Operation Koi Rescue: The Untold Story
973
OM WRITTEN BY SHELLY BRANDON
change
The heartwarming stories of animal rescues during and after disasters can be found everywhere—horses ridden out of fire threatened pastures when trailers couldn’t arrive fast enough, animal rescue groups making daily trips to leave out bags of food for cats and dogs unwillingly abandoned in an evacuation, and baby bears receiving lifesaving fish-skin grafts on their burnt paws. But what about the animals you haven’t heard about? What about the scaly pucker-faced fish swimming in ponds amidst the fire and ashes? Well, here’s their story, the story of Paradise’s Operation Koi Rescue. Melissa Schuster and her husband Cliff Jacobson’s home at Chapelle De L’Artiste in Paradise sat on a breathtaking piece of land with a chapel, gatehouse, historic outbuildings, and a beautiful koi pond. After the fire, Melissa stood on the steps of that chapel, looked around and said to herself, “It’s enough.” Even though all the other structures, including their home, were gone, the fact that they still had their lives, their land, their pond, and the resiliency of the community of
Paradise around them meant they would not just survive but flourish. That large surviving pond proved to be a sanctuary for the community. What began as friends helping friends, evolved into something much bigger than they expected. Following the fire, their friend Scott Lotter asked Cliff to help him rig up a tank to rescue the koi at his pond. So, Cliff picked up a 500-gallon tank from his company, attached an aerator in order to allow the fish to breathe properly, and helped Scott and his son Dustin secure it to the bed of a pickup truck. They wrote Koi Rescue Team on the back of it in jest and unknowingly began a mission that would reach all the way to U.C. Davis Veterinary School. After rescuing Scott’s fish, the community heard about the work they were doing and soon, Scott, Dustin, Cliff, and Randy Hays traveled to over 100 ponds throughout the Paradise area, netting up and saving hundreds of koi. Some of the fish went to the U.C. Davis Veterinary Center, where they were able to house them until they could be reunited and rehoused with their owners. 41
