firefighters

As pet owners, we know that whenever anything happens in our house, one of our first thoughts is where is out pet and how do we help it. But when a fire started in a four-plex apartment building in Minneapolis' Near North neighborhood, and the residents inside were harmed, the ones who came to the resident's cat's rescue were the firefighters. And thankfully, after giving the little feline an oxygen mask, it came out of the ordeal unharmed.

Read more of the story and check out pictures of the incident below!

A horse and a pony were stuck in chest-deep mud near Salinas, Calif., for up to 18 hours during a storm, before finally being rescued. It took a lot of work, and many amazing people joined in helping these horses, thankfully helping these animals get back to safety.

SFGATE reports that the two animals got stuck "on Wednesday night on Limekiln Road, off River Road in an area south of Salinas where a flood of mud rushed down a saturated hillside this week after a powerful storm drenched the River Fire burn scar." Thankfully, the moment the owners of the property spotted the horses, they immediately flagged down passing firefighters and called the SPCA. 

Not only that but neighbors also responded to the call, coming with shovels and other tools, all in the hopes of helping to dig out the horses and help them. "It definitely took a village to get these horses out," said a Monterey County SPCA spokesperson, Beth Brookhouser. 

The two horses were, of course, very cold after being immobilized in the muck throughout the night, and it took hours for them to stop shivering. They were treated overnight by Steinbeck Country Equine Clinic veterinarians, said SPCA officials. By Friday, "[b]oth horses were recovering on Friday, and were eating and drinking." 

The area remains dangerous for now, but at least this pony and horse are safe - thank s to everyone involved in the rescue. We want to thank all of the people helping these creatures, and if you're interested in more wholesome and heartwarming animal stories, take a look at the 30 most positive animal news stories of January!

This is not your common 'cat in a tree' rescue story, let's start with that. 

What was going to be a tense and chilling heroic story of firefighters coming to the rescue of a helpless kitten, hoping for a happy ending, turned into a documentation of the bravest kitten in the world. This little kitten had eeeeeverything under control. Just as our heroic firefighter reached out and almost managed to pick the kitten up, the fierce kitten decided "to heck with it" and jumped down on its own... then immediately climbed up another tree. 

Check out the picture by picture documentation of this fascinating tale below.

Story via: york daily record

"[w]e definitely have angels among us," say the people at W-Underdogs in a Facebook post whose animal shelter caught fire while they were picking up supply donations. A situation that could have ended in the worst way possible ended incredibly positively, and that is because of a heroic 53-year-old homeless man named Keith Walker who ran into the smoking building and saved each and every one of the animals inside. 

Walker has been homeless ever since he was 13 years old. He had already known the founder of the shelter, Gracie Hamlin, who had let him keep his dog, a pitbull named Bravo, at the shelter every night. On his way to pick up Bravo from the shelter, Walker saw the fire and ran in, rescuing all of the animals in the shelter - 6 dogs and 10 cats.

"I was nervous as hell, I'm not going to lie. I was really scared to go in there with all that smoke. But God put me there to save those animals," Walker told in a statement to CNN. "If you love a dog, you can love anyone in the world. My dog is my best friend, and I wouldn't be here without him, so I knew I had to save all those other dogs."

Sadly, the W-Underdogs headquarters is now uninhabitable, but in another lucky turn, the shelter was just preparing to move to a different location. As they say in another Facebook post: "As fate would have it, today is the first day of our lease of a new facility we planned to be the new W-Underdogs Headquarters. While the new facility is not exactly 'move-in ready' we were able to move the animals safely into the new facility for the night. They are all happy, warm, safe, and comfortable in their new temporary home."

Hamlin told CNN: "He is my guardian angel. Even the firefighters didn't want to handle the dogs. They called animal control, but Keith was already in the building pulling out the cats and dogs until they were all safe." 

We are so, so thankful to Keith Walker and all the people who helped with the rescue and the moving of the animals, and we hope the cats an the dogs will have an easy time getting used to the new place. Good luck in the new year, guys! 

For more happy ending animal stories, click right here!

A lesson learned, never to be repeated again. An owner was walking her tiny 3-year-old dog a bit too close to the edge of More Mesa cliffs on Saturday when the dog slipped and rolled off the the cliff. 

Edhat santa barbara reports that the call to the firefighters came at 3:36 p.m., and the Santa Barbara County firefighters had to rush to to the area of Mockingbird Lane and Calle Las Brisas. There, they found that the little dog, named Louis, had rolled off the cliff during a walk. 

The firefighters heroically enacted a high-angle rope system in an attempt to rescue the dog, and luckily, they managed to carry the little pooch back to safety at the top of the cliff, where Louis was able to get back to his owner. Thankfully, there were no injuries. As the call to the firefighters was made right away, they were able to come help right away, but the lesson was definitely learned by all of us. 

Be extra careful with your little animals. Accidents can and will happen, it's impossible to avoid, but where possible, take extra caution because these little guys rely on us to take care of them forever and always. 

For more positive animal stories, check out our end of 2020 collection of the best animal stories!

On Monday, Fysik, an 11-year-old retired jumping horse, sunk and got stuck up to his neck in a hole of freezing muddy water. "He was shivering and I just knew when I saw him that there was no way I was going to be able to get him out of that myself," his owner, the operator of Adorado Nino Horse Rescue and Sanctuary near Leduc, Alta, Tracy Benkendorf, told CBC news. 

Knowing that she couldn't do it alone, she called 911 and posted a picture of the horse on Facebook, asking if anyone knows what to do to help it. "I'm just absolutely beyond grateful for these people that came together in such an incredible, amazing way," she says about the firefighters, the RCMP, her neighbors, her veterinarian and some other people she didn't even know who arrived to help. 

Read more and see Fysik standing strong and covered in blankets below!

We always tell you guys about stories of people saving animals, but sometimes, it's the animals who save us. This time, we're not even talking metaphorically about pets who save us by just being in our lives. No, in this case, a parrot literally saved its owner from a huge housefire. The fire was so bad, the entire house was burnt down, but thanks to Eric - the rescuer parrot - the owner is okay.

"This is our first victim of the Silverado Canyon Fires," says the Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital in a post on Facebook. Fortunately, this is one of the lucky animals who got rescued from the fires - an adorable little feisty owl who got his wings singed by the fire. 

He was found by the firefighters of the Orange County Fire Authority. In the beginning, the owl seemed to be entirely unable to move, exhausted, as the firefighters wrap it up in a yellow blanket. In a video released by the Orange County Fire Department twitter account, you can hear one of the firefighters say: "I'll get you some help, buddy." And we are just so, so glad this owl found its way into such good hands. 

The Serrano Animal and Bird Hospital reports on Facebook that the owl's injuries seem to mostly be burnt feathers. At first, they were unsure about the damage from the smoke inhalation, but a few days later, they posted that "[t]he little owl is still feisty as ever!" So, whatever the damage, the little guy is doing much, much better. 

The owl will stay in the hospital "until he molts new feathers," and then, he will be released back into the wild. We wish this cutie a quick recovery, and we are thankful to everyone involved in its rescue and hope that many, many more animals like this one will be rescued from the fires as well. 

Take a look at pictures of the owl below along with the video of its rescue. Another little guy who was rescued from California fires is a little adorable puppy, and you can read about them right here. 

Every single month, animals find themselves in precarious situations for various different reasons. And every single month, the lucky ones get saved by some incredible people. We attempt to bring you as many of these stories as possible as they come out, but there are just too many of them. When you think about it, that's really amazing, having too many happy rescue stories to cover.

But since we can't cover all of them throughout the month, we've decided to collect some of these stories for you at the end of each month in a list right here to celebrate these incredible people who put their love and effort into saving animals and the animals that they celebrated. Even so, we will never be able to cover them all, but this is a start, and the people in this list are definitely deserving of more appreciation. 

So, let's say thank you together and hope that next month, there will again be too many rescue stories to cover!

Everyone's favorite animal calendar is back! And this time, we're getting a whole six of them - hunky firefighters posing with some adorable animals for charity - cats, dogs, koalas, and kangaroos. What more could we possibly ask for? This is exactly the kind of lighthearted and wholesome content we need to brighten up this year and the next one - handsome men with even more handsome animals. 

Check out some of the pictures below!

A 3.75 pound mountain lion cub was rescued by firefighters from the California wildfires and is now being treated in the Oakland Zoo. This small cub was discovered in an area the Zogg Wildfire burned through, orphaned and with severe burns. Luckily, the lion was taken into immediate care and is doing much, much better today, eating on its own and acting all fierce and feisty. 

Every day, we hear about breaking stories of animals being rescued, and every day, we feel grateful for the rescuers. We try our very best to tell you about these heartwarming stories here, but there are just far too many to keep count of. Some of these rescuers are firefighters, some are shelters, and others are just regular people like us who saw an animal in need and decided to do their best to save them. So, to show some more gratitude, highlight the wonderful people who put in their time and effort to save our furry little friends, and celebrate the animals saved, we made a collection of some of these stories from the past month.

The brand new "Bushfire Heroes" figure was created for two major reasons- honoring those heroic firefighters fighting against the devastating bushfires in Australia but also as part of a fundraiser campaign. Pre-orders for the figurine are now open, with delivery expected in June. What a cute figurine and an awesome initiative! 

Both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. 

Three Snowy Mountain Koalas, who were rescued from the Australia wildfire crisis, have been named after American firefighters who were tragically killed in the region. 

Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust Koala Sanctuary have named the koalas, and the trio are now in the temporary care of Australian National University (ANU).

Dr Karen Ford, an ANU researcher and who is running the makeshift hospital at ANU, said in a university statement, "We have 11 koalas at ANU that have come in from the various fire grounds in the region.They just keep arriving. There is nowhere else that has the facilities to hold these animals or this many at the moment."

Ford also mentioned that a couple of the koalas are being treated for burns, while the others are "quite skinny" from malnutrition, due to their habitats being completely burnt. 

Koalas are known to breed so slowly that it could take 100 years for the population to rebuild — so saving just one is crucial. That is why the koalas have been a central focus of relief efforts as the blaze spreads across the region.

Story via CBS News