Puppies’ visit eases Kincade firefighters’ stress

Here and there at the sprawling incident camp at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, firefighters stooped to brush or pick something from their pant legs.

Dog hair. A fair bit of it.

But no one at the base camp Thursday, home at its height to many of the 5,000-plus firefighters who streamed in to help stave off the Kincade fire, complained.

“Sometimes it’s just relaxing to pet a dog,” said Eric Smythe with Oregon’s Columbia River Fire & Rescue, who shared some love with a pup in training from Canine Companions for Independence.

“We definitely need it,” Smythe told the team of canine trainers and administrators who brought to the fire operations camp nine young, shed-prone Labrador and golden retrievers, plus crossovers of the two mellow breeds.

Canine Companions chief Paige Mazzoni came along to thank the firefighters and take in the scene as they rubbed the head and ears of future service dogs Chloe, Dora, Zeebee, Daenerys, Habiki, Teak, Lovely, Chili and Timber.

“It’s amazing what these guys have done,” Mazzoni said of the firefighters, though she’s also quite high on the dogs. Herself a fire evacuee from Windsor, she said, “We’re incredibly grateful to them.”

Canine Companions for Independence, founded in Santa Rosa in 1975, trains dogs to assist people with disabilities across the country. The dogs were not unaffected by the Kincade inferno.

Upon receiving an evacuation order early Sunday, center staff and volunteers moved 83 dogs out from the CCI in southwest Santa Rosa.

The order was quickly lifted, but — choosing to be cautious — Mazzoni and her staff did not reactivate the Dutton Avenue center.

“We just reopened today,” Mazzoni said at Thursday’s dog-in at the fire camp.

Firefighter Justin Nevelle of East Bay Regional Parks seemed as happy as a kid as he nuzzled one of the pups. “It’s a little bit of normalcy,” he said.

When the goodwill entourage from Canine Companions arrived at a team of San Mateo firefighters resting alongside their engines, firefighter Greg Boyle was ready. He pulled out a carton of Milk Bones, and at once the 5-month-old Timber was his new best friend.

Boyle said he discovered while on a mutual aid call to the Carr fire in the Redding area of July 2018 that dog treats came in handy.

“There were a bunch of strays,” he said. The treats the firefighters brought along helped them to draw the frightened dogs in.

At a subsequent stop on the puppy tour, Merced firefighter Dale Flora eyed one of the surprise canine visitors and smiled.

“Mine looks just like this,” Flora said. “I’ve got a yellow Lab that’s completely white.”

He allowed that he’s hoping to be back to his pup by Friday night.

“She’ll be happy to see me,” he said. That the vice versa is true was clear as the dog hair on his pants.

You can contact Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.