Colorado fire: Search for missing pets continues as community surveys damage – The Washington Post

Andrew Thomson and his family were out of town when he heard about the fire advancing through parts of Colorado. They began calling around, frantically trying to find out about their dog, a miniature goldendoodle named Dexter, who was staying at a boarding facility in Superior.
They soon got in touch with Ellie Creasey, who works at Dog Tag, where Dexter and 39 other dogs were staying when a wind-fueled grass fire erupted outside Boulder. The blaze, called the Marshall Fire, eventually scorched nearly 1,000 buildings. As of Sunday, authorities said two people were unaccounted for and search efforts continued.
Thomson said that as his family watched news about the fire from afar, the priority was finding out whether their dog was okay. “We just wanted to know he was safe and then we would worry about our house and things like that,” he said in an interview on Sunday.
Creasey was in between shifts on Thursday, away from the day-care and boarding site, when she heard that flames were nearing the facility. She tried to get back, driving from her home in Boulder, but roads were closed. She said her boss, the owner of Dog Tag, loaded up a dozen dogs into her car but didn’t have space for any more. Creasey said the owner opened the kennels and all the doors at the facility to ensure no pet would be trapped.
Unable to get into Superior, Creasey got to work from her home, calling and updating dog owners, checking in with nearby shelters and mobilizing community members through social media pages to look out for dogs that may have run from the boarding site. In the aftermath of the devastating blaze, desperate pet owners have flooded social media with photos and descriptions of dozens of missing animals, while people from elsewhere in Colorado have driven into the area to help search on foot — eager to find the beloved cats and dogs of families that may have lost everything.
In a briefing on Sunday, Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said the animal control office had been working “nonstop” since the fire began and asked for requests for animal rescues to be made through the Boulder Office of Emergency Management website.
Amy Hwang, who lives near Fort Collins, which is about an hour north of Boulder, said she jumped into action when she saw on Twitter that pet owners were trying to find their missing animals.
Hwang gathered information online and helped call around, and managed to confirm the location of some pets. Soon her efforts snowballed, and she said her Twitter account became a hub of information. Numerous people started sending her photos of missing dogs and cats, asking her to share the images widely. She posted descriptions and images of lost pets, retweeted information about veterinarians and shelters that were lending a hand, and shared updates when the animals were reunited with their families. She said she stayed at home as the new year rang in to continue to help in whatever way she could.
Hwang said she was in awe of “just how generous people are right now.”
In an interview on Sunday, Hwang said she had confirmed the location or reunification of at least 20 to 25 dogs and 10 cats, though many others remain missing. Hwang and others pointed to social media groups, including the Boulder County Fire Lost & Found Pets group on Facebook, where pet owners, veterinary groups, shelters and community members were sharing updates about located and missing animals.
One by one on Thursday, Creasey got word about the unaccounted pups from Dog Tag. Some of the dogs had been taken to Boulder’s humane society after being rescued by animal control. A couple of people had been able to reach the boarding facility, she learned, and had rounded up dogs that were still there. Another dog was found safe and hunkered down by a nearby Costco. One owner, after hearing that his dog was spotted at the boarding site but was too scared to come out, went straight there after flying in from out of town to find his dog.
Then Creasey got a call about two of the last dogs that still hadn’t been located. Two people had found Dexter, the Thomsons’ dog, along with another named Poppy. Creasey updated the owners and drove to pick up the dogs right away.
“Their eyes were covered in soot and smoke, and they were both very shaken,” Creasey said. She took them home to bathe them and keep them in for the night.
“We sat out in my living room, and I gave them food and plenty of water. They wouldn’t leave my side,” she said. The next morning, the dogs were picked up by friends and family.
It took more than 15 hours, Creasey said, but all 40 dogs had been located. She didn’t get much sleep that night, she said, but was grateful the dogs from the boarding facility were found safe and were mostly fine.
Dexter had some throat and eye irritation but is in “relatively good shape,” Thomson said. He praised and thanked Creasey, as well as Dog Tag’s owner and the people who found Dexter, who he said did everything they could to help. The family also got a second good piece of good news: Their home wasn’t destroyed by the flames.
When his family finally picked him up, Thomson said, Dexter was apprehensive at first, taking a few steps back, before realizing who they were.
“Then we couldn’t get him to stop licking us,” he said.
Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
Read more:
How the Dixie Fire became the largest blaze of a devastating summer
How extreme climate conditions fueled unprecedented Colorado fire
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