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NATION
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, November 4, 2018 7A
Months after California wildfire,
pets and their owners reunited
WISCONSIN
3 Girl Scouts, 1 adult
killed in hit-and-run
STACEY JIMENEZ I Associated Press
Volunteers with Carr Fire Pet Rescue and Reunification stand at their “Lost and Found Fire
Pets” kiosk in Redding, Calif. Volunteers continue to track and catch missing pets nearly two
months after the fire was extinguished.
BY AMANDA LEE MYERS
Associated Press
Embers falling on their
heads, Venesa Rhodes and
her husband had seconds to
rush their two beloved cats
into their SUV before a wild
fire last summer would over
take them all.
One cat got in. But the
other, Bella, bolted and dis
appeared as the blaze bore
down. The couple had no
choice but to flee, and their
home and much of the neigh
borhood in Redding, Califor
nia, was reduced to ash.
Rhodes and her husband,
Stephen Cobb, presumed
Bella was dead. Devastated
by their losses, they moved
1,800 miles to Rhodes’ home
town of Anchorage, Alaska,
to start over.
Nearly six weeks later,
they got a call that left them
gobsmacked: Bella was
alive. Volunteers had put out
a feeding station at Rhodes’
burned-out property, staked
it out after spotting the cat,
and then trapped her.
“I started bawling,”
Rhodes said from Anchor
age, where Bella was curled
up in a corner sleeping. “We
were shocked. We were just
so overjoyed and just hoping
she was OK.”
Rhodes and Cobb are
among dozens who lost their
homes in the Carr Fire but
had their lives brightened
weeks or months later when
their pets were found.
A network of about 35
volunteers — called Carr
Fire Pet Rescue and Reuni
fication — is responsible for
many of the happy endings,
which continue months after
firefighters extinguished the
blaze, which destroyed more
than 1,000 homes and killed
six people.
The group formed with
the help of another volun
teer animal group born out
of the devastating Tubbs
Fire, which killed at least 22
people and destroyed thou
sands of homes last year in
wine country north of San
Francisco.
Robin Bray, a field coordi
nator for the Carr Fire group,
said about 80 pets have been
reunited with their families
using social media and spe
cially made kiosks in Red
ding where images of found
pets are posted. Most are
cats that have “been through
hell,” she said.
Bray said each new
reunion fuels her and the
other volunteers, many of
whom use their own money
to trap and treat the animals.
“We’ve seen amazing
things,” Bray said. “We’re
finding cats that were in a
house and the owners pre
sumed they had passed. The
heat of fire breaks windows
in houses and cats jump out
and run and hide. They’re
survivalists.”
The volunteers go to elab
orate lengths to catch the
animals, which often are
traumatized and injured.
Equipped with night-vision
cameras, traps and lots of
food for bait, the volunteers
stake out an area where a
missing pet has been spotted,
waiting for the right moment
to drop a trap.
They won a hard-fought
rescue of a dog nicknamed
Buddy on Oct. 27 after he
had eluded capture for
weeks. They tried luring him
with steak and french fries,
another dog and a pickup
truck like the one his owner
drove before nabbing him.
It was a two-woman, two-
hour operation. One woman
crawled on the ground and
placed food under a trap and
the other waited in a truck
and pulled a rope to com
plete the capture.
Bray, a private pilot by
day, once spent nearly seven
hours trapping a cat. The
wait was worth it, she said.
“So many of these people
have lost everything,” Bray
said. “The only thing they
care about is finding their pet
that they love. They want that
hope back in their lives and
we’re trying to provide that.”
Jessica Pierce, a Lyons,
Colorado-based bioethicist
who studies end-of-life issues
involving humans and their
pets, said losing a beloved
animal and a home is a dou
ble whammy of grief.
“To then be reunited with
a pet you thought was gone,
that would be like getting a
piece of your home back,”
she said. “For many people,
pets are a sense of home, and
they identify home with a
sense of comfort and peace.”
Steve and Susan Cortopassi
were reunited with their cat,
Big Ernie, on Oct. 3, more
than two months after the
fire started. Their other cat,
Elsa, was found about three
weeks after the fire, which
destroyed their home of 30
years.
The Cortopassis had to
evacuate in the middle of
the night. They grabbed their
two dogs but weren’t able to
track down the cats. A friend
showed Cortopassi cellphone
video of her destroyed home
a couple days after the fire
and she figured the cats were
gone forever.
“It was just complete and
utter devastation,” she said.
“It’s just a miracle they’re
alive. It’s like, life finds a
way.”
Associated Press
LAKE HALLIE - A
pickup truck lurched off a
road in western Wisconsin
Saturday and hit a group
of Girl Scouts picking up
trash in a ditch, leaving
three girls and one adult
dead and critically injuring
a fourth girl, police said.
Sgt. Daniel Sokup of the
Lake Hallie Police Depart
ment said the driver of the
black Ford F-150 pickup
truck fled the scene but
later turned himself in.
He identified the driver
as Colton Treu, 21, of Chip
pewa, Falls, Wisconsin.
Sokup said Treu will be
charged with four counts
of homicide through the
negligent use of a vehicle.
Sokup said the crash hap
pened before a hill and
there were no blind spots.
“The area is not an
unsafe area,” he said.
Sokup said it was not known
if there were other factors
that might have led the
driver to leave the road.
The crash happened late
Saturday morning as the
girls were picking up litter
in a ditch in Lake Hallie, a
town about 95 miles east of
Minneapolis.
The girls were in the
fourth grade at Halmstad
Elementary in Chippewa
Falls, Wisconsin, the Min
neapolis Star-Tribune
quoted a relative of a girl
in the troop who was not
injured as saying. The Girl
Scouts were all wearing
bright safety vests and were
with several adults.
Two of the girls and the
woman were pronounced
dead at the scene. A third
Girl Scout was transported
to a hospital where she
later died, Sokup said.
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