In the midst of the deadly wildfires that tore through California this summer, an unusual friendship was forged between a cat and a chicken who huddled together to survive the blaze.
According to their Facebook post, the Grass Valley Firefighters found the odd pair on their second day of cleaning up during the Carr wildfire in a neighborhood near Redding.
“The animals had survived one of the most destructive fires in memory finding comfort in each other in the doorway of a home,” Grass Valley Fire Chief Mark Buttron wrote on the department’s Facebook page.
The cat and chicken were both burned and needed treatment for their injuries. Firefighters quickly found water and contacted the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The animals shared one animal carrier so they could wait together until being taken to receive medical treatment.
Niko Kuyper, the owner of the chicken, didn’t know what had happened until a neighbor saw his animal on the news and contacted him. Kuyper recognized the chicken as the feistiest of the six hens he owns. He was even more surprised to see his chicken cuddled up to a familiar face—Whiskers, another neighbor’s cat.
“I prayed to God that my son’s cat would be OK,” Whiskers’ owner Jennie Sierra told TODAY. “I asked Him to put a bubble of protection around our property and that’s what He did.”
Though Whiskers has to visit the hospital every day to get her bandages changed, and her whiskers were burned by the fire, she has been reunited with her family. Kuyper took the chicken to his parent’s house where it is being introduced to a new flock of hens. Both animals are expected to recover from their injuries.
The duo’s friendship provided a hopeful spark to those affected by the wildfires.
“Everyone in our area lost their homes,” Kuyper told TODAY. “It’s nice to see something positive like this shining through.”
