News You Can Use: Cat Doused in Flame Retardant Survives Colorado Fire

At the end of July, a fire broke out outside Littleton, Colorado spreading to hundreds of acres and forcing the evacuation of dozens of homes. Among the survivors is a cat that had the good fortune of having been doused with flame retardant.

“Think about this now,” Mark Techmeyer of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tells ABC 7 Denver. “You have a cat that has been out there for four or five days, was close enough to the fire to be hit by the retardant. I can't imagine how scared and trying to find its way – but that cat, to me, is the symbol of what we've been through here.”

The sheriff’s office really leaned into the cat-as-a-symbol theme. “This cat represents our community's difficult week and the tenacity of our community to not only persevere but come out stronger on the other end,” the office account wrote on Instagram. The cat was brought to Foothills Animal Shelter and later reunited with its family.

The cat wasn’t the only lucky creature. Nearly 300 animals of all kinds – horses, llamas, alpacas, chickens, ducks, Scottish Highland cows, pigs, goats, and donkeys – have been safely returned to their homes or temporary shelters.

“We've had probably the most amount of species, I believe, that we've ever had in one of the evacuations,” says Ally Harmon of the Jefferson County Horse Council. “A lot of times with these fires, the focus is on the people, the homes. A lot of times, people kind of forget about the outdoor pets.” 

The fire is now under control, but you can still help with recovery via the Friends of Foothills Animal Shelter’s Disaster Relief Fund.

Photo credit: Jeffco via Instagram