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Burned and anxious pets fill Pasadena shelter after Eaton fire – Jobsmaa.com

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The kitten's paws were green and red.

Her whiskers, mostly gone. Her ears were singing. Her eyelids, swollen.

When Vanessa Ortiz, a veterinary technician at the Pasadena Humane Society, picked up the kitten, she paused and reminded herself to go with more enthusiasm.

Veterinary technician Vanessa Ortiz gets emotional as she reflects on all the animals injured in the Eaton fire.

Veterinary technician Vanessa Ortiz gets emotional as she reflects on all the animals injured in the Eaton fire.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“You have to be careful when you pet them because they're fragile,” she said.

The badly burned kitten — 3, maybe 4 months old — was being treated in the Pasadena Humane Society's intensive care unit this week after a firefighter found her burned by the Eaton Fire in a section of Altadena.

The shelter has taken in over 500 animals migrated Jan. By the fire that started on the 7th and is still burning. The Eaton Fire and another fire in Pacific Palisades that day burned more than 37,000 acres and destroyed at least 10,697 structures. Officials have confirmed 27 deaths.

Many fleeing the flames were forced to make devastating choices about their pets. Some, frightened, hid or refused to leave. In other cases, their owners left the house and could not return safely.

Los Angeles City and County Animal Control Officers They are searching Burnt areas, searching Lost pets And leave food and water. But growing residents Increasingly frustratedWide evacuation zones blocked off by the National Guard and law enforcement officials are still inaccessible. Many people worry about their furry family members.

At the Pasadena Humane Society, displaced pets were brought in by many owners. Others, like the kitten, were found among the rubble – their names and owners, if they had owners, unknown.

At the shelter this week, there were hundreds of cats and dogs. About 50 chickens. Three water dragon lizards. A few rabbits and goats. A pony that used to hang out in the office before being moved to the horse facility. and A A 28-year-old, 200-lb. Tortoise Named Huckleberry.

A 5 days old puppy Her eyes were still unopened, visible beneath the crumbling building. She rested in an incubator in the shelter's ICU until staff found a foster home where she could recover.

Eaton, a tiny cat who was singed by fire, is being treated at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena.

A small cat that was consumed by the Eaton fire is treated Wednesday at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena. PHS is caring for animals that were found, including pets from evacuees who had to be left in foster care at the facility and some that were injured in the Eaton fire.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Pasadena Humane offers free boarding for pets with known owners, said Kevin McManus, a spokesman for the nonprofit shelter.

“We don't want people to lose their homes and family members,” McManus said of the pets. “We know it's going to be a long, long journey.”

Under normal circumstances, the shelter holds stray or unidentified animals for five days before adopting them. Animals that survived the fire will be held for at least 21 days while staff and volunteers try to find their owners, McManus said.

All the adoptable animals that existed before the fire — to shelters in Sacramento, Santa Barbara, San Diego and other cities — will make way for fire refugees.

There have been so many donations of pet food, leashes, toys, crates, kitty litter and other items that Pasadena Humane has had to borrow warehouse space to store it all, McManus said. What shelter needs now, he added, are financial contributions, not goods.

A line of people dropping off their pets at a Pasadena shelter stretched around the block on the day winds whipped up the flames.

Those found in the burned areas had burns and cuts. They were dehydrated and suffocating, some with their eyes closed.

And they were shocked.

In the ICU, the unidentified black-and-tan kitten — known only as A519470 — sat in her box staring straight ahead as people bustled around the room.

When she first got there earlier this week, she tried to run away and screamed any time someone tried to touch her, Ortiz said. After one night's sleep, she woke up in good spirits and the medical staff scratched her cheek.

A chicken rescued from the Eaton fire now lives at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena.

A chicken rescued from the Eaton fire now lives at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“Right now, we're feeling very confident because she's eating, she's drinking, she's moving,” Ortiz said Wednesday as she dabbed manuka honey on the kitten's burns and prepared to ease the pain. “Some of our cats don't move at all. We lost some.”

Ortiz's voice caught on.

Last week, she helped care for Roxy, a 15-year-old poodle rescued from a collapsed house. The dog suffered severe burns, sore eyes and red and swollen gums from smoke inhalation. She struggled to breathe.

Roxy's owner said Ortiz was an old man. When someone called him after finding Roxy, he was confused.

He said, 'Sorry, my dog ​​is white, not grey. I didn't think it was my dog,'' Ortiz said.

It's Roxy. She was covered in ashes.

“His house was completely gone,” Ortiz said. “She was 15. She was able to get out.

The owner brought her to the Pasadena Humane before moving to another city where she had a place to stay.

Ortiz recalled when he handed Roxy over, “He didn't want me to take her anymore. He wanted to hold her. But —”

Roxy was transferred to an emergency hospital. She died three days later.

A pair of dogs left by Eaton fire evacuees at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena

A pair of dogs were left at the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena by Eaton fire evacuees.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Outside Pasadena Humane's ICU, two large, gray dogs, believed to be cane corso mixes, shared a kennel and leaned against each other, eyeing passersby with amused eyes. They were brought in from an emergency veterinary hospital. In the fire zone, they drank car coolant because they were very thirsty.

“Now that they're stable, they're here, we expect them to recover,” McManus said. “The next step is trying to figure out where they came from. Who they belong to.”

In another room, Milo, a 14-year-old tabby cat who was dropped off by his owner on Jan. 7, poked his paw in his box, wanting pets from volunteer Gabby Solingen. She laughed, clearly saying that he attracted a lot of attention at home.

Solingen, who lives in Tarzana, evacuated her parents from their home near Mulholland Drive when the Palisades Fire got too close. It survived, but most of her friends did not. His alma mater, Palisades Charter High School Badly damaged.

She was volunteering at Pasadena Humane on Wednesday because it feels good to do something worthwhile, she said.

“I wanted to help,” she said. “I'm kind of sad sitting there.”

That afternoon, Michael and Kimberly Cuccione, a septuagenarian couple from Altadena, left the shelter with their 16-year-old cats, Nellie and Lily, in two soft crates.

Michael and Kimberly Gucione rescued their cats from the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena on January 15, 2025.

Michael and Kimberly Cuccione rescued their cats from the Pasadena Humane Society in Pasadena on Wednesday. The Gucciones had to evacuate the Eaton fire and left their cats in foster care at the humane society. Evacuation orders were lifted in their neighborhood and they went home for the first time since the fire last week.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

The Cucciones dropped off the cats the night the fire started and stayed at a Red Cross shelter for a week before they were allowed back into their home, which survived. The cats would have been very bored at the shelter among hundreds of people and were well cared for at the Pasadena Humane.

When reunited with their owners, they were lethargic and unresponsive. But the Gussions were happy and relieved to see them.

“They're our family,” Kimberly Cuccione said. “We miss them so much.”

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