Evacuated & Under Control

I've had two full days of assisting the evacuation efforts at the Wildlife Waystation, and it's not just me that's exhausted...my SUV decided to stop working yesterday as I was on my way up to Valencia with osterich feed.  The people in Valencia are very nice as about eight people and two cops stopped to see if I needed help.  Nice to know nice people still exist in this world.

So AAA towed my car to the shop and I had one of the animal wranglers pick me up.  I spent the evening there at Phil's Animals, a ranch where they work and train animals for film and TV.  I had so much fun up there, I didn't want to leave!

But to back it up a bit....140,000 acres are now burned, with 3600 fire personnel reaching about 22% containment.  The Station Fire (as this one is being called) is now burning further north and east and has moved away from our ranch.  All but about 20 animals are evacuated thanks to the help of many, many people.

Mungar the tiger waiting to be evacuated

They are at the LA Zoo, a few other wildlife centers, personal homes, as well as Phil's ranch.  I took produce to Wildlife on Wheels where a few of our chimps are being housed, and Kiowa our friendly resident Mountain Lion.  They were all very calm and were enjoying their new digs.

chimps being transferred to their temporary home

My favorite Moran the lion was still at the Waystation, and I told Neil, our head trainer, I'd be more than happy to give Moran a lift, even giving him the passenger seat.  But Neil didn't think that was too good of an idea.  Here's a picture of Neil hosing off my two favorite black bears, Cinammon and Kachina

Kachina, Cinammon and Neil

I have been caring for our hooved stock at Pierce College - goats, llamas, sheep and pigs.  They don't seem to mind their little vacation and are curious about their new location and neighbors -  over 300 evacuated horses and cattle to make friends with.

a few of our llamas at Pierce  College

Mitch the sheep getting cozy in his bedding

Back at Phil's, Zulu the zebra seemed fine, although his stall is pretty dark and I'm sure he wants to be able to see his surroundings.  Our five other llamas have a new neighbor, two bison, and they're not quite sure what to make of them.

So although all of our animals are safe and content, the fire rages on in the forest.  The Fire Marshall expects the fire to be under control by September 15, thirteen days from now.  So please keep your prayers, good energy, well wishes and rain dances coming. They're working, and we need to keep going strong with them.

The Wildlife Waystation has also incurred tremendous costs of truck rentals, gas, feed, etc for these evacuations and is eagerly accepting donations.  For more information I can be contacted on my facebook page:  www.facebook.com/kwhitis or you can visit the Wildlife Waystation's page:  www.wildlifewaystation.org and click on "make a donation".

Thanks for your support, and the animals give you big, warm hugs and licks : )