How an 87-year-old N.S. man escaped a wildfire with his cat

When Ron MacKenzie left his southwest Nova Scotia home due to growing wildfire, he knew he could only take the essentials — which, of course, included his cat, Tom Tom.

The 87-year-old man was watching television at his Jordan Bay home last Wednesday when an alert flashed: a new wildfire had sparked in his area of Shelburne County and he had to evacuate.

"I grabbed a few things and put them together and, of course, Tom Tom," MacKenzie told CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on Tuesday.

"I started making a harness for him out of a rope because he's never been out of my house."

MacKenzie said he got the cat into the car and sought refuge at the fire hall in the town of Shelburne.

"The cat's probably 12 years old and I can't imagine how well he adjusted. He seemed to know what was going on. He made me feel calm," he said.

MacKenzie spent three nights out of his home, one of which was spent in his car with Tom Tom, because there were dogs at the fire hall. 

"The cat was uncomfortable so I thought I better go to the car, and as soon as I put him down — I made a bed for him with a big towel — and he just wanted to go to sleep."

To hear more about MacKenzie's evacuation experience, listen to host Portia Clark's full interview with him below.