Pets, owners reunited after Calif. fires
Volunteers bring about 80 animals, families together
Embers falling on their heads, Venesa Rhodes and her husband had seconds to rush their two beloved cats into their SUV before a wildfire last summer would overtake them all.
One cat got in. But the other, named Bella, bolted and disappeared as the blaze bore down. The couple had no choice but to flee, and their home and much of the neighborhood in Redding, Calif., soon was reduced to ash.
Rhodes and her husband, Stephen Cobb, presumed Bella was dead. Devastated by their losses, they moved 1,800 miles to Rhodes’ hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, to start over.
Nearly six weeks later, they got a call that left them gobsmacked: Bella was alive. Volunteers had put out a feeding station at Rhodes’ burned-out property, staked it out after spotting the cat and trapped her.
“I started bawling,” Rhodes said from Anchorage, where Bella was curled up in a corner sleeping. “We were shocked. We were just so overjoyed and just hoping she was OK.”
A network of about 35 volunteers — called Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification — is responsible for many such happy endings, which continue more than two months after firefighters extinguished the blaze, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed six people.
Robin Bray, a field coordinator for the Carr Fire group, said about 80 pets have been reunited with their families using social media and specially made kiosks in Redding where images of found pets are posted. Most are cats that have “been through hell,” she said.
Bray said each new reunion fuels her and the other volunteers, many of whom use their own money to trap and treat the animals.
“We’ve seen amazing things,” Bray said. “We’re finding cats that were in a house and the owners presumed they had passed. The heat of fire breaks windows in houses and cats jump out and run and hide. They’re survivalists.”
Steve and Susan Cortopassi were reunited with their cat, Big Ernie, on Oct. 3, more than two months after the fire started. Their other cat, Elsa, was found about three weeks after the fire, which destroyed their home of 30 years.
The Cortopassis had to evacuate in the middle of the night. They grabbed their two dogs but weren’t able to track down the cats. A friend showed Cortopassi cellphone video of her destroyed home a couple days after the fire and she figured the cats were gone forever.
“It was just complete and utter devastation,” she said. “It’s just a miracle they’re alive. It’s like, life finds a way.”