California Woman’s Cat Found Waiting at Fire-Ravaged Property a Month Later

Jack Phillips
Updated:

Days after reports of a woman’s dog patiently waiting for its owner after the California wildfires, a cat has apparently done the same.

Courtney Werblow returned to her fire-ravaged home in Paradise, California, where the Camp Fire destroyed thousands of buildings and killed dozens. There, she saw her cat, Timber, who she thought had died.

“Come on Timber! Come on baby girl! Hi baby girl, come on!” Werblow can be heard saying in a viral video.

“You look so good,” she says, breaking into tears.“You made it! You made it! It’s okay, baby. We are right here. We are here for you!”

Werblow said it’s been a month since the fire destroyed her home.

“We received an escort to my parents property & my cat Timber was discovered!!“ she wrote on Facebook. ”She’s alive. Praise God!”

She told ABC10 that it was a much-needed boost after her parents lost nearly everything in the fire.
“Courtney, Mark and two children, Lowell (10) and Ellie (6). We just recently learned that the Werblow’s lost their home in the Paradise California Fire (Camp Fire) along with all of Courtney’s business equipment,” a GoFundMe page for the family states. “Courtney & the kids left with a little bag, the clothes on their backs and a small dog, Mark was unable to make it back up to them from work to help them evacuate.”
The Camp Fire killed 86 people and scorched more than 150,000 acres in November, making it the worst wildfire in California history, CalFire noted. The fire is 100 percent contained.

It comes just days after Andrea Gaylord, who also lost her property in the fire, discovered that her dog, Madison, had been guarding her property for a month.

Gaylord told ABC10, “You could never ask for a better animal. You really couldn’t.”

“Imagine the loyalty of hanging in through the worst of circumstances and being here waiting,” she said.

“The third day I went in there, I didn’t know if my mind was playing tricks on me, but I felt like I saw a flash of white movement down in the canyon,” Shayla Sullivan, an animal rescue volunteer, said, according to HuffPost. She'd approached Gaylord’s property when asked to check on the dog
When Gaylord drove up to the property, it took “about five or 10 minutes” for Madison appear, reports said. “When Andrea showed up, he smelled her,” Sullivan said.
Meanwhile, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) submitted its supplemental report to the California Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 11 about its electrical system in the lead-up to the Camp Fire.

“The loss of life, homes and businesses in the Camp Fire is truly devastating,“ the company stated. ”Our focus continues to be on assessing our infrastructure to further enhance safety, restoring electric and gas service where possible, and helping customers begin to recover and rebuild. Throughout our service area, we are committed to doing everything we can to further reduce the risk of wildfire.”

So far, officials have found 3,266 people since the Camp Fire broke out. Three people remain missing, officials told the San Francicso Chronicle on Dec. 12.
Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Breaking News Reporter
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter who covers a range of topics, including politics, U.S., and health news. A father of two, Jack grew up in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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