Thankfully, this dramatic and emotional tale has a happy ending. Marcia and her husband, Carey, rescued Rebel twice. The first time, he was a young feral “golden bundle of joy”.
“He was found waiting at our neighbor’s mailbox’,” said Marcia. “I asked him, ‘Hello beautiful, do you need a mommy?’ and he walked straight to me.”
The feral kitten quickly grew to trust his new parents, spending life safely indoors, staring out at the birds. He brought them joy, sleeping on their bed with their ‘not impressed’ senior dog and made them laugh as he chased tennis balls.
“One day, Rebel escaped into ‘bird world’,” said Marcia. “He barely knew his name, Rusty, and rain had washed away familiar scents to bring him back. I placed food and water on the patio hoping to ‘remind’ him. The Angels led him home! I opened the door to find him eating. I said, ‘Oh! You are back, you little Rebel’ and the name stuck. He raised his beautiful-orange-flag tail and marched into ‘his’ house. We now were parents to a Bonafide house cat and champion mouser.”
He was nine months old when the Holiday Farm Fire exploded and savagely disintegrated their McKenzie River town.
“When we went to bed there was no wind or smoke. We were unaware that we were in harm's way,” explained Marcia. “Our pets were sound asleep beside us, until 1 am when our neighbor’s son pounded on our front door.
He and his family were in a caravan of cars lining our driveway. He urgently yelled, ‘Fire! Out now! Right now!’, as his flashlight illuminated the hot ash falling like snowflakes. The smoke was thick and wind gusts were 35 mph taking our breath away.
We couldn't find Rebel. Tears streamed down my face as I called and begged for him to come out of hiding. We and the dog jumped in our vehicle and followed the bumper-to-bumper lineup of cars out onto the highway.
I prayed, ‘Please God don't let there be an accident. Keep everyone and the animals safe.’”
Behind the fleeing families, the Holiday Farm Fire ravaged the McKenzie River Valley; of the 520 families evacuated, 267 lost homes. The wildlife, domestic animals and pets were also in peril.
No one was allowed to return for seven weeks because of the landslide, power lines and trees across roadways, and the smoldering homes and ranches. Rebel never left their minds.
“We lost everything. We asked an animal rescue group on their way to save horses if they would video our property. Their video showed our home smoldering including the shop and three car garage. We wept for poor Rebel.
Three months later, we moved a 32 ft trailer onto our property still hoping and searching for our little ‘Rebel’. We even shifted through ashes hoping to find his bones. Finding none gave us hope. I prayed we would find him, then, we heard a neighbor’s cats had been rescued giving us more hope.
People were leaving food out for wildlife and pets as all food sources were burned. Rebel was spotted at two feeding locations. We were also leaving food and water out for the wildlife and missing pets in our area.
Toni Ray of Holiday Farm Fire Animal Rescue phoned soon after, that they had Rebel in a live trap.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1182128302144965/
I was overjoyed! I had missed him, and how he fetched toys and patted my sleeping face because it was time to eat. I knew that he would have reverted to feral after his fire trauma and surviving on his own for eight months.
He’s miraculously home. When, I speak softly to him and call his name he kneads his blanket. Our wild boy has let me remove a few fur matts. He has a small-healing burn mark on his nose. I have the patience to remind him how safe and loved he is. Its working! He is calming down and his beautiful amber eyes show he recognizes us.”
