One Year, Two Cats, and an Unbreakable Promise After LA Fire

For 366 days, Darlene Hamilton's life has followed a painful routine. Each morning around 4:30 a.m., she searches online listings of local animal shelters and lost pet groups. She is looking for two cats: Merlyn and Kiki. The pets disappeared when wildfires destroyed her Altadena, California, home one year ago. Hamilton, 66, escaped. She does not know if her cats did. "I promised my babies," Hamilton said. The promise means she has not stopped looking. Most nights, she sleeps only four hours. Her days begin and end scrolling through photographs of found animals, hoping to see her cats' familiar faces. She now lives in a rental home in Altadena. But without her cats, she says, it does not feel like home.