Gray fire evacuees reunite with the beloved horse they had to leave behind: ‘All we could do was cry’

Burning some 9,500 acres in its first day, the rapid pace of the Gray fire left many with little notice before they had to evacuate.

This left many pet and horse owners with the hardest of decisions.

Since they tied their phone number to its neck and evacuated their dream home near Four Lakes Friday night, Donna Orr and Dennis White saw their horse for the first time this weekend.

They could not contain their emotions.

“We saw her standing there and all we could do was cry,” Orr said.

Their horse Cheyanne was standing in her corral next to an empty container that used to hold her special-occasion treats.

“Leaving her was the hardest decision we’ve had to make, and we still can’t believe she is alright,” Orr said.

The 18-year old horse was mistreated most of her life and was in poor condition when the couple bought her about one year ago. Energetic and loving, Cheyanne has brought endless joy to the retired couple’s lives.

But Orr and White have had a hard time getting Cheyanne to enter a trailer, which inevitably resulted in her being left behind.

“She loves her home and is a little stubborn,” Orr said.

The couple will be sure to not give up on trailer training, but right now they’re enjoying her company.

“She is OK, and that is all that matters,” she said.

But what if Cheyanne was forced to flee her corral? Who would help bring her home?

Local volunteers are looking for answers.

Despite its name, the Spokane County Livestock Emergency Evacuation Team is limited in its animal rescue services.

The volunteer organization can only rescue animals upon request of the owners. Day or night, they will retrieve animals and bring them to the Spokane County Fair and Expo center, where they will be cared for by the Humane Evacuation Animal Rescue Team.

The two groups cared for more than 400 evacuated animals at the Spokane location since the Gray fire ignited.

This is where Orr and White brought their other horse, Sonoma, and were “blown away” at the operation.

“I can’t say enough about how great they were to us and our Sonoma,” Orr said.

She and White were like zombies, Orr said, paralyzed with sadness by leaving Cheyanne behind. The aid of the organizations was immensely helpful during their difficult time, she said.

The Spokesman-Review heard from over a dozen owners of animals at the fairgrounds who spoke positively about the care their animals were receiving.

But Phoebe Duke, one of the leading coordinators of the livestock evacuation group, said the outreach of their care is limited.

If Cheyanne had been found and reported to the organization, Duke and her team could not legally retrieve the animal without consent of the owners, she said.

“We want to grab every critter and give them a comfy stall, but we can’t,” Duke said.

In that case, volunteers will note its location and care for the animal in place as best they can.

But Duke hopes to expand its rescue services to freed animals by working with the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service.

The animal shelter is the only organization that has authority to retrieve freed animals, but those are primarily service dogs, cats or other household animals – not livestock, SCRAPS director Jesse Ferrari said.

Not only do they not have the proper equipment like a truck or trailer, but the shelter is already hard-pressed to meet the demand for the smaller animals.

“We simply have a limited role,” Ferrari said, though he hopes to help livestock in any capacity. “A lot of local rescuers have stepped up, and we definitely want to support them however we can.”

Though the organizations will work together to help all of Spokane County’s animals, they offered ways pet owners can aid this effort.

Ferrari said the process of rescuing animals and returning them to owners would be much more efficient if owners microchipped their animals. This allows pet shelter workers to simply scan the microchip and be provided the owner’s contact details.

Further, the process of retrieving livestock could be easier if animals are trained to enter a trailer, Duke said. Additionally, she recommends livestock owners call her organization, via 911, as early as they can in the case of an emergency to ensure all animals and volunteers have evacuated before disaster hits.

This prevents taking the drastic measure of freeing an animal.

But if you must, Duke recommends using brightly colored spray paint to put your phone number on one side of the animal and address on the other.

“We can’t push off making these adjustments because we will have more fires this year,” Duke said.

She believes the Spokane community and her volunteers will be better prepared than ever.

“You simply can’t pay for better training than this.”