“As awful as this situation is, it has boosted my confidence in humanity.”-Michelle Moore, Chico State student from Texas working 12 hour shifts to save the animals
The recent Camp Fire in the not-so-golden (for many reasons) U.S. state of California wiped out the town of Paradise. Not only are thousands of people now homeless, so are an estimated 1-thousand-8-hundred pets.
Many of the now homeless cats and dogs are being housed at the Chico Municipal Airport. Volunteers, with groups like North Valley Animal Disaster Group, are struggling to help. Even the California National Guard is helping: “We’re unloading people’s donations and giving people donations that have been received. We give people the right directions if their animal is lost, or if their animal is here and they want to visit them. It’s good to show your support and help them the best way you can. It gives me pride and joy…to help them with whatever they need.”-Specialist Mark Maynard, California Army National Guard
Pallets full of cat food, piles of dog beds, and boxes of leashes and toys have arrived at the airport, and there’s a steady stream of people driving up to donate what they can.
Because of the fires the Chico Municipal Airport is not open to normal air traffic, so it was picked to be a temporary animal shelter. Many of the unpaid volunteers work 12 hours at a time. National Guard Military Police patrol the airport at night so the volunteers can take a break.
The lost pets are brought in by fire fighters, utility workers, or the pets are there because their owners are also now homeless.
But there are reunions between lost pets and owners as well. Other organizations working to save the pets of Paradise are Butte County Animal Control, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the California Veterinary Medical Reserve Corp: “This effort is just so huge. It’s a rare and extraordinary thing. It takes all of us to get things done.”-Norm Rosene, North Valley Animal Disaster Group."
https://www.blindbatnews.com/2018/11/wh ... hell/61528
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"For hardworking officials and volunteers, reunifications are a bittersweet payoff, especially moving because people have been through so much tragedy and trauma. [In] one on Tuesday, a man who was brought back together... with his dog.
“It’s this weird dichotomy. It’s so sad that they lost everything, their whole house, but the look in their eyes when they got their dog back? That’s a part of their life,” [ Director of Animal Services in Kern County - elsewhere in California - Nick ] Cullen says. “It was like some redemption, some positive outcome, and I think that’s what people are looking for when they lose everything like that.”
http://time.com/5461490/rescued-animals ... alifornia/
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"At the airport shelter, Nancy Garoppo showed a worker a photo of her tabby, Mini...
Garoppo had already walked through the cat area, as she has many times since the fire...
When the fire erupted, Garoppo was driving home from Fresno, where she had dropped off her mother. There was no way she could get up the mountain.
A neighbor broke a window to rescue Mini, but the cat hid. With flames closing in, the neighbor fled.
The mobile home park for senior citizens where Garoppo lived was reduced to ashes... She is hoping that Mini somehow survived....
“I didn’t care about my house,” said Garoppo, 62, a flight attendant, who is staying with her sister in Chico. “All I wanted to do was to get up there and rescue the cat. I felt guilty that I wasn’t there for her.”