Terri Birch grew up in Oklahoma on the ancestral lands of the Wichita people, a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. Later, she raised a family, living and working in busy Orange County, CA. She was happy to retire to the mountains, giving up the rat race and buying a six-acre ranch in Bodfish, a small town near Lake Isabella. “It feels good to be back on land that was once ours,” she says of the connection between the forest and her Native America heritage.
I met Birch and her 18 year-old son, Eric, at an evacuation shelter at Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest. They had been forced from their home and off their mountain as the fast-moving Borel Fire threatened their community.
Views of the approaching Borel Fire taken from her property
Birch was out in the school quad, walking one of the seven dogs that they evacuated with the family from the ranch. She showed me her arms, covered with bruises, and I immediately understood the difficulty of trying to load seven large and frightened animals into the car for their escape from the flames.
She had downloaded an app from the local fire agency and received the evacuation alert with little time to spare. Birch immediately called her boyfriend, who lived close by, and begged him to evacuate with her. He refused, telling her there was no need to flee. He called her later in a panic as he was too evacuating – at the last second.
“I’m feeling very appreciative of the Red Cross shelter,” she told me as she introduced me to her canine menagerie. “I’m definitely more comfortable here at the shelter than I would be at home.”
The school gymnasium was the heart of this Red Cross shelter, providing a safe and comfortable temporary home for the human population. Adjacent, in the boy’s locker room, Kern County Animal Services set up a kennel with separate areas for the dogs and cats that had been evacuated with their families.
Of the seven dogs, Birch explained, six were rescues that she is struggling to find homes for. People abandon their unwanted pets in the forest and somehow the dogs search her out to find refuge.
Buddy and Old Man, a pair of mixed-breed Huskies, arrived at her ranch on their own and in pretty bad shape. She thinks they could be brothers and might have been wandering the forest for weeks before they found her. Peanut, Zeus, Bonita and Lady round out the rescues. That leaves Indy, a Rottweiler/Shepard mix who is very friendly and the family favorite. He likes to stand up on his hind legs, with his paws on their shoulders, so he can get some face time.
Back in the gymnasium, Birch showed me that her cot was a little different from the others. She explained that she has some back problems that make sleeping difficult, but the Red Cross was able to get her an oversized cot with a thick pad. “I was finally able to sleep,” she said. “It was a big help.”
The Red Cross realizes that pets are part of the family and should be part of any evacuation plan. Click here to learn how to create an evacuation plan and prepare for wildfire emergencies. If you would like to help the Red Cross help families and their pets affected by disasters, please click here to make a financial donation.
Story by Dave Wagner, Public Affairs Volunteer
Red Cross Central California Blog 