08/21/2026
This is a story about a family, a fire, and a community that showed up.
A few months ago, a family was sitting at the hospital next to their newborn daughter in the NICU. Before they'd left for the visit, they'd taken careful precautions at home — moving the trash can up onto the stovetop to keep it away from their three curious dogs. While they were out, one of the dogs somehow got up onto the stove and turned a burner on. The trash caught fire. The house filled with toxic smoke.
The fire eventually burned itself out, but the home was gone. All eight of their animals — three dogs, two cats, three ferrets — were pulled out alive and rushed to us with severe smoke inhalation.
Our team worked around the clock. The most critical pets spent days on our high-flow nasal oxygen unit — technology that delivers heated, humidified oxygen at flow rates far beyond what a standard oxygen cage can provide, rapidly displaces carbon monoxide from the blood, and supports damaged lungs without the risks of a mechanical ventilator. High-flow nasal oxygen came out of human ICU medicine and is only now becoming more widely available in veterinary care. Very few clinics — even emergency clinics — have it. We invested in it because when someone brings us a pet who can't breathe, we want every tool possible.
We fought hard for all eight pets. We lost three. Hazelnut, Peanut, and Linguine — you are not forgotten and will be missed.
Cases like this take an incredible toll on our team. We would like to thank our staff who took care of these pets and their humans with such compassion and support for weeks on end.
Five pets went home — or, more accurately, went on to the next stage of what became a long road for this family. The surviving dog and both cats were taken in at no charge by a long-term boarding facility. One of our own veterinary technicians, Ruby, fostered the two ferrets until the family found a permanent place to live. As we write this, the family has found a new home with all five pets.
The bill for eight animals over several weeks was, predictably, enormous. Our owners and staff volunteered their time, energy, and resources — charging only for medications, oxygen, and medical supplies. For The Love of Alex, a national nonprofit that funds emergency veterinary care for families facing financial hardship, then stepped up to cover a significant portion of the remaining bill.
Because of all of the donors and team at Animal ER the family is not carrying a veterinary debt on top of everything else they have lost. That is what community looks like on the Western Slope.
