Saving and Reuniting Fire Cats

Tabby and Herbie survived the Camp Fire. Now, FieldHaven’s experience can guide LA organizations to help cats who are past that critical window of survival.
The Camp Fire decimated Paradise, CA in November 2018, just as the Palisades and Eaton fires have done in LA. FieldHaven was the prominent organization leading rescue and recovery efforts after Camp Fire. A trapper assisting with rescue efforts trapped two cats in Paradise, Herbie, an orange male, and Esther Lola, a calico. They were both tagged as fearful and not social and brought to our recovery center to decompress. In early 2019, when no family was found and they still needed heavy TLC, they went to foster care. Eventually, in September 2019 Herbie was adopted, and Esther Lola, because she was truly feral, became a sanctuary cat at FieldHaven.
Herbie’s adopter, Frank, was a friend of Scout’s, a longtime friend and supporter of FieldHaven. Scout was intimately involved in the Camp Fire rescue, so when she was able to place Herbie, we were all elated.
Patience was herself a survivor of the Camp Fire. She lost her home and Tabby, her kitty, went missing because of it.
In 2019, after FieldHaven exhausted all efforts to find the families of several rescued Camp Fire kitties, and people had chosen to relinquish their cats to FieldHaven because they had no place to keep them, we decided to transfer a number of them to Nevada Humane Society (NHS) in Reno. At this point, allowing them to find new families and move forward was important.
NHS did a big media push when the cats arrived, with the goal of reaching as many people as possible. Not only would this continue efforts of reuniting cats with families, but it would help those who had been relinquished find new families—something that was in their best interest.
When Tabby’s photo was published on social media, someone who knew Patience spotted her. Could Tabby (named Crystal since no one was aware of her actual name) be her missing cat?
It turns out YES! Patience immediately contacted NHS and drove to Reno to make sure, but everything aligned—Tabby was in fact hers! Here’s another fun fact. Kimberly, who is our FieldHaven marketing manager now, was the marketing manager at NHS in 2018… so she helped to play a role in reuniting them!
But the story doesn’t end there.
When Frank was moved to hospice care in late 2023, Scout set to work to find Herbie a new home. Patience was the one who adopted him! Even better, she was willing to wait and let Herbie stay with Frank until he passed—something Herbie needed as well. Patience understood how important it was to Herbie to allow him to be with his person as long as possible. She understood loss.
Today, Patience still has Herbie and Tabby and everyone is doing well, and seeing so many things come full circle has taught us a lot:
- It comes down to people. They need to be able to look for their pets, and for the pets that are found, WE really need to find their homes!
- Every single cat will act feral coming out of the fire! They have been through so much, and they will not look or act like the same cat they were. It will take TIME, but it is important to not brush them off as feral and therefore assume they can survive, or release them outdoors.
- People need to keep looking for their pets, no matter how many months go by! FieldHaven continued to reunite people and pets even a year later!
- We have to assume that all cats are owned, so when a cat is rescued, FIND THE FAMILY.
The Camp Fire was fast and furious—just like in LA. Thanks to our urgency and expertise in rescue and recovery, we saved over 600 cats after the Camp Fire. We gained a significant amount of experience and knowledge. Now, multiple people are reaching out to us from LA asking how they can help, and begging us to get involved. We have to abide by the policies set and be invited by one of the official agencies but we ARE READY to help if we are called upon. We have a wealth of successful knowledge to help SAVE AND REUNITE THESE CATS.