Sonoma County volunteers help pet-rescue efforts in Butte County wildfire

As the sky turned red and thick smoke swirled around Sheryl Hill while she loaded clothes and paperwork into her Chevy Aveo, she was forced to make a heart-wrenching choice: keep searching for her skittish rescue cat or flee for her life as the Camp fire overtook Butte County.

Hill has cared for Penny, an 11-?year-old striped tabby cat since she was a kitten, bottle-feeding the tiny gray feline abandoned by her mother. As the 63-year-old retiree drove away from her Paradise Pines mobile home ?Nov. 8, it felt like something was dragging her backward to what would become the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history.

Hill connected with the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, a Butte County nonprofit that mobilizes trained volunteers to assist sheltering and evacuating animals during fires and other emergencies. Among those volunteers are a contingent of Sonoma County residents, some of whom are scouring burn zones 100 miles away from here in the Chico area for pets like Penny.

Rescuers twice put out food and water for Penny and reported back to Hill when food was missing, Hill said. It was a “huge relief,” she said, to learn her home survived the blaze and her cat still may be alive. When Hill returned home Nov. 19 after camping in a Lowe’s store parking lot, Penny was there and looked “exactly as she did” the last time Hill saw her 11 days earlier before fleeing the fire.

“It was like 10 tons got lifted off my chest,” Hill said, expressing gratitude for the volunteers who fed Penny.

Volunteers from Sonoma County have worked in emergency animal shelters that are housing more than 2,000 animals and fielded thousands of calls from Camp fire evacuees concerned about their pets.

Sonoma County Animal Services also sent four staff members to Butte County to help run emergency shelters, spokesman Rohish Lal said.

Ensuring animals are cared for when a natural disaster strikes is what keeps Glen Ellen’s Julie Atwood, a volunteer with the North Vally animal group, motivated as she spends long days teams to rescue and check on pets and livestock. Atwood, who founded Horse and Livestock Team Emergency Response, to train and equip first responders to rescue large animals, lost a home in the October 2017 wildfires that devastated Sonoma County. Her group was recognized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2016 for its work.

The 63-year-old has been working tirelessly since the Camp fire erupted, coordinating resources, navigating perilous fire zones and lending a hand at veterinary clinics. She said at least 10 Sonoma County volunteers have been helping the North Valley animal group.

“To be able to provide care and comfort for an animal, to wrap it in a blanket, put it in a warm place, talk to it or give it a treat or food - even if the vet says it needs to be euthanized … is really important for us,” Atwood said, her voice breaking with emotion. “That’s where it hits close to home.”

Since Cal Fire doesn’t expect the inferno that has destroyed more than 13,000 homes to be fully contained until the end of November, there likely will be more pets to rescue from the burned areas.

“It feels really good because we know how much help came to us, and we know how valuable it was,” Atwood said. “There are thousands of people up here who have been impacted by so many other disasters.”

You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beausang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@hannahbeausang.