Now here’s a very good and nice story to help cut through the extended state of depression and helplessness I’m absolutely feeling as I watch the country turn to cinders; a cat named Angel has been reunited with her family when she emerged from burnt-out bushland a week after bushfires tore through the south coast of NSW.
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When Ben Symonds and his family had to evacuate their home in the Bega Valley near Bemboka before New Years, they were forced to leave their cats behind. Both Angel, a rescue ragdoll, and Micky, a “tough old bugger”, had escaped outside and couldn’t be found in all the chaos.
After returning to find their house still standing but the earth around their property severely scorched, they had feared the worst for the two cats. They spent a few days searching for them with food, and had begun to grieve for their loss. Until Angel appeared on the lawn, singed and tattered, but very much alive.
“We all saw her at the same time, it was pretty cool,” Ben told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“We were running around unplugging gutters because the rains were coming in heavy. Then me and mum walked out of the house at the same time, and my stepdad was walking around the side of the house, and all at the same time we saw her sitting on the lawn.
“And I started shouting to Pix (Brett ‘Pixie’ Graham, Ben’s stepdad) because I know he was pretty distraught about it. And we were all just shouting and shouting.
“River, my dog, ran over to her straight away and was like whining and licking her and rolling around in front of her, just welcoming her back. She was pretty overjoyed because they’re reasonably close.”
With her ears a little sore and her fluffy, cream-coloured ragdoll fur matted and melted from the heat, she found her way back home after the Werri Berri fire had passed through his family’s property. After a much-needed checking over by a local vet, Ben says that Angel got away relatively unscathed.
“Yeah, she was pretty hungry. We guessed that she’s just gone down a wombat hole deep enough not to get burnt,” Ben said.
“She’s been to the vets and had her ears and everything checked out. Other than some damage to her ears which we may have to get them cut back a little bit, nothing else is really damaged.”
The vets told him that Angel was really lucky, considering she’d been essentially set on fire. Ben and his family were shocked to find that Angel’s delicate paws and lungs were fine after her survival of the fires, and she’s expected to make a full recovery.
Ben suspects that Angel had clambered down into a nearby wombat hole to hide from the fire and smoke, and now that she’s returned she’s barely leaving the lap of Ben’s stepdad, and mooching for as many pats, cuddles, and scritches as she can get.
The family’s other cat, Micky, didn’t join Angel in the return to the family house in Bemboka, and at time of writing, Ben and his family are still hoping he’ll return home.
“We don’t really know. To be honest, we were getting low hopes at that point,” Ben said.
“Me and mum have been talking about how we need to do some sort of acceptance and funeral and goodbye, because we don’t think it’s – I mean three or four days, maybe – but a week, eight days, we didn’t really have a huge amount of hope left.
“But Angel coming back; she was the softer of the two. She had long, fluffy hair and she was a much softer cat. Micky’s a kinda tough old bugger, so if [Angel] survived then it’s a good chance that he’s gotten down a wombat hole. He was a bit of a fat old boy, so he’s probably got his reserves and can hunker down. So we still have hope for him.”
Wildlife and animal organisations in fire-affected across Australia areas are still in need of much-needed funds, if you’re able to give, please consider donating to: Wildlife Rescue South Coast, Wildlife Victoria, WIRES NSW, Fauna Rescue SA, ACT Wildlife, or FAWNA.
