Rottweiler puppies rescued by helicopter from the Park Fire with a mother dog have been reunited with their owners, who gave one of them to the animal-evacuation leader whose group has been saving pets and livestock from the blaze. Ashley Archer, leader of evacuations for Chico-based North Valley Animal Disaster Group, named her family’s new puppy Skaggs in honor of Trevor Skaggs, a Butte County Search and Rescue training officer who was airlifted by helicopter into the fire area, ran 1.5 miles down a steep canyon, and returned to the chopper who made it through the firestorm in a roadside clearing.
Skaggs the puppy has “made himself right at home” on the two-acre Sacramento-area ranch where Archer, 35, lives with her daughters Lacey, 11 and Makayla, 14, plus two horses, six goats, three cats, a Basset hound and a German shepherd. “He’s doing really well,” Archer said Friday. “He thinks he’s this giant dog, so he’s got this huge bark.
He’s just not afraid of anything, and why would he be? He’s a survivor.” After Trevor Skaggs’ dramatic dog rescue, initial reports indicated a mother dog, father dog and five puppies had been left in a pickup truck by a woman fleeing for her life the first night of the Park Fire. The male dog was reportedly found dead, along with a puppy.
A mother Rottweiler and her four puppies follow Butte County Search and Rescue’s Trevor Skaggs to the waiting helicopter of Butte County helicopter pilot Conner Smith during the Park.