Wildfires have been ravaging the Pacific Northwest for weeks, and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate from their homes.
The fires have completely ruined homes, neighborhoods, and entire towns. They're absolutely devastating — but as always, some positive stories have come out of the horrendous situation.
We've seen mailmen staying behind to deliver necessities to burned-down homes, police officers putting themselves in harm's way to search for survivors, and one woman who carried her 70-pound pit bull away from the fires on her bike.
Any time disasters strike our nation, we see true American heroes come out of the woodwork to help people and animals in need.
Today's story has to do with a sweet pony named Stardust.
After the pony's owner, Lauren, realized Stardust wouldn't fit into the trailer with the other horses, she grabbed her car keys and carrots and led the pony to her Honda Accord.
[H/T: Love What Matters]
A woman named Cindy first shared this story on her Facebook page, where people were astounded.
Within a week of posting, the photo had over 12,000 reactions and over 17,000 shares.
Later, she shared her story with the Facebook page Love What Matters, where it again got a lot of attention.
In just four days, the post had 26,000 reactions and over 3,600 shares.
Cindy explained:
When your sister-in-law Lauren has to evacuate her pony from Santa Rosa but no transport is available — you do what you have to do.
The photo is of my sister-in-law Lauren Mesaros, who lives in Santa Rosa with her horses.
Her house was threatened by the fire and she needed to evacuate quickly, but her pony Stardust didn't fit in the trailer with her other horses.
She did what she had to do and got him into the backseat of her Honda Accord with “carrots and love,” she tells me.
They are all safe now.
Stardust is at a ranch in Sebastopol.
The Accord will need an interior cleaning, but that's a small price to pay. She said he pooped everywhere!
Santa Rosa is one of the areas that has been hit hardest by the wildfires, so it's good that Lauren took the evacuation requirement seriously.
It's so important to have an evacuation plan for your pets, and this just proves that even if the plan isn't perfect, it can still work.
Lauren probably never expected to have to put her pony into her small car, but she knew she'd do whatever she had to in order to keep her animals safe.
People have been blown away by Lauren's dedication.
One woman wrote: "Good on her! It's just a car anyway and they can be cleaned easily enough. I would have done the same thing. I hope her home and everything makes it okay."
Another person said: "Not surprised he pooped, horses for some reason tend to poop when they are nervous and any kind of transport can be stressful for them, even if they aren't showing outward signs. Glad she got him out safely and did what she had to do! And I hope more carrots and love for the pony!"
If you love horses and ponies, please SHARE this article with your friends!
