Lisa Veitch spent her Friday in the heat caring for horses of evacuees.
Photo by
Billie Davern
It was the nurturing hands of local community members that meant evacuees’ pets were kept safe during the Longwood fire.
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While pet carriers for smaller animals were on the ready in many fire-affected homes, president of the Seymour Dressage and Showjumping Club Lisa Veitch said it’s not so easy to transport pets with hooves.
“If you can just pack up your car with your dog, you can get out, but having large animals — it’s not as easy to just pack up and off you go,” Ms Veitch said.
“I’m not sure the (Seymour community relief centre) would be too happy about having horses, either.”
With the capacity to house 35 horses on the site at Delatite Rd, Ms Veitch and sister, Tegan, said it was a no-brainer to support displaced residents with horses, despite also being on the ready to evacuate if the wind changed.
Community members were welcomed to evacuate their horses to the Seymour Dressage and Showjumping Club during the Longwood bushfire.
Photo by
Billie Davern
By the afternoon of Friday, January 9, the pair were looking after over 10 horses, as well as a donkey, and had even helped relocate some of the pets.
“We had a CFA member who evacuated yesterday; he did the right thing and knew early that it would impact Whiteheads Creek. We went and helped him — we grabbed some of his horses so we could do it all in one trip,” Ms Veitch said.
“He only had one hour before he was back on the truck, so he needed to have the horses somewhere where he knew they would be safe.”
They were also looking after horses from Kerrisdale, which they helped to bring on site, Tallarook, and two from Trawool, who had to be ridden into Seymour for evacuation.
“We’ve got two that came from Trawool, and the owners have ridden the horses here because they couldn’t get them on the float,” Ms Veitch said.
“They spent hours trying to get them on the float, and they just had to evacuate.”
Sue Clayton from Crazy Cats Cattery offered free accommodation to a number of cats during the Longwood bushfire.
Photo by
Billie Davern
Further down the road in Tallarook, Sue Clayton and her husband were offering free accommodation for cats at their cattery.
Crazy Cats Cattery, which overlooks the Hume Fwy, first offered this free emergency accommodation on Thursday, January 8, and it was on the following day that they began to receive call after call, and cat after cat.
“We’re happy to take them until we can’t,” Ms Clayton said.
“I estimated that we had about 10 free suites to offer, along with our own bookings coming in as well.”
A young kitten was one of the many cats housed at Crazy Cats Cattery.
Ms Clayton, who has spent the days following the initial call-out ensuring the pets were well-looked-after in the heat, said it was all about giving back to a community that had been nothing but supportive since she and her husband opened the cattery two years ago.
“We sort of said, ‘we’ll do this to help’,” she said.
“We’re both too old to go and fight the fires, so we thought we’d do this instead.”
24°C