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Victor Maccharoli

Tajo McBurnie, 10, pets his cat Sugar at the pet clinic Friday. Sugar's paws were burnt in the Tea Fire and hid in a storm drain until his family found her five days later.

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Cat survives ferocious blaze almost unscathed

By COLBY FRAZIER

When a wall of flames raced towards Heather McBurnie’s Conejo Road home during the Tea Fire, she grabbed a change of clothes for herself and her son, a basket of pictures and the family dog.

But just out of reach beneath the front deck, refusing to budge was Sugar, her son’s cat.

McBurnie said she was “torn.” She wanted to get out of Sycamore Canyon alive, but didn’t want to leave her son’s first pet.

“The fire was moving so quickly, I felt we had to get out,” she said. “Our lives were at stake; I just wanted to be safe.”

When McBurnie pulled away from her home, Sugar wasn’t sitting in her son, Tajo’s, lap.

It probably didn’t’ take long for the flames to arrive. And when they did, they reduced most everything to a fine, gray ash.

McBurnie returned four days later to find the ruins. Only one house remained. A line stumps remained where a row of thick, strong trees had once stood.

She called for Sugar, but the cat didn’t come.

The next day she returned to find utility workers in the neighborhood. McBurnie said one man told her he’d seen a cat in a storm drain.

McBurnie rushed to the spot. Sugar was there, her paws badly charred, tail and stomach singed.

“It’s totally a miracle from God,” McBurnie said yesterday while visiting her cat at the St. Francis Pet Clinic on Ortega Street. “That’s all my son wanted was the cat. This is all he really cared about. All that other stuff didn’t matter.”

McBurnie rushed Sugar to the clinic, where the grayish, orange feline has received a paw cleaning each morning along with two doses of antibiotics and painkiller.

As of yesterday evening, Sugar’s paws remained tender and red. She was still confined to a spacious, steel kennel at the clinic, where she occasionally licked her wounds and hissed at a Daily Sound photographer.

Along with Sugar, only one other injured animal was taken to the clinic, another cat that was able to leave yesterday.

Dr. Kellye Harmon, a veterinarian at the clinic who’s been working closely with Sugar, said she’s impressed, but not surprised by the cat’s resiliency.

“Animals are really smart,” she said. “Their survival instincts are really strong but I definitely think she went through a lot; I can’t even imagine.”

When McBurnie first saw the remains of her home on Monday, she said there was little chance anything survived.

“You look around and there’s no reason to have hope,” she said. “It was so bleak. Everything was scorched.”

McBurnie, a second grade teacher at Washington Elementary School, bought her home about a year ago. She said it survived the Sycamore Canyon and Coyote fires, and luckily, the house was insured and will be replaced.

In a week filled with despair, in which many people weren’t lucky enough to have a sliver of hope rise from the ashes, McBurnie said finding Sugar alive changed her and Tajo’s entire outlook.

“It made everything a little bit lighter,” she said. “It’s a light in the darkness right now.”

When the Tea Fire tore through the Santa Barbara foothills, it trampled the heart of this city. Few people can say they didn’t know someone who was impacted by the blaze, which officials say destroyed 210 homes.

One modest sign of just how deeply affected Santa Barbarans were by the fire is the reaction by Tajo’s principal at Roosevelt Elementary School after McBurnie informed school officials the cat had been found.

McBurnie said the principal isn’t normally open to interruptions in the middle of the school day, so she asked the principal to inform her son of the news during a break.

But she said the principal told Tajo right then of the development.

McBurnie gave Tajo the cat six years ago as a late Christmas present. When they moved into their home on Conejo Road, McBurnie said she considered leaving Sugar at the old house, since it had grown so comfortable there.

But she said Tajo, who’s in the sixth grade, wouldn’t hear of it. He insisted the cat be with the family then, and he couldn’t be happier the cat somehow survived the fire.

“I’ve had her for such a long time,” the boy said. “It’s my kitty.”

With so much loss in the community, McBurnie said it feels a little odd that she and Tajo found Sugar alive.

But for McBurnie, she said it’s a sign that God looked after the cat, and is going to look after others impacted by the fire as well.

“It’s hopeful [that] things are going to be alright,” she said, adding that it’s like someone’s trying to say, “The cat’s fine. You guys are going to be fine. I’ll take care of you, too.”

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Cat survives ferocious blaze almost unscathed : 11/24/2008

What a heartwarming story! Tears are running down my face. Although I don't know her personally, Ms Mc Burnie is a member of my church, Calvary Chapel, and the congregation has been praying for her. We prayed and He delivered. Who said miracles don't happen?? I do know St. Francis Pet Clinic where my Italian conversation group friend and vet, Dr. Ron Faoro works. He, unfortunately, was in a serious accident the Sat. before the fire, and lost his home 5 days later. He and Ms Mc Burnie were neighbors.

BJT

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Great news, Heather and Tajo!!! : 11/24/2008

That's wonderful! I'm so glad Sugar found a place to hunker down and wait for you. She obviously had unfinished business she had to do here with you before heading over the rainbow bridge. What a wonderful bright ray of sunshine for all of you to hold on to! Much love to you all!

Harriet W.

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Cats are survivalists : 11/25/2008

Just another example of how cats survive. They are not weak creatures.

Michael

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