Hero Vet Has Genius Idea of How to Take Care of Pets Stranded by Devastating Palisades Fire

There’s so much sad news coming out of the Los Angeles area the past couple of days as wildfires rage uncontrolled in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities, wiping out entire neighborhoods and turning the sky into an apocalyptic pall.

But this is ‘Merica, and during these types of disasters, you often see heroes go above and beyond to help others. Veterinarian Annie Harvilicz is one of those heroes, as she turned an empty hospital into a sanctuary for pets stranded by the evacuations when their owners were sometimes unable to take them with them.

She runs two animal hospitals, but neither of them is close to the Palisades. What to do? It was when she was asked by her brother to look after his cat and his bunny that she had a brilliant idea:

In thinking about where to shelter Winston and Oreo, Harvilicz realized she had a perfect spot. Two weeks ago, she had moved her Marina del Rey hospital to a new building just a block away, and she still had access to the old building. When she brought the cat and the bunny there, she got an idea.

“I looked around and was like, ‘There’s going to be other people that need help, and we have all this empty space. Let’s use it,’” said Harvilicz.