"I said, 'We're both moms in a way,' " Salk recalled. "I said, 'Please be sensitive. I've loved this dog too. . . . She just kept saying, 'No, I want my baby back.' "

"It took me a while to come off the defensive," said Salk. "They were saying things like '[Kara Keyes] still wants the dog. . . .' I said, 'I've never met her. I don't know who she is.' I mean, this is the dog I've slept on the floor with for two years."

IN NEW ORLEANS: Kara Keyes says that the pit bull rescued in front of her evacuated house in the hurricane-ravaged Seventh Ward in mid-September 2005 is Crown, whom she bought as a puppy in 2002. The dog is living in California, and Keyes and her husband want her returned to them. Keyes has retained a lawyer.; PHOTOGRAPHER:Spencer Weiner Los Angeles Times; IN SANTA MONICA: [Pia Salk] poses on the beach with the pit bull she calls Sweetie, but who Keyes says is Crown. "If I did confirm it was the same dog," Salk said, "I would not return the dog to a home I don't think she's safe in."; PHOTOGRAPHER:[Laura Bergerol]