to evade those rescue teams.

What they went through during those four months is a mystery. Bobbi was probably just a few months old when the hurricane hit, and it wasn’t clear if the two had originally been together or found each other later.

By the time they were discovered at the construction site in January 2006, they were clearly a pair. A worker started feeding them and eventually brought them to Celebration Station, a temporary shelter run by Best Friends Animal Society. They were separated for their first night, but it didn’t go well. They made so much noise that the shelter staff put them back together the next day, and they immediately snuggled up.

At the shelter, volunteers noticed that Bob Cat moved carefully and soon figured out he was blind. So, the chain on Bobbi’s collar made sense. It seemed like Bob Cat had learned to follow the sound to keep track of where Bobbie was going.

Bobbi was also equally aware of what her friend needed. One volunteer saw her crouching around him, guiding his movements and protecting him whenever someone unfamiliar approached. It was like she had learned instinctively how to help him, even though no one had trained her to guide a blind cat. Bob Cat had learned to rely on her, and it worked for them.

There was some hope that their original family might still be looking for them. Volunteers had seen a lost-pet report of a bobtailed dog and a cat believed to be traveling together, but they couldn’t find the contact information anymore.

By February 2006, Celebration Station was getting ready to close, and whoever adopted the pair had to agree that Bobbi and Bob Cat would stay together. Their story made it to CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, and hundreds of people reached out to Best Friends. They were moved to the organization’s sanctuary in Utah while the search continued.

One person who heard about them was Melinda Golis, who owned a ranch in southern Oregon. Instead of arranging everything from far away, she headed to Utah to meet them in person.

Soon, Bobbi and Bob Cat were heading home with her. The ranch already had dogs, cats, horses, and more, and the two newcomers adjusted surprisingly well. Bob Cat got familiar with the space, played with another kitten, and even showed a quirky interest in the vacuum cleaner. Bobbi spent her days outside, and when she came in at night, she groomed the cats.

Their story was later turned into a kids' book called Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival, written by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery, with illustrations by New Orleans artist Jean Cassels. Sadly, Bob Cat passed away in 2008, just before the book was published.

No one really knows what Bobbi and Bob Cat went through during those four months after Katrina, or how they managed to stick together in New Orleans. But when people finally found them, Bob Cat was following the sound of Bobbi's chain, Bobbi was looking out for him, and they both seemed content to stay by each other’s side.