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The call from HSUS came in the afternoon one day last week. They needed to know if I could, as an NDART volunteer, deploy to the Butte Lightning Complex fires near Oroville, California the following morning. I could and would. The only reason I am able to drop everything and take off at a moment’s notice is because Butterfly lives here and is willing to step in and take over. Everyone should have a Butterfly. And no, you can’t have mine!

Now, several days later, I’m tired and I’ve only been at this animal rescue business for a few days. I can’t even begin to imagine what all the firefighters working across the state of California for the last month must feel like. At a briefing at the emergency animal shelter the other morning, a captain with Cal Fire told us that the good news is the Butte Fires are no longer #1 in the state. Some other fire has that distinction. Just in case, though, even the Australians are sending help our way. Our weary firefighters will be ever so grateful.

This incident is close enough to me that I was able to drive to the emergency shelter in a little over an hour. 

Noah's Wish crew

When arriving at these incidents, it’s always a little like old home week, because you are sure to run into people you know from other disasters. I knew this group of Noah’s Wish volunteers from having worked with them in Slidell after Hurricane Katrina.

Cages inside shelter

It was a familiar scene, with the sights and sounds and smells that stay in your head for days (and nights). The sounds of dogs barking in metal buildings are sounds that you can’t forget. Notice the smoke even inside the buildings – that is not a “soft focus” filter on my lens!

Signs go up in a hurry

Money is always needed

I was partnered with another HSUS person and assigned to go behind the fire lines to do animals welfare checks at the request of evacuated residents. These requests came in to Butte County Animal Control and you can imagine that with 10,000 evacuated residents, they were overwhelmed with work. 

Even though the emergency animal shelter had been set up across the street from the Red Cross shelter for humans, not everyone had been able to bring their pets with them when they left home. Many were awakened in the middle of the night and were given very little notice to evacuate. Many were forced to leave livestock behind. I was heartened to see over 300 animals, mostly owned and identified, in residence at the shelter when I arrived. How different this was from what I had seen at Hurricane Katrina shelters! Here we were caring for animals who we knew would return to their homes and owners as soon as the danger had passed. At Katrina, in most cases we had no clue where the animals belonged. Well, you know that story. How far we have all come … thankfully.

Speaking of grateful, as my assigned partner and I drove through the devastated countryside checking on the welfare of animals (at the request of owners), we saw many tributes to the firefighters.

The fires were still very active

Often as we tried to find our way to the assigned address, the fires were still burning alongside the road. These flames, and the dangerous nature of wildfires in general, are the reasons you keep that Nomex fire suit on, no matter that it’s over 100 degrees outside.

Too close for comfort

Sad scene

Our marching orders might read something like “check on 3 friendly dogs, 2 cats”. Sometimes we’d find this upon arrival and you can imagine how we’d feel. At this particular place we found no sign of the animals.

Is it hot here or is it just me?

Scorched kong toy

We can only hope that they made it to safety. And I hope that you all realize how disturbed I am by how unflattering that Nomex fire suit looks on me. Sheesh. It must be the camera angle.

Still smoldering

Crop guardian

At another home, I spied this little guy whose job, apparently, was to guard the garden gate. As I looked around at the still intact crop, I saw why.

Lush crop

No fire damage here ... yet ...

At one home we were told to look for 4 cats, 4 kittens, (all outside) and 1 big parrot on the deck. 

Polly wanna a cracker?

This parrot was quite happy to see us, and I was delighted to get it into the shelter and to a vet for some much-needed attention for that large red mass at its vent. It talked to us in the van as we traveled the rest of the day, and was quite vocal upon arrival at the shelter. I think it was relieved to be out of the heat and smoke. We managed to capture all 4 kittens and 2 of the adult cats. We left the two others who outsmarted all of our attempts to capture them (including trapping), plenty of food and water. I don’t think there was much danger of the fire returning to their area, but we would have felt better if we could have removed them.

Rest in peace

This was an unfortunate fowl of some kind – a chicken, perhaps?

Some creatures, however, were going to survive just about anything.

Fire? What fire?

Creature mailbox

We saw signs like this one, thanking the firemen, propped up everywhere. 

The phone and electric repair crews were out in force. I felt sorry for them. They were valiantly trying to repair their lines. While they were replacing poles, other poles were still burning. It seemed like a futile situation to me, but I had to believe they knew what they were doing. They needed to get services back to this remote area so people could return to their homes. 

One phone crew flagged us down as we drove by in an area that had been completely burned. There was nothing but ash and skeletons of trees and brush.

“Hey, can you guys give us a hand?” they yelled while standing near the fence off to the side of the road.

We slowed to see what the problem was, wondering what they needed from us. Obviously they had seen the sign on our van identifying as “Animal Rescue” because they said, “There’s a bird here that doesn’t belong.”

“What kind is it?” I asked.

“I think it’s a cockatiel!” they said.

We pulled over and I hopped out to investigate. Sure enough, there was a gray cockatiel hopping around in the inches-thick ash. I went over the fence to get closer and see if it was finger-tame, which it wasn’t. Or at least it was choosing not to cooperate, which was understandable due to what it had just been through! Between the two of us, one on each side of the fence armed with a pillow case, we caught “Smoky” in short order. He didn't have any visible injuries, thank goodness. I gave him water once he was safely in a carrier and he was one thirsty little bird!

Rescued cockatiel

Another rescue crew found this little kitty, dubbed “Cinder”, because she was found beneath the burned out hull of a boat, crying pitifully.

Cinder

Her little paws were singed, as were her whiskers. Other than that, she seemed to be in fine health. They said everything in sight was a total loss, they had no idea how she survived, they received no report of a cat in the area, and it was sheer luck that they heard her crying as they drove by.

I worked an 8pm-8am shift at the shelter so that other workers could get some much-needed rest. Fifinella went with me and she proved to be invaluable. We spent the first several hours rearranging some of the dogs – getting the youngest puppies and the more aggressive dogs out of the general population. This was done for disease control and for safety reasons.

Mom and babies

Puppy transport

During the day a large number of what are called “convergent” volunteers usually arrive on-site. These are people who show up to help, but usually have no formal training. Some might be pet owners, but many have never handled large dogs, or aggressive dogs, and certainly have never been around the number of stressed dogs we have in these situations. Many are out being walked simultaneously and there are lots of opportunities for “wrecks” if everyone isn’t very careful. We like to remove the “hard to handle” dogs from the general population so that only the more experienced volunteers work with them. And sometimes, even a Chihuahua can qualify as being “hard to handle”! It’s not always the Rotts and Pitts who fall into this category, contrary to popular belief.

The first part of the night was spent getting all the animals settled in for the night and trying to secure all the dogs that were known escape artists. We then had to deal with the arrival of two badly burned cats. We had a vet on site, but we didn’t have the drugs he needed to treat them. Finally another vet arrived with a mobile unit, and he was able to care for them and then transport them for us. 

Finally about 1am, we were able to settle down on cots placed by the front gate, which had no lock. Our job was to keep an eye on the gate, make sure no dogs got into trouble through the night, and just generally keep an eye on things. The cat building was outside of this enclosed area, so their doors were locked and we didn’t have to worry about them.

We didn’t go more than half an hour at a time without someone howling to go potty, or appearing outside, having successfully chewed/clawed their way out of their cage. It was a long night. 

One rough night!

This little one not only need a potty break, but she desperately needed some one-on-one time with humans. She bounced from cot to cot for about 15 minutes, ecstatic to be out of her cage. You have to cut me some slack – the dog and I both have bed-head. Hey – it was about 3 am!

Time and time again we put Penny back in her cage.

Penny

Penny and her housemate, Charlie, were put in the back corner of the shelter, away from other dogs, in attempt to keep them from being agitated. It didn’t work. She hated being in a cage and it wasn’t long before she chewed through the zip-ties that had been added as extra security and pushed her way out. Charlie, in a separate cage, howled piteously when she left him. That, of course, got the rest of the critters in an uproar.

Fifinella took Penny and Charlie for potty walks while I cleaned their cages and repaired Penny’s as best I could. Then we put her back in (which was a challenge), and this time added bungee cords to secure it. I ordered everyone else to be quiet (that worked so well) and back to our cots we went. 

“I can’t believe I’m in Oroville on a cot, smelling like dog poop!” said Fifinella.

“With your mother!” I added.

“Yeah, that, too,” she agreed.

We could hear Penny working on her newest challenge. Nothing daunted this dog.

It wasn’t long (maybe about half an hour) before we heard the click of toenails on concrete.

“Penny! That had better not be you!” I said as I swung my feet off the cot to go investigate.

It was. She gave a guilty look my way and thought about going in a different direction, but there was nowhere to hide. Charlie was raising a ruckus.

“I’ll get some carabiners, you go get Charlie,” I told Fifinella, while leashing Penny. We were out of options for containing these two dogs without making a lot of noise and waking everyone up.

We spent the rest of the night each with a dog connected to us. Penny was quite content to sit by my side – anything was better than being in that crate, apparently. Charlie was absolutely ecstatic to have Fifinella as the object of his affection!

Chalie, sit!

Charlie, go to sleep!

Fifinella had her hands full. Charlie thought it was all a big game and leaped and played and had a ball. 

“Hey! Why did I get the pup?” she complained.

I just snickered.

Along about 5am, Charlie decided it was time to go to sleep. Darn dog! Just when it was time to get up and get to work. So much for my beauty rest.

As you can see, working a disaster, whether specifically for the animal side or the human side, (even though they are so closely interwoven), is clearly a lot of hard work. It goes on around the clock and is an emotional roller coaster. One moment you see death and destruction, and then around the next corner you stumble upon the miracle kitten or cockatiel. Perhaps the following picture sums it up best:

So happy together!

Sometimes the tiniest member of the family is all it takes to make the biggest family members forget their worries. These two men were at the shelter enjoying a visit with their dog. This was a win – win – win – for the dog, the men, and all the volunteers … as if any of us needed a reminder of why we were doing what we were doing.