Emotional reunion for pets and evacuees from Canadian wildfire

World Today

It could still be weeks before the people of Fort McMurray are allowed back into their homes.

But as CCTV’s Roee Ruttenberg reports, some are now getting to reunite with precious companions left behind.

It’s been more than ten days since Linda Lowry last saw her tabby, Kira. The Fort McMurray fire forced Lowry out of her home, and she says, she had to leave Kira behind.

“We didn’t even have time to get clothes and stuff for ourselves. The cops were just telling us to get out right now,“ Lowry said.

Hundreds of reunions are now happening at this temporary shelter, six hours south of the still-burning blaze. Most of the pets were rescued over the weekend, and brought here to Edmonton where nearly half of Fort McMurray’s residents are now staying.

“The municipality asked people who had left to register online. They asked them to give their address, description of the animals they had to leave behind, their name and contact information,” Ronald Lines of Alberta Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said.

A lot of the evacuees say their pets sensed the danger. Many of them hid, making it near impossible to get into crates like these. That’s if they even had crates at all.