Three months after the Oakland hills fire, most animal rescue groups have given up. But volunteers from In Defense of Animals still scour the hills daily - and still find pets that survived the firestorm.

The Oct. 20 blaze devastated the area, left tinder-dry by five years of drought. It destroyed about 3,000 homes, killed 25 people and caused $1.5 billion in damage."In the aftermath, there was nothing there for the animals to recognize," said Doll Stanley, who has spearheaded In Defense of Animals' work in Oakland.

"All the scents were gone, the trees were gone, the homes were gone, everything was gone - including the people who had been there to feed them," Stanley said.

Cats are among the most wild of domesticated animals. Their natural instincts, such as hunting, are largely intact.

"I think that's why a lot of these animals survived," said Dr. Michael Evans, owner of the Animal Care Clinic in San Pablo. He offered Stanley's group a reduced rate for treating and holding the pets.

"They're just really shaken up. The cats are really upset and some of them require resocialization," Evans said.

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One captured cat had been sleeping in the fireplace of its burned-out home - the only structure left on the site. The cat has been reunited with its owners but sleeps in the fireplace at its new home.

Finding the pets was easy at first. About 400 dogs and cats running around in the streets were captured almost immediately, Stanley said.

As the number of homeless animals dwindled, other groups, such as Oakland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and local humane societies, stopped searching.

Stanley said In Defense of Animals has caught about 70 pets in the last two months, and continues to capture up to 10 a week.

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