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A woman reunited with her beloved cat she thought had died in catastrophic fire

After two months, Aggie was miraculously found among the rubble close to her former home.

Images courtesy of TikTok/@carolynkiefer1

Aggie is getting the treatment she needs.

Losing your home and belongings in a house fire is devastating enough, but losing a pet that you can't find before you're forced to evacuate is even worse. No one wants to say goodbye to a beloved pet even under normal circumstances, but to lose them in a fire is too tragic to think about.

So, imagine getting a call that your pet you thought had perished along with your home has been found alive.

Katherine Kiefer got that call from Westside Animal Shelter in Los Angeles two months after her home was destroyed in the Palisades fire. The 82-year-old had been at a radiation treatment appointment for lung cancer the morning of January 7, 2025, when the fire reached her neighborhood. Katherine's daughter Carolyn told Upworthy that Aggie had fled as the family gathered belongings and pets to evacuate while fending off the fire with hoses. They searched and searched, but finally they had no choice but to flee without her.

"Telling my mother that we had not found Aggie was devastating," Carolyn says. "We had failed. The next morning we were able to drive into the Palisades and saw we had lost our home. It felt like a warzone and it seemed impossible that Aggie would have been able to survive such a firestorm. The following two months have been very dark for my mother. Losing the home was painful but losing Aggie made it especially heartbreaking. My mother told me that when she was having a hard time with her cancer treatment and felt down she would remind herself, 'at least I have Aggie.' Now, she was gone."

But she wasn't. Aggie was miraculously found among the ash and rubble near their former home in early March and taken to Westside Animal Shelter, where workers scanned her microchip. Carolyn says the family thought the call from the shelter was a scam at first, but once they confirmed the chip number they knew Aggie really had survived. The shelter had sent Aggie to ChatOak Animal Hospital 40 minutes away for treatment, and Katherine got to reunite with her there.

"I have never seen my 82 yr old mother move so fast and be so impatient," says Carolyn.

Watch:

@carolynkiefer1

My mother is reunited with her beloved, Aggie. #palisadesfire #cat #reunited #rescueanimals THANK YOU @LA Animal Services 🙏

"Seeing them reunited was life changing," says Carolyn. "My mother has really struggled and Aggie's survival has brought her back to life. She is completely different since learning about Aggie. She is really a part of our family and we felt broken without her."

Carolyn's video of their reunion got over five million views on TikTok, but people wanted to see the original recording without the music added. In the unedited version, we get to hear the vet tech share how sweet Aggie had been, and we hear Katherine greet Aggie with, "Hi, sweetest girl!"

Sweetest girl indeed. Oof.

@carolynkiefer1

Replying to @Spasztic.bpd😏🙃🖤🩵🧡

Aggie was suffering from starvation, anemia, a fever, and minor burns when she was brought in. She had to have some matted fur removed and received the blood transfusion, and she will receive ongoing care until she is well enough to join her family again. A GoFundMe to help cover Aggie's veterinary bills has raised over $27,000 in just a couple of days, which is surely a relief for a family already dealing with so much loss.

@carolynkiefer1

Replying to @Yas Thank you for all the support for Aggie. Gofundme link in bio. 🙏 Thank you, Sarah Garrity, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)! #palisadesfire #cat #aggie


How do you keep pets safe in a house fire?

Everyone wants to think they would just grab their pets and go if a fire threatened their home, but it's not always that simple. Animals have instincts to protect themselves and will often hide if they sense danger, so it can be hard to find them in a fire situation.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

The American Red Cross offers these tips for giving pets the best chance of survival in case of a fire:

- The best way to protect your pets from the effects of a fire is to include them in your family plan. This includes having their own disaster supplies kit as well as arranging in advance for a safe place for them to stay if you need to leave your home.

- When you practice your escape plan, practice taking your pets with you. Train them to come to you when you call.

- In the event of a disaster, if you must evacuate, the most important thing you can do to protect your pets is to evacuate them, too. But remember: never delay escape or endanger yourself or family to rescue a family pet.

- Keep pets near entrances when away from home. Keep collars on pets and leashes at the ready in case firefighters need to rescue your pet. When leaving pets home alone, keep them in areas or rooms near entrances where firefighters can easily find them.

- Affix a pet alert window cling and write down the number of pets inside your house and attach the static cling to a front window. This critical information saves rescuers time when locating your pets. Make sure to keep the number of pets listed on them updated.

However, even the best laid plans don't always go the way we want them to, and sometimes there's nothing we can do but hold out hope that our pets' natural survival instincts will save them like Aggie's did. Her tragedy to triumph story is is a good reminder of how resilient animals can be, even in the most unlikely of circumstances. Here's to a speedy recovery so Aggie can be home with Katherine where she belongs as soon as possible.

Joy

A 79-yr-old broke her leg while hiking alone. A stranger carried her back down on his back.

Rather than let her wait five hours for search and rescue, Airman Troy May and other hikers helped get Ursula Bannister to safety.

Ursula Bannister was fortunate to have a group of strangers come to her rescue after she broke her leg in three places.

It's not often you see an almost-80-year-old woman hiking alone, much less on a trail considered a difficult hike. But for 79-year-old Ursula Bannister, the trek up to High Rock Lookout in Washington state is a meaningful annual tradition. She had scattered her mother's ashes atop the lookout 23 years ago and she goes back to lay flowers at the scenic spot overlooking Mount Rainier every year.

She usually goes with a family member, but this year she couldn't find anyone to accompany her. The 3.2 mile hike is steep, but as an experienced hiker with poles, she wasn't nervous about it. She made it to the top, ate her lunch and took some pictures. But soon after turning around to make her way back down, her foot caught in a hole and she fell.


“I decided to cut over to the trail, through some bush," she told KOMO News. "I went bushwhacking and my right foot found a critter hole…I went down and I knew right away. My foot was broken.”

She wrapped her leg and tried to get up with her hiking pole, but her ankle collapsed under her when she stood on it.

Unable to hike down the trail with a broken leg, she would have had to wait five hours for search and rescue.

Bannister was in a lot of pain and cried out for help. Soon strangers found her and one called 911, but the dispatcher said it would take about five hours for a search and rescue team to arrive. Bannister asked if anyone had pain killers, but no one did.

That's when 20-year-old U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Troy May and some friends came along to help. Rather than have her wait for search and rescue, May and his friend, Layton Allen, offered to carry Bannister back down the trail.

“I knew I was capable of carrying her down,” May, who is stationed at Washington's Joint Base Lewis-McChord, told MSN. “I really didn’t make much of a decision, I just knew I needed to carry her down if I could.”

A whole group of strangers rallied to help get the woman down the trail safely

But May and Layton were not the only strangers on the trail to offer their services to help Bannister down the mountain. A physical therapist used wood scraps to build a splint and bandaged her up. An occupational therapist helped keep her calm by doing breathing exercises with her. When May's cowboy boots—which he said he wears everywhere—started giving him blisters as he carried Bannister down the trail, another stranger who saw the situation gave May his own boots to wear. The group who accompanied her shared stories and asked her questions about her life to distract her and keep her from screaming in pain during the hike down.

elderly woman on the back of a young man on a trail Ursula Bannister being carried by Airman Troy May and friends. Photo courtesy of media.defense.gov

Bannister said it felt like all of these people were "behaving like angels coming from the sky" and she was so thankful for their help.

May took the brunt of the physical labor, carrying Bannister for most of the 1.6 mile down the mountain, taking turns with Allen as needed. To make the slow, steep trek more comfortable for Bannister, they put a backpack on the front of whoever was carrying her and ran her legs through the straps to stabilize them a bit.

The young rescuers made sure she got to the hospital and stayed with her until family arrived.

Allen then drove Bannister to the hospital in her car with May following in his car. They waited with her at the hospital until her son arrived.

“I was just overwhelmed with gratitude that these people literally came out of the woods to help me and they were totally unselfish and kind,” Bannister told MSN.

Bannister ended up with more than 10 screws and a plate in her leg, which was broken in three places. And Airman May ended up with a medal of achievement for his selfless rescue of the woman.

Air Force Airman Troy May holding achievement medalU.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Troy May, 62d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, holds Air Force Achievement Medal at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, Sept. 13, 2024. Photo by Airman 1st Class Benjamin Riddle

“One of the Air Force’s core values is service before self, and Airman 1st Class May clearly exemplified that core value with his actions,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Clifford, 62nd AMXS commander. “While our team of Airmen showcase amazing accomplishments every day, we relish the opportunity to focus on one Airman’s courage and recognize them for truly living the Air Force’s core values.”

"Carrying her down that evening wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it was the right thing to do," Airman First Class May told ABC's David Muir.

A tearful Bannister also offered her "heartfelt thanks" to all of the people who helped her.

“People are amazing," she told KOMO. "You know we might not agree politically we might not agree socially but we certainly agree on the human platform and people will drop whatever they’re doing to help somebody in need,” Ursula added.

Ian Steger was buried in a tree well when Francis Zuber happened to catch a glimpse of his snowboard.

No matter how long you've skied or snowboarded or how much of an expert you are, there's one nemesis on the mountain that poses an underappreciated threat—the tree well.

People may think the main danger of skiing through trees is the risk of running into one. But falling into a tree well is a less obvious, but still potentially deadly risk due to the possibility of snow immersion suffocation (SIS). Essentially, the area around the base of a tree creates snow conditions that are quite different than those out in the open. Air pockets in the snow combined with water vapor rising from the tree base turns the snow into a quicksand-like texture that is nearly impossible to escape from—the more you struggle, the deeper in you fall. Skiers and snowboarders die every year from SIS due to falling into tree wells and not being found in time.

That could easily have been snowboarder Ian Steger's fate in March 2023 if not for the eagle eye and quick thinking of backcountry skier Francis Zuber.


Zuber had just begun a backcountry ski run with a buddy on Mount Baker in Washington State when a flash of red caught the corner of his eye. Zuber's GoPro footage shows him stopping and turning to see a colorful snowboard upside-down next to a tree.

“I knew there was somebody attached to it, and obviously they were still alive," Zuber told Vancouver's City News. "I shout out to the guy…he can’t hear me, he’s five and a half to six feet into the snow at that point.” Zuber knew he had to work fast.

As the video shows him struggling to make his way back toward the tree through the deep snow, we can hear him muttering expletives to himself and calling out to the snowboarder. At first, we can't see how Steger is positioned, but as Zuber gets closer and starts digging, it becomes clear that the snowboarder is completely upside-down, with his face buried deep in the snow.

Watch the harrowing GoPro footage Zuber shared on YouTube:

[Warning: This video contains strong language.]

Zuber told the CBC that they estimated Steger had been buried between five and seven minutes, "probably at either a third or just the halfway point of his possible survival time in there," when he found him. Zuber said Steger hadn't been snowboarding alone—he was with a group of three other riders who were carrying safety equipment including shovels, beacons and two-way radios—but as we could see in Zuber's GoPro, getting back up a mountain when you realize someone in your group isn't behind you anymore is no small or quick task.

Steger and Zuber have since become friends since the March 3 rescue and have even gone skiing together on Mount Baker.

Steger told the CBC he just wants to "enjoy being alive." Indeed, after a close-call experience like that, every moment you have would feel like a gift.


This article originally appeared on 4.6.23

Joy

Heroic dog ran 4 miles to campsite, alerting injured owner's loved ones after roll-over car crash

Brandon Garrett was driving to a campsite with his four dogs when he missed a curve and rolled his truck down a steep embankment.

Photos courtesy of Baker County Sheriff's Office

Blue managed to make his way to camp after his owner crashed the truck they were traveling in.

The phrase "dog is a man's best friend" takes on a whole new meaning in a hero dog story coming out of the Pacific Northwest.

On the afternoon of June 2, 2024, Brandon Garrett was driving on a forest service road in Baker County, Oregon, when he lost control of his truck on a curve and tumbled down the steep embankment into a ravine. The 62-year-old was traveling with his four dogs to a camp nearly four miles from the scene of the accident.

One of those dogs, Blue, ran away from the crash site and headed to the familiar campsite where Garrett was scheduled to meet a friend that afternoon. When Garrett was late and then Blue showed up alone, with glass in his snout, the friend Garrett was supposed to meet knew something wasn't right.


Garrett's friends and family searched for him through the night and finally spotted his truck in the ravine in the morning. The steep, unstable terrain, however, made it impossible for them to reach the truck without rappelling gear.

Garrett's brother, Tyree Garrett, told the New York Times that he could see Garrett's injured dogs near the truck. He called out his brother's name but got no response. “It stopped my heart,” he said. “I just, God darn, thought for sure my brother was gone.”

white pickup truck on its side in a creek

Brandon Garrett's truck landed in a creek in a deep ravine.

Photo courtesy of Baker County Sheriff's Office

Tyree drove to where he could get a cell signal and called for help. First responders from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, Baker County Search and Rescue, Pine Valley Rural Fire District and Halfway Ambulance all responded to the scene. Sheriff Travis Ash located the truck and one of Garrett's dogs in the ravine, but as he searched for a way down the embankment to access the creek, he heard a man's voice yelling for help.

Garrett had crawled about 100 yards from the vehicle, where he spent the night in the cold and pouring rain. Sheriff Ash made his way down the steep, brushy slope to where Garrett lay and began to administer first aid. Meanwhile, Pine Valley Rural Fire volunteers and U.S. Forest Service employees used chainsaws to clear a path for the rescue team.

rescue team setting up highline rope system

A highline rope system was used to bring Garrett to safety.

Photo courtesy of Baker County Sheriff's Office

Getting Garrett to safety and the medical care he needed was no easy feat due to the treacherous landscape and where he was located. Using the cleared path, the team was able to get a rescue basket to Garrett, and the Baker County Search and Rescue Ropes Team set up a highline rope system to transport him across the ravine after he was secured in it.

man being pulled in a rescue basket on ropes across a ravine

The search and rescue team pulled Garrett across the ravine in a rescue basket.

Photo courtesy of Baker County Sheriff's Office

Once he was safely across, Garrett was transported by ambulance to a Life Flight helicopter and then airlifted to a regional hospital.

"This was an incredibly technical rescue performed by Baker County Search and Rescue utilizing a highline rope system. BCSO was also grateful for Pine Valley Rural Fire Protection District, Halfway Ambulance, Life Flight and the U.S. Forest Service employees that provided assistance during the rescue," Baker County Sheriff's Office tells Upworthy. "This was truly a team effort!"

The sheriff's office also reports that Garrett has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home. According to the New York Times, Garrett had injured his ankle and his body was badly battered and bruised. All of the dogs survived the crash, one with a broken hip and an injured femur and another with leg broken in two spots.

But thanks to good boy Blue's memory and his making sure someone knew they needed help, everyone appears to be on the mend.

man with arms around a gray and white whippet dog

Good boy, Blue helped save his human.

Photo courtesy of Baker County Sheriff's Office

Find more images of the rescue on the Baker County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.