Clearly, quite a lot of dogs and cats have been rescued from the catastrophic fire at Grenfell House. The residents who escaped are to be temporarily housed in their community by the local authority. It may be impractical or impossible for the temporary housing to accommodate pets. Therefore, the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home have stepped in to provide a home for these companion animals.
The well-known animal rescue centre has started to receive calls from traumatised families with requests to care for their beloved cats and dogs while they seek temporary or permanent accommodation. The story of cat and dog companions also needs to be told.
You can imagine how difficult it would be to look after a cat in the aftermath of this catastrophe. Perhaps the cat owner was unable to put their cat into a cat carrier in the panic to vacate the building or they don’t have a carrier.
It would be next to impossible to carry around your cat on the street or in a temporary rescue centre. Even if a cat were in a carrier this can only be for a relatively short time. These cats need to be placed in secure accomodation where they can be looked after until the local authority re-homes residents. This, in itself, is a challenge because up to 500 people have instantly lost their home.
Pancho is one cat who made it from this shocking disaster.
One man refused to leave his flat without his dogs (I assume the animals were panicking not able to be carried or led through the smoke). He is among the missing, assumed deceased. This demonstrates how much a pet is considered to be family.