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Boots may be answering to "Pablo" soon.

The dog rescued from Hurricane Katrina is going back to the woman claiming to be its rightful owner rather than the California couple who adopted it, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

The floodwaters that surged after the hurricane hit in 2005 forced Paula Duming to leave her four-legged friend Pablo behind. And Judge Christopher Whitten believes that same dog, after it was rescued by an animal rescue crew, ended up in the hands of Dustin Jones and Wendy Shieh of San Diego, who named it Boots.

A key piece of information presented at the trial influenced Whitten's decision: The number on the dog's vaccination tag and descriptions of the dog's choke chain — silver with twine attached to it — indicated that Boots and Pablo were one and the same.

Whitten ordered that the dog be returned to Duming, of Chalmette, La., although he acknowledged it could be heartbreaking for Jones and Shieh.

"Unfortunately, no matter how this issue is resolved, a loving pet owner will lose their dog," Whitten wrote.

According to court testimony, emergency personnel rescued Duming from the second story of her Louisiana home in September 2005, shortly after the hurricane struck. But she was not allowed to bring along Pablo in the helicopter. She left him with a stash of food and water.

Pablo was rescued later that month by the Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, and then was taken to an emergency animal sanctuary.

That organization flew Pablo to the Animals Benefit Club of Arizona, which found a foster home for the dog in December 2005 with Jones and Shieh. The pair formally adopted him the next month.

Representatives from Best Friends have argued the dog shouldn't have been put up for adoption. However, the Animals Benefit Club and the new owners claimed that the dog wasn't Duming's Pablo. They also argued adoption after 90 days was part of the agreement.