After two weeks, the 27-year-old had seen about all the devastation he could take. That's when a 6-week-old Akita pup jumped in the soldier's lap.

Now Pius the pup is in Andover, Arleque's loyal friend for life. He named the dog Pius for St. Pius X School, where Arleque was stationed. Pius was shipped home a couple of weeks ago, where he waited Arleque's return last Sunday.

Arleque's mission was to provide security, set up checkpoints, work with local police and firefighters and search and rescue. They didn't rescue any humans, Arleque said, but the unit rescued more than 100 dogs and a few cats. They bottle-fed three kittens four times a day until they were strong enough to live on solid food.

Arleque said the victims he met were in good spirits, despite losing their homes and possessions. He said they were just happy their loved ones were alive.

What sounds like a horror movie was reality for Akstin, 34, and fellow firefighter , 26, who spent 30 days on the Gulf Coast working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., they helped feed people, clear fallen trees and put out fires that homeowners had set to their dwellings. With no flood insurance, they hoped to collect on a claim for fire damage, Akstin said.

Both men also felt some danger from residents angry with the slow response of FEMA. Akstin and Ryan were issued FEMA shirts, but many times decided to wear their Haverhill Fire Department shirts so they did not upset the residents.

"It was great to come home and see my family," Ryan said. "At the same time I felt like we could have done more. There is so much more to do down there."

Ryan is not married, but Akstin has a wife, Tamee, and a year-old daughter, Aimee. While he was away, the family moved into a new home, where he slept for the first time Sunday night.

Ahern, 42, of Merrimac left her post at the Merrimack River Feline Rescue in Salisbury to help save the thousands of animals locked in flooded homes without food or water or wandering the streets in New Orleans.

In her first week there, she and fellow rescuers used sledgehammers to break into homes. They climbed over slimy and upended furniture, collecting dogs and house cats where the floodwaters had left them. Those cats that weren't cowering under mattresses they found on tops of refrigerators, even in the rafters of one house.

Of the first 60 pets Ahern found, only two were dead, and those had drowned. But she knew the good luck couldn't last. When she arrived, the animal rescue teams still had more than 10,000 homes to check, going by a list of addresses provided by people who had left their pets in the city, and she knew the 500 animal rescue volunteers in the area couldn't possibly make it to every home in time.

Ahern called her friends and told them to drop what they were doing and come help. She said she hoped to collect enough donations to the Feline Rescue Society to defray some of their expenses.

This past weekend, the mold in the houses was so thick that Ahern couldn't go in most of them without a mask. Some of the animals were sick and emaciated. Others looked remarkably healthy after weeks without food.

"It's hard to stop," Ahern said. "You know there's a cat inside, or a dog. They're alive right now. It's a matter of days when they won't be."

For two weeks, the executive director of Lazarus House Ministries, with four employees and volunteers, helped the relief efforts in Meridian, Miss.

The Lawrence group worked 12-hour days loading food onto trucks under a blazing sun. They slept in a barracks with 600 closely spaced cots. Their legs got numb from standing too long and they needed ice water to lower their body temperatures.

They also drove around town armed with cleaning supplies and food in a search for victims who did not evacuate their homes. When offered a gallon of bleach, prayers or a hug, most people asked for the last two, Shaheen said.

Shaheen recognized the look of panic on people's faces as they wondered if they'd be able to feed their families. It is a look she sees frequently in her home office, she said.

"It confirms who we are as human beings, as a Christian and as part of Lazarus House," she said. "We were tired, but we took comfort knowing that our energy gave strength to someone else."

"She looked at me and said she couldn't believe how things kept happening to her," Waugh said. "Then she tried to refuse help because she didn't want to take away from others."

Waugh, 31, volunteered with 30 colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital to work with Project HOPE and the Red Cross in Pascagoula, Miss. Project HOPE coordinated the health care the group provided on the USNS Comfort in the town's naval shipyard.

Waugh treated dehydrated newborns and people with food allergies and chronic illnesses who couldn't get primary care. Many patients had dental problems because of the contaminated water they were drinking.

But one of her most difficult tasks was keeping people hydrated. They were so sick of water, she said, they wanted something with flavor. But with the temperatures hitting 105 degrees, they had to drink.

Of all the things that can be said about and the outlandish twist his life has taken in the past three weeks, the safest is this: The man is decisive.

Green, a 31-year-old Lawrence resident sent south as a Red Cross volunteer, met Adrianna Silva, a 29-year-old Uruguayan immigrant displaced from New Orleans, in a Louisiana church shelter just before Hurricane Rita hit. He instantly knew there was chemistry.

He escorted her over the following days to ultrasound appointments. With a month to go before her due date, she asked Green to be the baby's father. He said "absolutely."

A day or two later, he was secretly selecting a ring with which to propose. He guessed at her size — correctly, it turned out — rather than wait and find out.

And now that she has accepted his spur-of-the-moment proposal in the Wal-Mart parking lot last week, Green expresses not a whiff of doubt about the whole incredible affair.

"It's unbelievable — I don't have much back in Lawrence; she doesn't have anything here," said Green. "One thing we do have is love to give to each other."

So in the next few weeks he's set to get married, become a father for the first time, and permanently move to Donaldsonville. And his biggest worry is how he'll get Adrianna a wedding dress.

"The moral of the story is that when you have true love, anything is possible," he said. "God has a plan for everybody. I just wasn't expecting the plan to go so fast."

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