The Louisiana House's 91 to 0 approval Thursday night of the "pet evacuation" bill has state and Teche Area animal lovers in doggie bliss and kitty nirvana. The senator who pushed it said the bill should be heading to the governor's office for her signature this weekend.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has said she would sign the bill. The pet evacuation law would be the only one of its kind in the U.S.

The bill, which also unanimously passed the Louisiana Senate last month - that at 36 to 0 - would require emergency plans for the humane evacuation, transport and temporary sheltering of service animals and household pets in times of emergency or disaster.

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It won't, as some detractors said, force rescuers to choose between saving a human or an animal but will require parishes to make it easier for subsequent pet-owner reunions after storms. In fact, the bill states that dog and cats will be rescued only if it doesn't endanger human life.

Senate Bill 607 will only apply to dogs and cats, thousands of which died or were left to die after Hurricane Katrina, some during Rita.

Iberia Parish Humane Society Director Dayna Perry said Friday she is happy the bill passed and that she's "one of those crazy people" who wouldn't leave her pets in an emergency.

"If I had to evacuate, my whole crew comes or I don't leave," Perry said. "This bill certainly lessens the stress level for people, knowing that if they prepare properly they can be with their pets later."

Several pets from the Delcambre area were lost, though three weeks ago one cat, "Mr. Lili," was happily - and surprisingly - reunited with his owner at the shelter.

"We called him Sam, but she said, 'Oh, that's Mr. Lili!'" Perry said, laughing. "She had to surrender him, because she had lost her home in Delcambre during Rita. But it was a great reunion. And just 20 minutes ago I got a call from a lady who has a Katrina cat and wants to know what to do with her. So we still get phone calls."

Nearly half the pet owners who wouldn't cooperate with rescuers during the storms had preferred to stay with their homes and their pets. Some people died because rescuers would not bring pets with their owners, forcing the latter to refuse rescue.

The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals noted that even some service animals, such as seeing-eye dogs, were left behind because officials had no policies or shelters to utilize.

'Pets part of family'

"That happened several times in New Orleans," LSPCA Director Laura Maloney said Friday. "A blind person would be with her pet. They lifted her but wouldn't take the pet. So she's just lost not only her companion, but also her eyes. This law requires - requires - that this service dog be transported with her owner."

Iberia Parish, like all parishes, will now have to appoint, or work with, an agency that will be responsible for addressing animal issues during an emergency. Some funding or human resources will have to come from each parish, according to Sen. Clo Fontenot, R-Livingston.

Fontenot, who authored the bill, said from the Senate floor Friday morning the LSPCA "was hoping the bill could be tighter, with more direction from the state, with more state funding."

As such, Fontenot had to make some concessions, but he said it was worth it.

The bill will cost taxpayers about $6 million, including $1.6 million for shelter costs, 2.2 million for state transportation and another $1.9 million, which will go toward the Louisiana Department of Agriculture.

For evacuations in New Orleans, for example, the city will give out bar-coded neck bands for the pets with wrist bands for the owners, Maloney said.

"So we know when we do a scan for that bar code we know this pet goes to this address," Maloney said.

For rooftop-rescue scenarios, as seen time after time after Katrina, the bar-code process won't come into play, but "the animal can come along with the person in the boat," Maloney said from her New Orleans office.

Maloney said "it's been a long haul" to help get the bill passed. They and others started the process in November. On April 17, supporters of the bill trekked to the state capitol steps, some with their pets in hand, for a "People and Pets" rally.

Perry, while thrilled with the bill, said it will still take a lot of cooperation from a lot of agencies.

"It's a step in the right direction, because people's pets are a part of the family," she said. "They shouldn't just be discarded."