Home Again : 1 of 2 Cats Separated From Couple in Laguna Fire Is Back Safe and Sound, Thanks to Help of Trapper

It was a pet lover’s nightmare.

As Sigrid August was frantically preparing to flee her burning home, her two cats, Finley and Nadine, vanished.

“My mother-in-law had put the (pet) bird on the counter and one of the cats had started snarling at him,” August said, recounting the incident last month. “I told (one of the cats) not to do it and that’s when (Nadine and Finley) both dashed out.”

August and her husband, Rudy, would soon discover that their Skyline Drive home had been destroyed in the Oct. 27 inferno that ravaged 366 houses in this picturesque beach community. For weeks, the whereabouts of Finley and Nadine remained a mystery.

Last Friday, however, the Augusts were reunited with Finley thanks to the efforts of Brynne Van Putten, a local animal trapper who runs an outfit called Critter Catchers.

Laguna Beach city officials hired Van Putten a few days after the fires in a desperate bid to locate more than 50 “MIAs”--felines listed as missing in action. Like Finley and Nadine, most had become separated from their owners and had been left behind in their frantic flight.

Van Putten and her assistants set out for the blackened hillsides and strategically placed seven baited traps in the hopes of luring some of the lost creatures to safety. Each trap contained cat food. Triggered by a paw pedal, the traps close harmlessly behind an animal when it attempts to take the bait.

Van Putten caught Finley, an orange calico cat, in a box trap placed near the site of the Augusts’ former home. His sister Nadine, however, is still missing.

The cats were part of an abandoned litter of four that the Augusts found in the hills behind their home 2 1/2 years ago. They kept Finley and Nadine and later found homes for the other two.

When Finley and Nadine first disappeared, August returned to the site of her destroyed home and left food out for them. After the fire, the Augusts rented another place down the street.

“We put out things like sweet rolls that we couldn’t finish because we thought at least other animals could eat it if they didn’t,” she said. “But then people told us it wasn’t good for the wild animals.”

Several agencies, including the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter, are keeping lists of missing animals and of people who have found pets.

Animal officials advise owners to periodically return to their property to call their cats and leave food out for them.

“The scent of the dry and wet food will draw the cats out,” Van Putten said. “In Oakland, cats were wandering back to where their homes were six months after the fire.”

The Augusts hope Nadine will be one of the late arrivals.

But for the time being, they are thankful to have Finley.

“We were so pleased to see him,” August said. “He’s very cuddly and keeps rubbing up against us. He’s a completely different cat. I guess he’s afraid we’ll abandon him again.”

Ironically, the day after catching Finley, Van Putten removed the traps. Her assistant, Terry Webster, said Critter Catchers had caught just six cats and concluded that the animals weren’t biting.

“A lot of people were feeding them outside the traps and when a food source is available, a lot of the animals won’t go in the trap,” Webster said. “Also, we don’t know what the number was that was lost compared to the numbers of carcasses.”

Despite these seemingly meager results, Critter Catchers managed to reunite two lost cats with their owners--a significant blessing this Thanksgiving for families who lost everything in the fire. Cats that were found whose owners have not come forward are in quarantine at the Laguna Beach Animal Shelter awaiting adoption.

“The families were really glad to get their cats back,” said Joy Lingenfelter, an animal services officer. “The others that we recovered have to stay in the quarantine area because we want them to get over the trauma.”

Finley, meanwhile, seems to be adjusting well.

Besides a swollen face, August said, he is no worse for wear.

“He was a little shocked and he hides under a corner of the bed once in a while, but most of the time he’s fine,” she said.

The recent fires were not Finley’s first brush with death.

About a year ago, his legs got pinned under a car tire, costing $1,000 in vet bills. August, for one, thinks Finley may be near the end of his luck. “He’s definitely used up all of his nine lives,” she said.