The SPCA for Monterey County is under an evacuation warning. Here's how they'll handle it.

The littlest evacuee from the wildfires raging through Monterey County, forcing upwards of 20,000 people out of their homes as of Saturday morning, weighs in at only a few ounces. 

He’s blue and green, he swims in a bowl and his name is Steve. 

The biggest evacuee from the wildfires raging through Monterey County—as firefighters brace for weather moving in early Sunday that may roughly approximate the apocalypse, possibly combining dry lightning, thunderstorms and wind gusts of up to 65 mph, but very little rain—may be yet to come.

But if that evacuee shows up, well, it’s gonna be a big one.

“We just got a call about bison,” SPCA spokesperson Beth Brookhouser says. They had also received a call about a camel needing a temporary home, but the camel and its people made other arrangements.

How do you move a bison? Very carefully, and with a trailer. 

Steve the Fish, scads of dogs and cats, bunnies, turtles, guinea pigs, horses—”every species you can imagine,” Brookhouser says—are currently under the care of the SPCA as evacuation warnings and outright evacuation orders have rolled through vast portions of the county.

Now, the SPCA itself is under an evacuation warning for its facility on Highway 68. And 100 people—most of them staff, some of them longtime, experienced volunteers—are preparing to bug out with more than 600 animals should the warning become an order.

"We've been preparing this for years, really, but definitely in the past few days," Brookhouser says. "Animals remain our highest priority, along with humans, and we're moving some supplies and animals to other places, including the Fairgrounds and the Marina Equestrian Center." 

If you're a human evacuee and you've left your pet with the SPCA, Brookhouser says, "Please don't worry."

If you are currently evacuating because of an order issued this morning, and you have other options for places to leave your pets, the SPCA asks you take the other option for now. 

In terms of assistance, the SPCA needs it, Brookhouser says. Money is best, because the situation is in such a state of flux, but the SPCA also has an Amazon Wish List.

For more information, and for how to prepare to get yourselves or your pets out, and for how to donate, visit the SPCA's disaster preparedness checklist on their website.