Article 70 - Guinea Pigs and Wildfires
September and October are the worst fire season months here in California. As a Dutch national, born and raised in The Netherlands, with six years of living in the UK, I feel ill-equipped to deal with very real threat of fire ravaging your home and hearth. And sadly this is the reality of living here.
Three years ago in September and October 2020 numerous fires were breaking out all over the greater Los Angeles area. LA is huge and sprawling. There is the city part, densely populated, and then there are the outlying areas that are still considered LA but are rural with lots of ranches. The guinea pig rescue is located in an interesting area. We are right at the absolute edge of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. Any visitor to the ranch will tell you that once you come on to the road that leads to the rescue it is like stepping into a different world. A world that has dirt roads, ancient gnarly oak trees and huge lofty pines. There are a lot of ranches and horses located right up against a mountain ridge with lots of vegetation. Vegetation that is bone dry at the end of summer and will light up in flames at the slightest provocation.
In October 2019 we had to put our evacuation plan in motion. It really helps having a plan in place and having all the necessary items already at hand. My hubby, bless his heart, is thankfully really good like that. That day we were watching the huge smoke clouds getting thicker and edging its way toward the ranch. When you have as many animals as we have you can’t wait to leave till the last moment. We have to get all the animals out before any fire reaches us and we had come to that point. We started at 10pm and sort of went on auto pilot. As a rescue we work close with Animal Control in our area and know some of the officers. At 11pm they arrived with an enormous horse trailer to assist us with getting all our equines to safety, it was such a relief to see them. They loaded all our horses and took them to a large equestrian center in a safe zone that was designated by the city for livestock evacuations. During transit though one of our horses freaked out and hit his head very hard and had chaffed off a lot of skin on his forelegs. A vet on site had to stitch his head and he was not well even months after the incident. So after the horses we turned our attention to the guinea pigs.
We approximately had over 250 piggies or so. We had two large groups of females in horse stalls in the barn and the others in cages in the barn and the front pig room. So around 1am we grabbed the boxes we bought especially for an emergency like this one and started putting them together. It was heartwarming when we noticed that we were being joined by our neighbors and strangers as well that heard we were evacuating and came to lend a hand. From 2am till 5am we frantically loaded guinea pigs in boxes with lots of hay to munch and a mix of cucumber and romaine lettuce to keep them hydrated. Once the boxes were in the trailer we turned our attention to the pigs in the tower cages. These are metal cages on rollers that are three stories high and we have about 5 of those and they house our single males, one tower is reserved for sick animals in treatment. We were able to roll them out and unto a ramp right in to the trailer. Gabe, my husband, then set out for the local animal shelter. Luckily they have a community room for the public and we pretty much took that over. There were guinea pigs everywhere. Since most animal shelters in LA are city run everything is done according to the rules and that meant that every single guinea pig had to be booked into their system. I felt so bad for the staff, as if they didn’t already have enough to deal with. So every single pig was assigned a number and an intake card with description, age, coloring, coat patterns etc. As part of the intake every single pig was examined by the veterinary on duty. We had just recently taken in a group of animals that came in with ringworm that we were treating. Now we know that ringworm in guinea pigs is extremely common and easily treatable. I guess ringworm in dogs and cats is a much bigger deal and a lot harder to treat so the vet quarantined the whole room. Staff were allowed in the room only with special covers over their shoes, gloves, masks etc. The whole room was cordoned off as a precaution. I tried to explain to the vet that in all of 25 years of doing this work I only ever got Ringworm once and that was from the pigs of the massive NorCal rescue but that fell on deaf ears. She was extremely concerned about the ringworm.
We had a little baby guinea pig come in a few days earlier. He was surrendered because his hind was paralyzed. It was clear that the poor thing was suffering and that he had some sort of spinal cord injury possibly as a result of a trauma. I had made the difficult decision to have him euthanized (there is a video of him on my YouTube channel – his name was Ducky). But when all mayhem broke loose we could not do this for him immediately. But then thankfully the veterinarian at the shelter stepped up and I gratefully accepted her offer to put him to sleep and out of his suffering little body. Ducky broke a lot hearts in his short life, but knew so much love at the end.
In the middle of the night we had also managed to load two of our pig pigs (that is what I call the real pigs) but the third, Pepe, was having none of it. We had to leave him behind and made sure that all gates were wide open so that he could make it out of the property. That was such a surreal moment. That pig is my baby, and to have to leave him, so utterly heart breaking.
My goose Weed Wacker and his chicken and turkey friends were all rounded up and loaded in my son Izzy’s car. These could not go to the animal shelter out of fear that they may never come home. At that time there was a quarantine in place for poultry because of an outbreak of Newcastle disease. All chickens that came into the shelters as strays or owner surrenders were euthanized. Izzy drove straight to my office in Van Nuys and hid out there with the flock.
I was back at the ranch at this point and police cars were driving down the street with loud speakers informing everyone that mandatory evacuation was now in place and to leave our homes immediately. I had been awake for 30 hours or more at that point and was literally seeing double. Gabe who also had been awake for this long was on the top of the roof of the house watering it down to protect the house from the fires. It was eerie walking through the empty ranch.
About two hours later the brave men and women of the fire department had pushed the fire back away from the ranch and we could all let out a sigh of relief. It was safe for the animals to come home now.
Gabe told me to get some sleep while he set about bringing them all home. I gratefully accepted that sleep and was out before my head hit the pillow. Fresh and rested staff and volunteers stepped in to ensure a smooth transition back for all the pigs. The shelter staff, I’m sure, were happy to see the back of them. I told Gabe that if I had to do this one more time that we were moving. But where would we move to? This is literally the last place where you can have a rural ranch lifestyle, be agriculturally zoned and be close enough to the city where the people with guinea pigs live. If we moved too far from the city who would come visit? So we will see. Right now we are bracing for this year’s fire season.
Much love from Moi!
Saskia Chiesa and all the Wheekers at Farralone Farms
Three years ago in September and October 2020 numerous fires were breaking out all over the greater Los Angeles area. LA is huge and sprawling. There is the city part, densely populated, and then there are the outlying areas that are still considered LA but are rural with lots of ranches. The guinea pig rescue is located in an interesting area. We are right at the absolute edge of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. Any visitor to the ranch will tell you that once you come on to the road that leads to the rescue it is like stepping into a different world. A world that has dirt roads, ancient gnarly oak trees and huge lofty pines. There are a lot of ranches and horses located right up against a mountain ridge with lots of vegetation. Vegetation that is bone dry at the end of summer and will light up in flames at the slightest provocation.
In October 2019 we had to put our evacuation plan in motion. It really helps having a plan in place and having all the necessary items already at hand. My hubby, bless his heart, is thankfully really good like that. That day we were watching the huge smoke clouds getting thicker and edging its way toward the ranch. When you have as many animals as we have you can’t wait to leave till the last moment. We have to get all the animals out before any fire reaches us and we had come to that point. We started at 10pm and sort of went on auto pilot. As a rescue we work close with Animal Control in our area and know some of the officers. At 11pm they arrived with an enormous horse trailer to assist us with getting all our equines to safety, it was such a relief to see them. They loaded all our horses and took them to a large equestrian center in a safe zone that was designated by the city for livestock evacuations. During transit though one of our horses freaked out and hit his head very hard and had chaffed off a lot of skin on his forelegs. A vet on site had to stitch his head and he was not well even months after the incident. So after the horses we turned our attention to the guinea pigs.
We approximately had over 250 piggies or so. We had two large groups of females in horse stalls in the barn and the others in cages in the barn and the front pig room. So around 1am we grabbed the boxes we bought especially for an emergency like this one and started putting them together. It was heartwarming when we noticed that we were being joined by our neighbors and strangers as well that heard we were evacuating and came to lend a hand. From 2am till 5am we frantically loaded guinea pigs in boxes with lots of hay to munch and a mix of cucumber and romaine lettuce to keep them hydrated. Once the boxes were in the trailer we turned our attention to the pigs in the tower cages. These are metal cages on rollers that are three stories high and we have about 5 of those and they house our single males, one tower is reserved for sick animals in treatment. We were able to roll them out and unto a ramp right in to the trailer. Gabe, my husband, then set out for the local animal shelter. Luckily they have a community room for the public and we pretty much took that over. There were guinea pigs everywhere. Since most animal shelters in LA are city run everything is done according to the rules and that meant that every single guinea pig had to be booked into their system. I felt so bad for the staff, as if they didn’t already have enough to deal with. So every single pig was assigned a number and an intake card with description, age, coloring, coat patterns etc. As part of the intake every single pig was examined by the veterinary on duty. We had just recently taken in a group of animals that came in with ringworm that we were treating. Now we know that ringworm in guinea pigs is extremely common and easily treatable. I guess ringworm in dogs and cats is a much bigger deal and a lot harder to treat so the vet quarantined the whole room. Staff were allowed in the room only with special covers over their shoes, gloves, masks etc. The whole room was cordoned off as a precaution. I tried to explain to the vet that in all of 25 years of doing this work I only ever got Ringworm once and that was from the pigs of the massive NorCal rescue but that fell on deaf ears. She was extremely concerned about the ringworm.
We had a little baby guinea pig come in a few days earlier. He was surrendered because his hind was paralyzed. It was clear that the poor thing was suffering and that he had some sort of spinal cord injury possibly as a result of a trauma. I had made the difficult decision to have him euthanized (there is a video of him on my YouTube channel – his name was Ducky). But when all mayhem broke loose we could not do this for him immediately. But then thankfully the veterinarian at the shelter stepped up and I gratefully accepted her offer to put him to sleep and out of his suffering little body. Ducky broke a lot hearts in his short life, but knew so much love at the end.
In the middle of the night we had also managed to load two of our pig pigs (that is what I call the real pigs) but the third, Pepe, was having none of it. We had to leave him behind and made sure that all gates were wide open so that he could make it out of the property. That was such a surreal moment. That pig is my baby, and to have to leave him, so utterly heart breaking.
My goose Weed Wacker and his chicken and turkey friends were all rounded up and loaded in my son Izzy’s car. These could not go to the animal shelter out of fear that they may never come home. At that time there was a quarantine in place for poultry because of an outbreak of Newcastle disease. All chickens that came into the shelters as strays or owner surrenders were euthanized. Izzy drove straight to my office in Van Nuys and hid out there with the flock.
I was back at the ranch at this point and police cars were driving down the street with loud speakers informing everyone that mandatory evacuation was now in place and to leave our homes immediately. I had been awake for 30 hours or more at that point and was literally seeing double. Gabe who also had been awake for this long was on the top of the roof of the house watering it down to protect the house from the fires. It was eerie walking through the empty ranch.
About two hours later the brave men and women of the fire department had pushed the fire back away from the ranch and we could all let out a sigh of relief. It was safe for the animals to come home now.
Gabe told me to get some sleep while he set about bringing them all home. I gratefully accepted that sleep and was out before my head hit the pillow. Fresh and rested staff and volunteers stepped in to ensure a smooth transition back for all the pigs. The shelter staff, I’m sure, were happy to see the back of them. I told Gabe that if I had to do this one more time that we were moving. But where would we move to? This is literally the last place where you can have a rural ranch lifestyle, be agriculturally zoned and be close enough to the city where the people with guinea pigs live. If we moved too far from the city who would come visit? So we will see. Right now we are bracing for this year’s fire season.
Much love from Moi!
Saskia Chiesa and all the Wheekers at Farralone Farms
