From the Victoria Times Colonist

It has been four or five days since more than 16,000 residents were forced from their homes and the fate of the crops and animals left behind as they fled the fire still burning on Okanagan Mountain is increasingly on their minds.

"We heard from a man who had to leave behind 200 chickens, six goats, six sheep and two cats. He came to us Sunday and asked us to try to feed his livestock," says Terri Crisp of Noah's Wish, an animal-rescue group.

"They'd had no food or water since Friday by the time we got in there. I walked into the chicken coop with the hose trickling, and the chickens came running at me from all directions."

But even the bleakest situation has a few bright spots, says Crisp, whose California-based animal rescue agency is working with the SPCA to find temporary homes for about 600 displaced pets.

One local woman, who was working when police barricaded the road to her home, had feared the worst for her many pets -- two dogs, two cats and two birds. When Crisp got a special permit to go into the home Saturday to rescue the animals, she found all of them in good shape and the house still standing.

"When she came in here asking for help, she was so traumatized that all she could say was, 'All I want is my animals. All I want is my animals,' " recalls Crisp. "But they were fine, and the birds sang all the way back in my car.

"The best phone calls I get to make are like the one I made to that woman, telling her to come on down and get her animals."