Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned The animal shelters are working with dozens of volunteers responsible for feeding, caring for and walking the animals CHICO, United States: Steve Cox pets and cuddles Ernie, his 10-year-old English bulldog, before leaving him at a shelter. Cox lost his home in California’s devastating wildfires, and now they have to part. “Don’t you worry Ernie. I am not gonna let you down. We’ll come back for you,” Cox whispers. He has been staying at a hotel but it doesn’t take pets. For a week, Cox tried to take care of Ernie in the back of his pickup truck. But now, as Cox tries to get his life back on track, he thinks Ernie would get better care at one of three animal shelters in northern California’s Paradise area where the so-called Camp Fire has claimed 76 lives and left more than 1,000 unaccounted for. In this rural area, which had many horses, one shelter is for large animals. Then there are two small facilities where helpers are working with dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, turtles and even swans. Ernie is walking with a bit of trouble after an operation on an abscess in one of his front legs. Cox says the dog is lazy, though, so he thinks Ernie will adapt quickly to the separation by sleeping a lot. The main shelter was set up in the city of Chico’s airport, near Paradise, where rescue and firefighting operations have been based. Animals saved by firefighters are dropped off there to be cared for. One woman arrives desperate, her hands trembling. She pulls out an envelope of photos of her cats and dogs. “Please, let me in and see. I might find them,” she begs in a tearful voice. When the fire began to threaten Paradise, Cox was headed home from the doctor with his wife. He could have stopped but instead kept going, to rescue Ernie and two other smaller dogs he has. “They are family. I couldn’t just leave them. We had 10 minutes to leave,” he recalls. Cox, who lived there since 1973, said he lost two houses, and many pieces of furniture that his father had left him, in the blaze which virtually wiped the entire community from the map. “I have a big question mark above my head. I don’t know what I’ll do,” he says, his face showing exhaustion. The animal shelters are working with dozens of volunteers responsible for feeding, caring for and walking the animals. They also have volunteer veterinary technicians, including Marshall Riddle, who are responsible for treating them. Many animals arrived at the shelters injured and burned. “It’s never easy, but we have to make sure every animal is safe,” he says. The most worrying cases were sent along to specialized clinics. Although these are not the first shelters of their kind in the state regularly ravaged by wildfires, the blazes have never been so deadly. “Butte County is always on fire,” said Karen Falconer of the North Valley Animal Disaster Group, which runs another of the shelters, in an old hospital in the town of Oroville. There are about 430 animals, separated into zones. The dog section is barking noisily but the cat zone is quieter. “We’ll take care of them as long as necessary,” Falconer told AFP. For Cox, the separation was just starting, while others were already rejoicing in reunion. Little Eva’s face lit up when her six-month-old kitten Luke Skywalker — named for the “Star Wars” character — was handed over to her and her parents, Robert Pieper and his wife Brittany. They had already searched in another shelter for their pet African tortoise named James Peterson. The fire destroyed their house in Magalia, just outside Paradise. Now, after days in a shelter and then a hotel, they were able to rent an apartment where they could be with their pets and try to start over the life the wildfires had burnt beyond recognition. Topics: California wildfire US Related 594 World Trump consoles Californians suffering from twin tragedies 884 World Fire deaths rise to 71 ahead of Trump’s California visit UK PM May: Getting rid of me risks delaying Brexit A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier, May said. (AFP) Updated 12 min 42 sec ago Reuters November 18, 2018 22:17 29 It is not clear May will be able to win backing for her plan in parliament At the center of concerns over the deal is the Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to avoid a return to border checks between the British province and EU-member Ireland LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday toppling her would risk delaying Brexit and she would not let talk of a leadership challenge distract her from a critical week of negotiations with Brussels. Since unveiling a draft divorce deal with the European Union on Wednesday, May’s premiership has been thrust into crisis by the resignation of several ministers, including her Brexit minister, and some of her own members of parliament are seeking to oust her. More than two years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, it is still unclear how, on what terms or even if it will leave as planned on March 29, 2019. May has vowed to fight on, but with both pro-EU and pro-Brexit lawmakers unhappy with the draft agreement, it is not clear she will be able to win the backing of parliament for it, raising the risk Britain leaves the EU without a deal. “These next seven days are going to be critical, they are about the future of this country,” May told Sky News. “I am not going to be distracted from the important job. “A change of leadership at this point isn’t going to make the negotiations any easier ... what it will do is mean that there is a risk that actually we delay the negotiations and that is a risk that Brexit gets delayed or frustrated.” To trigger a confidence vote, 48 of her Conservative lawmakers must submit a letter to the chairman of the party’s so-called 1922 committee, Graham Brady. More than 20 lawmakers have said publicly that they have submitted a letter, but others are thought to have done so confidentially. Brady told BBC Radio on Sunday the 48 threshold had not yet been reached. Brady said he thought it was likely May would win any confidence vote, making her immune to another challenge for 12 months under the party’s rules. Mark Francois, one lawmaker who has submitted a letter, said he expected some colleagues were taking soundings from local party members in their constituencies over the weekend before deciding whether to submit a letter. Future relationship At the center of concerns over the deal is the Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to avoid a return to border checks between the British province and EU-member Ireland. Critics say it would leave Britain bound to the EU in perpetuity and risks dividing the United Kingdom by aligning Northern Ireland more closely with the EU’s customs rules and production standards than mainland Britain. They are also unhappy that this arrangement, although temporary, will form the basis on which arrangements for the future relationship between the EU and the UK are built. The pro-Brexit ERG group of Conservative members of parliament published its assessment of the deal on Sunday, saying it would leave Britain “half in and half out” of the EU. The DUP, a small Northern Irish party which props up May’s minority government, has threatened to pull its support if the backstop means the province is treated differently from the rest of the United Kingdom. DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said on Sunday it was “time to work for a better deal which does not undermine the integrity of the United Kingdom.” May said negotiations were continuing and she intended to go to Brussels and meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. She said she would also be speaking to other EU leaders ahead of an EU summit to discuss the deal on Nov. 25. “We won’t agree the leaving part, the withdrawal agreement, until we have got what we want in the future relationship because these two go together. The focus this week will be on the future relationship,” she told Sky. “It is the future relationship that delivers on the Brexit vote.” Several British newspapers reported that five senior pro-Brexit ministers were working together to pressure May to change the deal, but writing in the Sun on Sunday newspaper May said she saw no alternative plan on the table. Former Brexit minister Dominic Raab, who resigned on Thursday in protest at the deal, said he supported May as leader but her deal was “fatally flawed” and she must change course. “I still think a deal could be done but it is very late in the day now and we need to change course,” Raab told the BBC. “The biggest risk of no deal is taking a bad deal to the House of Commons ... it is very important to take the action now.” Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said his party would vote against May’s deal when it came to parliament and the government should go back to Brussels for further negotiations. He said that was a priority ahead of pushing for a so-called people’s vote on the final agreement. “It’s an option for the future, but it’s not an option for today, because if we had a referendum tomorrow, what’s it going to be on? What’s the question going to be?” Corbyn told Sky News.