I’d been waiting to hear if anybody had any news on Snowball… for those that didn’t catch the stories on it… When they were loading people at the SuperBowl into busses to evacuate, one of the people being loaded was a little boy… who was clutching his dog snowball, who he’d managed to keep with him through everything. Well, no pets were allowed on the busses. So one of the National Gaurd troops stationed there took Snowball away from the boy. The boy was apperantly screaming and crying “Snowball! Snowball!!!” and was an absolute mess as he was pulled onto the bus, and ended up throwing up because he was crying so hard… Anyway… an update:

Sad Story of Boy and His Dog Grips Nation
(Paul Webber and Brian Skoloff [AP] on Yahoo! Asia News)

Late Monday, there was a ray of hope. The United Animal Nations said Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian’s office. However, the information could not be immediately verified. To complicate matters further, the group called Snowball a terrier mix, while others consider the dog a bichon frise.

If the boy and his dog are indeed safe, they have beaten long odds.

Many of the animals _ dogs, cats, ferrets and birds _ that police collected at the Superdome were herded into a stairwell until the human evacuation was complete. Of the 50 animals rescued from the Superdome on Sunday, not all of them survived.

(via Drudge Report)

Unconfirmed of course, but hey, it is something.

And yes, in the grand scheme of things, this matters absolutely nothing. I know that. But it is one of many stories that just get at you when you hear them.

And of course, even if they do know where Snowball is, they haven’t yet located the boy.