WEBBERS FALLS, Okla. — Shawn Smith, a volunteer firefighter, risked his life for the people of his flooded town on the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma.

And not just for the people.

Mr. Smith waded into waist-high floodwaters in one evacuated house over the weekend and came out holding Sammich, a scared gray-and-white cat, one of three he helped pull out of the same house.

It was part of a different kind of rescue mission, one where swift-water boats made their way through swirling floodwaters to ferry out wet dogs and drenched cats. Rescuers in helmets gathered under a partly submerged tree at one point to retrieve a dog that had climbed into the branches seeking higher ground.