Smith: A documentary will tell the world of Sonoma County's fire-cat rescuers

Outside of Toronto not long after the firestorms of 2017, Katharine Parsons learned of the astonishing efforts by animal lovers in and near Santa Rosa to feed, shelter and humanely capture vast numbers of terrified runaway cats, then reunite them with their families.

There's a movie in this, Parsons thought.

Today she has a documentary short, “The Fire Cats,” in post-production. She seeks help to get it finished and into theaters and film festivals.

Parsons said from home in eastern Canada that a theme of her approximately 40-minute film is how the fires illuminated the intelligence, tenacity and resilience of pet cats.

“They're capable of far more than we ever imagined,” she said.

Central also to “The Fire Cats” is the astonishing way people rose up in the face of a crisis they'd never before witnessed: terrified and perhaps injured cats, scores of them, hiding amid the rubble after having run from the flames.

Parsons, who followed local pet-rescue volunteers to the disaster in Paradise, hopes to premiere her documentary in Sonoma County next spring.

A crowdfunding appeal at seedandspark.com/fund/the-fire-cats#story seeks donations to finish post-production work.

Figuring prominently in “The Fire Cats” is Forestville cat rescuer extraordinaire Shannon Jay. Parson makes dramatic use of fire-zone drone cinematography by Douglas Thron of National Geographic.

Parsons is awed by how first responders, employees of Sonoma County Animal Services and tireless volunteers came together after the Tubbs fire to mount a historic cat care, rescue and reunification mission.

“I can't say enough good things about them,” she said. “I really can't, because they are a sterling example of the best that you can do.”

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WHERE'S ANGEL? Winnie Hogoboom spotted the update story about Angel, the Texas longhorn that survived the Tubbs fire, and the exasperating quest by her keepers to place a new home on their torched land between Highway 101 and Coffey Lane.

Winnie reports that employees of the burned but restored Trader Joe's on Cleveland Avenue put a sweet, local twist on the grocery chain's traditional prize hunt for kids - the stuffed toy they hide is a mini Angel.

If the real cow knew how beloved and important she's become since she weathered the firestorm that claimed her best friend, Valerie Evans, she'd be impossible to live with.

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THANKS FOR THE LIFT: Gaye LeBaron recalled a few years back that she once saw “Pasta King” Art Ibleto without his apron “and I didn't recognize him.”

Gaye wouldn't have recognized Art days ago at an awards dinner at Santa Rosa Golf & Country Club. The host of countless benefit pasta feeds had to gussy up to be honored by the Redwood Empire Boy Scouts Council and Rep. Mike Thompson as the council's 2019 Distinguished Citizen.

Art shared afterward that within minutes of arriving at the country club he experienced difficulty with the monkey suit he rarely wears. He wishes he'd more thoroughly thanked the couple of strangers who watched his dress-up slacks fall to his ankles and valiantly hiked them back up.

You can contact Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.