Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Suffering Like Their Owners, Many Pets Are Lost, Injured : Animals: Some disoriented cats and dogs are killed on roads. Others are rescued by strangers, who care for them or take them to busy shelters.

For thousands of pets, as well as their owners, the earthquake was a nightmare of pain, heartache and terror.

In the chaos of the hours after the quake, an untold number of dogs, cats, horses and other animals became separated from their owners, left to wander the streets, spooked by the trembling earth.

Many were killed by cars and trucks on darkened roads and freeways while others became strays, their owners looking desperately for them.

Perhaps nowhere was that more evident than at the West Valley Animal Shelter in Chatsworth, where a stream of animals and their owners have arrived since the quake.

“It’s pandemonium out there,” said Los Angeles City Animal Control Lt. Richard Felosky. “It’s terrible, the worst I’ve ever seen. When I got here (Monday) the animals that were already here--we’ve got sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, everything--were going crazy. Some of the (kennel) doors had been jarred loose and some dogs were wandering around inside. Now people are coming in nonstop with animals, or looking for their animals, by the dozens.”

By late Tuesday afternoon, about 300 animals had been brought to the shelter, and an equal number to the East Valley shelter in Van Nuys.

Animal control officers also worked frantically to provide water for horses in canyon areas where utilities were out. Department of Water and Power tankers reached more than 700 rapidly dehydrating horses.

Most of the animals arriving at shelters and clinics were brought in by strangers. Cats had been injured by flying bricks and timbers. Dogs’ paws were sliced open as they ran in panic through broken glass. Birds had feathers torn off as they were tossed around in their cages.

“We had a little hamster that was injured when a book fell on it,” said Bill Thomas, co-owner of the Southern California Veterinary Hospital in Woodland Hills.

Still other pets were struck by cars on darkened, unsignaled streets. Some were killed.

Meanwhile, hundreds--perhaps thousands--of pets were believed to be wandering the streets or the makeshift camps that earthquake refugees set up in parks throughout the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

Some of the disoriented animals helped by people were normally wild ones. At the West Valley shelter, animal control officers were brought 26 opossums and one raccoon, which they released in a mountain canyon Tuesday.

“It’s raining possums,” said Gary Olsen, general manager of the Department of Animal Regulation.

Chris Fix, 28, of Woodland Hills, seemed surprised when asked why he picked up an injured female Airedale lying in a gutter and brought the dog to the West Valley shelter in his car.

“There was a dog in need of help,” Fix said simply.

About half of the animals brought to the West Valley shelter had been claimed by Tuesday afternoon, Felosky said.

“There he is!” shouted Eddie Blair, 29, of Reseda, as he spotted his bloodhound, Red, who ran away when a fence was knocked down in the quake. “I’ve been looking all over. . . . I was afraid I’d never find him.”

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Others took lost pets into their homes and put up homemade signs seeking the owners.

“Found, Black Dog,” said one posted on Topanga Canyon Boulevard. “Earthquake Cat Found,” said another. “Horse Found” said a third. There were dozens like them.

Kirsten Thye and Todd Smith put up a sign by Topanga Canyon Boulevard asking drivers to watch for disoriented animals wandering in the traffic.

“Slow--Pets Out,” the sign announced in large, bright-pink letters.

“People just aren’t thinking about dogs being freaked out and wandering in the street,” said Thye, who has two dogs. “We thought if we put up the sign people might think and slow down a little.”

Some panicked pets caused accidents--and not merely when they were struck by cars.

One woman rushed to Thomas’ clinic with her stricken bird, who in its distress pecked her repeatedly as she drove--causing her to wreck her brand-new car.