California is still being ravaged by wildfires, displacing thousands of families, destroying entire towns and forcing tens of thousands more to evacuate from all over the state. However, it isn’t just humans that are suffering from the raging wildfires; reports of abandoned animals and families being separated from their pets have been flooding social media, along with plenty of pictures and video of the volunteers, firefighters and good Samaritans risking their lives to rescue them.
Among the many admirable rescue stories, ABC7 reporter Veronica Miracle covered a story about little male cat who firefighters pulled out of a burning house, shortly before the roof collapsed. Although Miracle herself didn’t pull the cat from the burning house, she took over care for the cat and attempted to seek help for the burned little guy following his rescue.
“Please help!” Miracle pleaded on Twitter, posting a picture of the cat with burnt whiskers and matted fur. “Firefighters just pulled this cat out of a burning home. It’s badly burned. We need a vet. Or advice on how to care for it. Firefighters saved it and asked us to help because they need to work.”
“The roof has completely come off of the house,” Miracle said of the home the animal was rescued from, adding of the cat, “His whiskers are all singed off.”
Miracle struggled to find a vet to take the cat in, as most clinics in the area were already overwhelmed with lost and injured pets, or were in the direct path of the fire. According to ABC, Miracle and her photographer tried to keep the cat comfortable inside their van while they continued searching for an available vet.
After making several calls, they were able to find a place that could care for the cat and rushed him there. The cat is now being cared for in the ICU, in stable condition, with a fair prognosis. Though he suffered a full burn on one of his legs, his coat protected him from direct flame exposure, ABC reports. Miracle posted a few more videos on her Twitter account, one with the vet rushing out to grab the cat from her van, and another of the little guy curled up in ICU.
The Bachelorette’s Sam Johnson shared several videos of himself attempting to save baby animals before Calabasas was possibly engulfed in flames. In several clips he shared on his Instagram page, he’s seen leading a baby calf to safety before swiftly evacuating other animals on a local property. Johnson can be seen helping the baby calf, cuddling up to a horse with the caption “Calabasas, California,” and helping lead a pig away from a large cloud of smoke that formed over the city.
The Sacramento Fire Department posted several pictures of Twitter of the department’s fire chief and a fellow firefighter feeding some scared, hungry donkeys food and water.
“In an area completely devastated by fire at the #CampFire, SFD Fire Chief Loesch and his firefighter came across these two donkeys walking down the center of the street looking very sad, thirsty and hungry. Animal control was dispatched and they fed them apples while they waited.”
Check out some of the other incredible photos of animal rescues below:
For those who are missing pets after the Camp Fire, check out this page, which is helping reunite lost pets with their owners. The Chico airport is also holding hundreds of animals that were rescued from the fires and offering to take down information for people who still haven’t found their missing furbabies.
Do you have any photos of incredible animal rescues from the November, 2018 California wildfires? Share stories, photos and videos in the comments below.