How a Runaway Dog Became a Hero for New Orleans

For months, Scrim ran wild around the city, eluding capture and developing a giant fan base. His saga has inspired tattoos, murals and Mardi Gras floats.

He evaded death at a shelter that needed to make room for more dogs. He was shot at — a veterinarian plucked pieces of ammunition from his flesh. He dodged a train, scampered across an interstate highway and survived on cat food left out for strays.

He is about 3 years old, weighs 17 pounds and has coarse, cloudy fur. And for several months, he had much of New Orleans looking for him. With each foiled capture or implausible escape, his fame grew and so did his reputation. He became an almost mythical figure, too savvy and swift to contain.

His saga has inspired tattoos, murals and Mardi Gras floats. Some have held him up as a renegade, choosing freedom over the comforts of domestic life. Scrim, as someone along the way named him, is also a living, panting embodiment of the spirit of New Orleans: He, like the city, kept on going despite it all.

But for the small band of volunteers who bonded over months of searching for him, Scrim is simply a little dog who has been through a lot of trauma in his short life.

“There were one of two things that could happen,” said David W. Brown, a journalist in New Orleans whose free time became consumed by the chase. The odds of a positive outcome, Mr. Brown said, grew more faint each day that Scrim stayed on the loose.