A California Family Shares Tearful Reunion With Their Beloved Dog After the Eaton Fire — Details
The injured dog was found in the debris of the family's home.
Published Jan. 17 2025, 4:25 p.m. ET
A family is crying tears of joy in California after being reunited with their lost dog. The family's pooch had been lost during the Eaton Fire — one of the many blazes that ravaged the state at the start of 2025 — and he was presumed dead.
The dog's adoptive dad owes the happy reunification to TikTok, where a video of the dog quickly went viral after it was shared online.
The pooch's story has a happy ending, but so many others do not, as the Palisades Fire and others in the region continue to wreak havoc on Los Angeles County.
Keep reading to learn more about the dog and how he is doing after being both physically and emotionally traumatized in the fire.
A dog was rescued from the rubble of a home destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
A pair of friends decided to head into a Los Angeles neighborhood after the Eaton Fire to see what was left when they made the shocking discovery. According to Newsweek, the women had been poking around the charred remains of the home when they saw something moving.
The ladies sprung into action after realizing the movement was an injured dog.
A video captured by TikTok user @lilmama_lilpapas shows what happened next, as other nearby residents and volunteers came to the dog's aid, helping to get him covered up with a blanket so that he could be transported to Pasadena Humane Society, where Newsweek says he received treatment for burs to his mouth, paws, and smoke inhalation.
The dog rescued from the fire was reunited with his family thanks to social media.
The discovery of the dog caused the video to blow up on TikTok, where Newsweek said it was seen by over 110,000 people in just the first few days after it was posted.
Fortunately, all the attention helped get the word out to the dog's family, allowing them to reunite. The dog's name, as it turns out, is Canelo.
"From what I was told, he went to get his dogs in his Altadena home, and he put them in the back of his truck, but with all the smoke and embers flying, Canelo got scared and bolted right back to the fire," Lauren Wong told Newsweek. "At that point, the owner just couldn't see where he was or went, so he had to leave him."
Unfortunately, Canelo requires intensive care before he can go home. It sounds like he'll be at the shelter for a few more weeks before he's well enough to be back in the loving arms of his family.
However, Wong says that Canelo showed "so much relief" and that he had "never been happier" than when he finally laid eyes on his human again. Here's hoping that the rest of the stories of lost pets from the wildfires come to a similar end.