The overwhelming cost of natural disasters, measured in lives, livelihoods, homes, properties, and treasured possessions, is impossible to fathom as fires rage on across Los Angeles.
The Palisades Fire already robbed thousands of their homes, and was joined over the weekend by several other named fires as they shifted to ravage new communities across southern California. Tens of thousands of people are displaced, living in fear as they watch deadly fires close in on their communities. More than a few people were forced to leave everything behind when the evacuation order came down, but one man has been trying to make his way back.
California resident Casey Colvin was away from his home when the evacuation order came down, which left his two dogs — Oreo and Tika Tika Tika — to brave the disaster alone. He tried for days to reach them, even meeting up with NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz to discuss his situation, but struggled to locate one of his pets after his home was destroyed.
Colvin reunited with Tika Tika Tika several days back, after a kindhearted fireman braved the destruction to track him down, but Oreo remained elusive. For five full days, the dog was lost among the rampant devastation, before he was finally reunited with Colvin on Sunday.
A video capturing their reunion was uploaded to social media by Kreutz, who’s been following the story for days, and captures the utter joy of both dog and man as they are finally brought back together. Colvin is overjoyed to see his dog — tired and smeared with ash, but seemingly unharmed — and his delight bled through the camera to touch viewers across the nation.
The beautiful clip of man and dog finding one another, surrounded by the devastation of the fire, quickly shot to the top of social media, as people scrambled to witness something good in all the bad. The pair’s reunion is a wonderful ray of light amid harrowing updates as multiple fires continue to wreak destruction across numerous communities.
Colvin spent days frantically searching for Oreo, which unfortunately makes him an outlier in situations of this kind. Far too often, when tragedy strikes, family pets are pushed aside and left to fend for themselves as families flee. Nearly 50% of pet owners who’ve previously evacuated from disasters were forced to leave their pets behind, according to a 2021 ASPCA survey, despite a full 91% of pet owners saying they would evacuate their pets in a disaster.
Unfortunately, our desires and disaster response don’t always line up. During disasters on the scale of the California fires, many people are forced to leave their pets behind, no matter how much they want to keep them close. While far better pet protections have been put in place since an estimated 150,000 pets died during Hurricane Katrina, it can still be challenging to bring pets into evacuation zones, travel over state lines, or hunker down in hotels with a few furry hangers-on.
Thankfully, Colvin isn’t among the California residents who had to choose between safety for themselves and safety for their pets. He’s now located both of his beloved dogs, and they’ve hopefully headed a safe distance from the flames as a family.
