Separated by LA wildfires, a happy reunion for some pets, owners
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Ms Serena Null was reunited with her cat Domino, who was burned in the Eaton Fire, at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California, on Jan 17.
PHOTO: AFP
PASADENA – When Ms Serena Null saw the flames roaring towards her family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, she ran to find her pet Domino, but the cat eluded her grasp.
“We could see the fire from the front door, and so we just didn’t have enough time, and we had to leave him,” the 27-year-old said.
The ferocious blaze reduced her mother-in-law’s house to ashes, and a search of the blackened rubble the following day proved fruitless. Ms Null feared she would never see her green-eyed friend again.
But more than a week later, to her amazement, she and Domino were reunited.
“I just was so relieved and happy that he was here,” said a tearful Ms Null outside Pasadena Humane, where Domino – suffering singed paws, a burnt nose and a high level of stress – had been taken to after being rescued.
Domino is one of several hundred pets taken to Pasadena Humane as the Eaton fire roared through Altadena, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in such a rush that many left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
The Eaton fire disaster that began on Jan 7 had taken 17 lives.
Pasadena Humane, a non-profit organisation that shelters homeless animals, was accustomed to dealing with crises, but the sudden explosion in demand was without precedent.
“We’ve never before had to take 350 at once in one day,” said the centre’s staff member Kevin McManus. “It’s been really overwhelming.”
Dogs rescued after the Eaton fire are housed at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California.
PHOTO: AFP
Many animals were delivered by their owners, who had lost their homes and had to find temporary housing for pets while they themselves stayed in hotels or shelters.
But others were brought by rescue workers and volunteers. The centre says on its website that when it receives a report of a pet left behind, it sends search and rescue teams as quickly as possible to areas that are safe to enter.
The centre opened up as much space as it could to accommodate the influx, even placing some pets in offices.
And it was not just dogs and cats, Mr McManus said. There were species rarely seen in an animal shelter – like a pony, which spent a night in the centre.
More than 10 days after the fires began raging through Los Angeles, the centre still houses some 400 animals, including rabbits, turtles, lizards and birds such as a huge green, red and blue macaw.
Many of the pets’ owners, still without permanent housing, come to the centre to visit their animal friends.
As firefighters in the area make progress, many animal owners are able to come and recover their pets, tears of sadness turning to tears of joy.
The centre’s website posts photos of recovered animals, including information on the time and place where they were rescued.
Mr McManus said some 250 pets have so far been returned to their owners.
Mr Erick Rico (right) and Ms Jaylene Rosalez recognised their chihuahua mix Bombon from a social media post of the Pasadena Humane and reunited with their pet on Jan 17.
PHOTO: AFP
One of them, curiously, was Bombon, who had actually been lost long before the fires.
The chihuahua mix went missing from its Altadena home in November 2024, said 23-year-old Erick Rico.
He had begun to resign himself to never seeing Bombon again.
Then one day, a friend told him he had seen a picture on the Pasadena Humane website that caught his attention.
When Mr Rico saw it, he was so excited he could not sleep that night. “It looked exactly like him,” he said – and he arrived at the centre early the following morning.
When he saw his owners, Bombon “started crying a lot, wagging his tail and everything. He was very, very happy”, said Mr Rico.
After the painful days of uncertainty, Mr Rico, too, finally felt relief. “Now, I’m just happy that he’s back home.” AFP
