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Santa Cruz County, Calif., Residents Aid Animals Displaced by Wine Country Wildfires

'The pictures don’t it any justice compared to seeing it in real life. Where neighborhoods were there is flat ash with a couple of chimneys standing.'

(TNS) - Felton resident Jim Norkoli left for fire-ravaged Sonoma County early Thursday morning, his truck bed filled with bags of cat and dog food, a trailer full of hay in tow. It was his second trip this week. By lunchtime he was helping celebrity chef Guy Fieri cook for thousands of displaced residents at the Sonoma Veterans Hall.

“The pictures don’t it any justice compared to seeing it in real life,” Norkoli said of the devastation he saw in Sonoma. “Where neighborhoods were there is flat ash with a couple of chimneys standing.”

Meanwhile, Santa Cruz SPCA Shelter Manager Mandi Hart returned from Napa on Thursday afternoon with 15 cats and dogs in two rented vans, and the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter announced it had also opened its doors to take in animals from overburdened shelters.

Those are just a few examples of a growing response in Santa Cruz and other central California counties — official and grass-roots — to aid northern neighbors ravaged by 22 fires that continued to rage Thursday, consuming more than a thousand homes and claiming 31 lives.

Earlier this week, more than 70 Santa Cruz County firefighters spanning multiple districts drove their trucks north to join the fray, while donations to the Red Cross, Salvation Army and a host of individual online giving campaigns continued to pour in. Officers from the UC Santa Cruz Police Department have also been in Sonoma County since Wednesday, Chief Nader Oweis confirmed. And Second Harvest Food Bank announced Thursday it is sending about 3,000 meals to the affected counties.

But in a county that boasts large numbers of rural livestock owners and suburban pet owners alike, empathy for animals appeared to run particularly high.

About 70 Santa Cruz homes had signed up to temporarily foster animals from the SPCA to make room for the anticipated animals, according to Hart, and Norkoli said he was amazed by the outpouring of support from San Lorenzo Valley residents to buy animal food and feed.

“Shelters from all over are responding and going up and doing the same thing we are,” Hart said. “It takes a village.”

All of the animals Hart and SPCA volunteers and staff drove down Thursday were adoptable, meaning none are pets that were displaced by the fire, Hart said. Taking in these pets frees up space for lost and displaced pets so their owners are able to find their animals at nearby shelters.

With no immediate end to the crisis in sight, Hart said she is prepared to make more trips up north in the coming weeks.

“We’re all animal lovers here,” said Scotts Valley Feed manager Ben Richie, which worked with Norkoli to sell feed at, and in some cases below, cost.

Scotts Valley Feed is continuing to coordinate relief and is accepting donations over the phone.

Norkoli plans on making another trip to Sonoma on Monday, and the feed store is also coordinating direct deliveries of food from its suppliers.

Norkoli works near Sonoma and was able to coordinate with the Humane Society and other groups to ensure his deliveries were used effectively, but Carson City, Nevada, Salvation Army Capt. Mark Cyr emphasized that for most people looking to help, monetary donations are the most effective way.

Cyr is on the ground in Sonoma County where the Salvation Army is helping provide food, shelter and any other kinds of assistance needed by displaced residents, he said.

Donations to the Salvation Army may be made at salvationarmy.org, while Scotts Valley Feed is accepting credit card donations over the phone, and can be reached at 831-438-3191.

A Facebook page with updated information about displaced animals and pets can be found at facebook.com/groups/NapaSantaRosaFireAnimalEvacuations.

HOW TO HELP

General relief: salvationarmyusa.org (earmark for Northern California Fire). unitedwaywinecountry.org, or gofundme.org/napa-sonoma-fires.

Animal aid: Donations made to Scotts Valley Feed over the phone at 831-438-3194, or to the Santa Cruz SPCA at spcasc.org.

Open your home to evacuees: airbnb.com/welcome/evacuees.

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©2017 the Santa Cruz Sentinel (Scotts Valley, Calif.)

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