HAVILAH, Calif. (KERO) — Rankin Ranch started selling T-Shirts featuring Curly, with 100% of the proceeds going towards helping pay for Curly's medical care. Any money left over will go towards helping Curly's owners, the Carruthers family, rebuild the home they lost in Havilah. You can purchase at-shirt here.
- A bull named Curly was in Havilah as the fire tore through the commmunity. He found shelter somewhere and survived, but sustained burns on his legs and underside.
- As of August 22nd, it's been roughly a month since Curly went through the Borel Fire.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Mark Carruthers is going through his daily routine of caring for his bull Curly, who miraculously survived the Borel Fire as it tore through Havilah.
“There’s a few of us that basically take shifts here. We bring him his feed, his water, clean all the mess out around him, fly spray him, hit him with his antiseptic spray,” Carruthers said.
Curly survived the Borel fire as it tore through Havilah, but not without sustaining severe burns on his legs and underside.
“His lungs shouldn't be fine, but they are. All I can think of is that obviously, he got into someplace where he could get out of most of the smoke and the heat, enough to where his lungs survived, but he had to cross fire to get to whatever that was.”
Curly, who can be seen from the main road in Havilah - has inspired residents, firefighters, and workers of all types – standing out as a survivor among the devastation.
Carruthers says he’s not out of the woods yet, but he seems to be showing progress.
“It looks really bad because everything's hanging off of him right now, but that's supposed to happen. It's supposed to slough off and leave, and new stuff is supposed to grow, and he's supposed to start getting some mobility back.”
Curly has a lead veterinarian and Carruther’s wife is also a vet.
“We basically work under their orders.”
Curly currently can’t walk, that’s why Carruthers brings him both water and food – but he’s shown resilience.
“There have been a few times that we thought, okay, this is probably it.”
But when things seem bleakest –
“Curly rolls up and gets up, you know, as if to say, Not today, not today.”
“We see Curly as kind of an icon of the Borel Fire if you will,” said Amanda Rankin.
Rankin is member of the Rankin family, who operate a ranch in Walker Basin – the ranch where Curly was born.
He was purchased by Carruthers because of his good nature.
“For our small ranch, he was the perfect bull for that,” Carruthers said.
Carruthers lived in Havilah with his wife and four children – their home didn’t make it.
“We knew that they had lost everything, with the exception of Curly the bull,” Rankin said.
“We saw more and more people asking how they could help Curly and commenting on social media and praying for Curly and the Carruthers Family. It kind of started out as a ‘what if.’ What if we made these shirts that we could sella and the money could go to the Carruthers family, and to Curly? And then it turned into a ‘Why not?’” Rankin said.
Rankin started selling T-shirts featuring Curly with all the profits going to the Carruthers family to pay for Curly’s care. Any extra money would go towards helping Mark, his wife, and their four children rebuild their home.
“Starting this, this campaign for him and us, that's a big deal,” Carruthers said.
You can purchase a T-Shirt at Rankinbeef.com - and Rankin ranch is also raising general funds for Borel Fire survivors - raffling off a quarter beef and providing a list of Gofundme’s of impacted families.
“I can't say enough good things about them, knowing them for a lot of years. And they always step up. They always step up to help out,” Carruthers said.
Although his future is uncertain - Curly keeps fighting.
“The whole community is gone, devastated, and everybody is trying to figure out how to rebuild. There’s Curly here, I think a lot of them are looking at him as the example, you just keep fighting, keep going.”
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