By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

BRIDGTON – Lola doesn’t act like a dog that experienced the horror of Hurricane Katrina.

She’s not timid, scared or hesitant. Instead, she runs up to visitors, greeting them with a tail that wags enthusiastically and liquid brown eyes that beg you to scratch her ears.

Lola was one of the hundreds of homeless animals lucky enough to encounter Brogan Horton, a University of Southern Maine student who spent spring break in devastated Biloxi, Miss., rather than Florida.

“There are so many animals that are starving to death,” Horton said Wednesday as she walked Lola near her family’s farm in Bridgton. Lola is staying with Horton and her family while they search for new owners for the friendly pup.

Horton, 19, was one of about 100 college students from across the country chosen for Alternative Spring Break, sponsored by MTV and the United Way. Students were selected based on applications they submitted with accompanying essays explaining why they wanted to help with the aftermath of the deadly storm last August.

“I never thought that little old me from Bridgton, Maine, would be chosen,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to help; I just didn’t know how.”

Horton flew to Biloxi earlier this month, paid for by the United Way, and spent a week in Biloxi, one of the areas hardest hit by the storm.

She slept in a tent and worked long days with other volunteers, gutting and reroofing mold-infested homes that were ripped apart by Katrina. Despite the massive devastation, Biloxi residents displayed true Southern hospitality, even as they slept in tents, still unable to move back into their homes.

They served her catfish and crawfish as thanks for the home repairs.

“Their morale is amazing,” Horton said. “They have nothing and they’ll give you what they’ve got.”

Seven months later, the storm damage remains widespread. Homes and businesses are destroyed. One elderly woman was living in a house with a large tree through it. “She was just living around the tree,” Horton said.

By chance, she met volunteers from Triple R Pets, a grass-roots organization formed in Katrina’s wake to rescue homeless animals. What she experienced motivated her more than she imagined.

In the evenings, Horton worked with the volunteers, luring homeless dogs and cats into a van with bowls of donated pet food. They rescued countless animals who were roaming the streets or sitting in yards, waiting for owners who will probably never return. Some people signed their pets over to the volunteers, unable or unwilling to care for them.

The animals were taken to area shelters, but many were euthanized because of limited space and not enough people to adopt them. It ultimately convinced Horton that she had to return.

She leaves next week for Mississippi, this time in her own car, and will spend at least six weeks in the region working with Triple R Pets and also helping with home repairs one day a week. With USM’s permission, she completed her spring final exams early so she can return.

The experience also changed her thoughts about a career. A business major, she’s now considering veterinary school and has started pursuing a veterinarian technician’s license through an online course.

Since her return from her first trip to the Gulf Coast, she made a road trip with her uncle to Pennsylvania to retrieve a van load of dogs and cats and bring them to the Kennebec Valley Humane Society in Augusta. She said more animals will be arriving in Maine in the coming months, and she’s urging people to adopt one or more if they are able.

She is also urging people to donate to Triple R Pets to pay for medical and other supplies for the animals and rent cargo vans to bring them to no-kill shelters throughout the country.

She is even maintaining a “wish list” if people are interested in a specific breed of cat or dog. “We have everything down there,” she said. “I don’t want recognition for this. I want recognition for the problem that’s down there.”

Anyone interested in adding their name to the wish list or adopting Lola may contact Brogan at her e-mail address, [email protected]. Donations to Triple R Pets may be made via the organization’s Web site at www.triplerpets.org.