Wildfire spares show kennel in Bastrop, Texas

The Cen­tral Texas wild­fires have every­one in this area wor­ried and this week we had our own lit­tle scare when a wild­fire flared up near our neigh­bor­hood. The sirens wailed for over an hour as fire­fight­ers and first respon­ders raced to the site. We feel extremely for­tu­nate and grate­ful the fire was put out in a few hours and lit­tle prop­erty dam­age was reported. We and our neigh­bors were very lucky.

The sirens and fast-paced report­ing of local news sta­tions gave us the chance to proac­tively set up sup­plies and crates to pre­pare for a quick evac­u­a­tion of every­one out of the house and into the car. How­ever, many peo­ple affected by the Texas wild­fires aren’t being given as much notice. They must run out the door before the flames are upon them, with slim chance of grab­bing any­thing as they do. Heart­break­ing sto­ries are pour­ing in of peo­ple who had to leave their homes, pets, and ani­mals behind; some­times leav­ing with noth­ing more than what they were wear­ing at the time.

One such story piqued our inter­est as it deals with a show breeder of Finnish Spitz dogs. They were able to grab three dogs but had to leave the rest behind. When they heard their home burned, they assumed the nearby ken­nel was gone, too, which meant a tragic loss of their remain­ing dogs and 40 years of work on their line. In a happy exam­ple of how fickle fire can be in what it burns and what it spares, read more and lis­ten to their story as reported by Shel­ton Green at KVUE news.

Lost and Found for Cen­tral Texas Wild­fire Animals

For peo­ple forced to leave their pets, many groups are tak­ing in found ani­mals and set­ting up sites to match own­ers with miss­ing pets. Some res­cue groups are work­ing with author­i­ties to search for trapped pets in areas still restricted to prop­erty owners.

If you are look­ing for a pet or have found an ani­mal related to these fires, please visit these sites and con­tact the groups below.

Wild­fire Pet Res­cue — Bas­trop, Smithville, Ped­er­nales  & Steiner Ranch Wild­fires (Includes links at the top to other major res­cue groups.)

Austin Humane Soci­ety — LOST Bas­trop Fire Ani­mals Housed at AHS

Face­book — Bas­trop Fire Find Your Pet

Now for the happy reunion sto­ries to keep pour­ing in!

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