By Lisa Richwine and Jackie Luna
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A fluffy gray cat peered out of the window of a home that was spared the wrath of the Palisades Fire this month. Just next door, a house had burned to the ground.
Los Angeles Animal Control Officer Luis Luna pressed his face against a glass door to get a closer look at the feline. After determining the cat looked healthy, Luna slid bowls of kibble and water inside an unlocked door. The cat quickly came over to eat.
“He must have food because he looks alert and pretty chubby,” Luna said. “He’ll have something fresh for at least the next 48 hours. And then we’ll come back.”
Luna is part of the ongoing effort to find pets left behind or lost during the chaos of the Palisades Fire near the coast and the Eaton Fire on the opposite side of Los Angeles. Three weeks after the blazes broke out, authorities still field dozens of calls a day from anxious pet owners.
Hundreds of animals have been reunited with their families, according to officials and rescue workers. They range from dogs and cats to chickens, goats, pigs, exotic birds, koi fish and reptiles such as bearded dragons, said Susan Anderson, director of disaster response for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which has assisted with rescue efforts.
Because the gray Palisades cat appeared healthy and not in danger, Luna opted to leave it in place with a notice telling the owners to retrieve the animal within 48 hours. After that, animal control has the legal authority to take the cat to a shelter, where the owners will have more time to claim it.
While many animals have been evacuated from fire zones and reunited with their families, some are elusive. One cat that Luna dubbed “Houdini” has been spotted repeatedly on cameras but disappears when searchers arrive.
“I’ve gone everywhere in this house – closets, behind appliances, under the couch, and like trying to find a hole in the couch,” Luna said. “I have no idea where this guy’s at.”
‘CATS SURVIVE FIRES’
Luna was able to trap a black-and-white cat named Felix at one home and encountered a neighbor who provided a phone number for the owner’s caregiver, who was contacted and is trying to arrange a reunion.
The neighbor, however, had just made a grim discovery. Roughly 20 fish in his saltwater aquarium had not survived.
Searches often begin when a pet owner provides an address where an animal may be located. In many cases, rescuers find no trace of the animals. In the worst situations, they find them deceased.
Anderson described one instance in which seven dead dogs were found in a house that burned down. Rescuers informed the owner and removed the remains so they would not provide an additional stressor when the woman returned.
Los Angeles Animal Services is running a hotline for people to call about their missing pets. Even after several weeks, there is the possibility for happy reunions, rescue workers said.
Cats, in particular, are likely to stay in the burned-out areas because they like familiar territory, said Joy Smith, the founder of FieldHaven Feline Center. She observed cat behavior while helping in the aftermath of the 2018 fire in Paradise, California, and the 2023 fire in Maui, Hawaii.
Smith said it was important to provide food and water stations in the fire zones and to search for cats at night because they are nocturnal animals.
“Cats survive fires,” Smith said. “In Maui, they went into storm drains. Wherever they go, they manage to survive. They are so resilient.”
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Mary Milliken and Sandra Maler)
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