Lack of Food Has Animals on the Run : Wildlife: Traumatized deer, owls and coyotes in Laguna Canyon are roaming in every direction to find nourishment. Residents are advised to keep their tasty cats indoors.

With their food source destroyed by the fire, hungry and thirsty animals in Laguna Canyon are feasting on anything they can find, from dead snakes and roses to smoke-choked birds and the family cat.

The Laguna Beach Animal Shelter, which reports that traumatized deer, owls and coyotes are running in every direction to find nourishment, is advising people to keep their cats in their homes, safe from the roaming creatures. “They’re highly stressed,” said Joy Lingenfelter, animal control officer at the shelter. “They’re displaced. Some of them are ranging in an area that they normally don’t travel through.”

At the north end of the fire, animals fled toward Newport Beach or Irvine. Critters in the Mystic Hills region escaped down to Bluebird Canyon, an unburned patch near the animal shelter on Laguna Canyon Road, and Aliso Woods, where there is natural cover and food, she said. The animals are highly visible because they no longer have the natural camouflage of their habitats.

“With this kind of distress, they will come out at all times of day and night,” said Lingenfelter, who saw a bobcat near the Laguna Beach Police Department at dusk on Monday. The shelter has placed water in the canyon pathways where certain animals are known to roam. But the shelter discourages feeding deer--especially hay or pellets which cause them to bloat and die, Lingenfelter said.

“We’d hate for them to survive the fire and die with the rescue efforts,” she said. “The wild animals will acclimate if they aren’t scorched or fire-damaged.”

Deer normally eat grass, brush, or weeds in the chaparral. More than ever now, they are being spotted near residential areas, foraging for ferns, wild berries, roses and other cultivated plants. Lingenfelter said there is a slim chance of deer dying of starvation. More likely, some will die because of trauma, dehydration and shock. One deer died after it got stuck in a fence and injured its head trying to free itself.

“By the time we got there, her gums were very pale and she was severely dehydrated,” Lingenfelter said. “We could not resuscitate her.”

If the fire has any winners, it will be predators such as coyotes, owls, bobcats and mountain lions.

Although coyotes are hunters, they also will scavenge for dead animals such as opossums, raccoons, birds, reptiles, lizards and snakes. Songbirds, mockingbirds and towhee birds that have collapsed because of smoke inhalation are also devoured.

Lost cats make a tasty treat for coyotes. “Cats basically are on a marked time clock because of the coyotes,” she said. Cats are also up against the great horned owls. “They’re not anything to tangle with,” she said of the owls, which swoop down on their prey with great force and kill them.

There is one thing in cats’ favor, however.

“When they’re traumatized, they generally seek cover and only come out when it’s safe,” Lingenfelter said.

The shelter has contracted an animal finding organization, Critter Catchers, to find the many cats that were lost during the fire.

“We put food and water out over the weekend,” said Brynne Van Putten, owner of Critter Catchers.

She noted that many animals lost during the Oakland Hills fire came back to their homes when they knew it was safe.