Some Northern Californians who feared the worst for their pets in the wake of this month’s deadly wildfires are getting some welcome good news in recent days: Their animals survived.
Animal shelters and veterinary offices have been posting photos and videos of numerous heartwarming reunions between pet owners and the animals they feared were lost forever.
Many of those reunions involve cats. That’s because when people are fleeing at a moment’s notice, cats are typically more difficult to wrangle than dogs.
“It’s harder to find cats in that kind of stressful situation,” Karen Blount, a veterinarian at Windsor Animal Hospital in Santa Rosa, told HuffPost. “More often than not, they bolt.”
Many people tried their hardest to take their pets with them, but became separated at the last minute.
Jennifer Trabucco told HuffPost that she and her husband noticed smoke pouring into their Santa Rosa home at around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 9.
“We only had about seven minutes to get out of our house,” she said.
Her husband grabbed their three kids and dog while she found and scooped up their two cats, Jake and Luke, in her arms.
“Right as I got outside, [the cats] kind of panicked,” she said. “Luke squirmed out of my arms and I was screaming ‘Oh my God, no!’”
The two cats tore off in different directions — Jake went back into the house while Luke disappeared outside into the night. She ran back in and got Jake, but with flames bearing down and children and other pets in tow, she had to make the heartbreaking…
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