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Dozens of dogs and cats from wildfire-ravaged Southern California will soon catch a flight to Seattle and find a new temporary home at Seattle Humane in Bellevue.

“Two-thirds of our shelter population is from life-saving transfers,” Seattle Humane’s Brandon Macz told ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. “A lot from Central Washington, but also across the country … Texas, Oklahoma. We’ve worked with a number of shelters in California before. We also helped out with rescue flights out of Maui. We’re just grateful we have the capacity to help.”

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These are not family pets displaced by wildfires. Instead, they are pets from shelters closest to the wildfires. With 60 animals transferred here, those shelters will have more capacity to take in animals lost during the wildfire, keeping them close to home so they can hopefully be reunited with their families.

Seattle Humane works with a group whose main business is transporting shelter animals.

“They do rescue flights all the time,” Macz said. “That’s their mission. Pulling pets out of overcrowded shelters and disaster-stricken areas.”

This helping hand is nothing new for Seattle Humane. In its 125-year history, it has assisted overcrowded shelters in Central Washington and all over the country.

The pets will arrive by plane in Seattle on Sunday. They will get checked out and given any medication they might need.

“They get the microchips,” Macz said. “Any vaccines they need updated. If they haven’t been spayed or neutered, we’ll get them on the surgery schedule.”

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Then, they’ll be ready for adoption on Tuesday. Macz shared he is confident families in the Seattle area will step up and provide loving homes for these animals.

“They’ve offered so much support already and the pets haven’t even landed yet,” he said. “We can’t wait to connect them to their new families.”

James Lynch is a reporter at ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. You can read more of James’ stories here. Follow James on , or email him here.