Shadow the German shepherd would not stop throwing his body against the back door. His owner, Donna Carberry, thought it odd at first. Then she looked outside: a fast-moving wildfire had already burned her barn and was climbing the back steps of her home near Spokane, Washington.
“My barn had already burned down and the fire had come up the back steps and onto the deck and was already going up the side of my house. So, he literally saved my life,” Donna told Best Friends Animal Society, in a story reported by iHeartDogs. Her truck and horse trailer burned in the driveway. Good Samaritans helped her escape with Shadow and her cat.
Donna was stranded along the roadside from noon Saturday until 8 p.m. Sunday, Shadow and her cat beside her the whole way. A young woman helping evacuate horses made room for all of them. Two of Donna’s horses died in the fire; another survived.
Donna was hurt too, and a fall left her in a wheelchair while she recovered. Best Friends Animal Society stepped in to care for Shadow. “By taking care of him, you are taking care of me,” she told the rescue.
Here is what stays with me: Shadow sensed the danger long before his owner could see it, and he made noise until she listened. Dogs notice smoke and fire before we do, so an unusually frantic dog deserves a second look, not a scolding. Wildfire season keeps getting longer, so plan for your pets: leashes and carriers near the door, a go-bag with food and meds, and somewhere safe to take them. We saw disaster hit fast earlier this week when 70 dogs needed rescuing after a storm toppled a trailer in Indiana. Shadow’s story is why you get ready early.