The last straw for Amy Stauffer was having to euthanize her cat.

Three-year-old Poppy had somehow survived, hiding under a tree branch on the ground, two days after the fire burned down their house. It had snowed since then, helping to extinguish the flames and blanketing the charcoaled tree skeletons.

They found Poppy hiding. She was badly burned, and with no fur left to protect her, she had been shivering in the snow. Her eyes and paws were burned, but she was still al...