Bear cub burned in Wash. wildfire flown to Calif. wildlife care center

With his feet bandaged up, Cinder, a badly burned, 35 pound, female bear cub, is put into a crate before a flight from Pangborn Memorial Airport in East Wenatchee, Wash., to Lake Tahoe on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. The bear was burned recently in a wildfire in the Methow Valley. (AP Photo/The Wenatchee World, Don Seabrook)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cinder, a badly burned, 35 pound, female bear cub, is put into a crate by Washington State Fish and Wildlife bear and cougar specialist Rich Beausoleil at Pangborn Memorial Airport in East Wenatchee, Wash., Monday.

WENATCHEE, Wash. — A badly burned black bear cub that hobbled up the right driveway has been rescued and flown by a volunteer pilot to a wildlife care center in California.

Steve Love lives in north-central Washington’s Methow Valley, where the Carlton Complex of wildfires has scorched nearly 400 square miles since mid-July. When the 37-pound cub took shelter under his horse trailer late last week, he put out a bowl of water and tossed it some apricots from his tree.

The next day, a state Fish and Wildlife officer was able to capture the cub and take it to Wenatchee.

State biologist Rich Beausoleil says the cub has severe 3rd degree burns on all four paws. A local vet donated time and medicine and Beausoleil fed the cub yogurt and dog food while trying to determine who could help it.

Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care agreed to take the cub, since named Cinder. The state biologist also reached out to Pilots for Paws and a Seattle pilot volunteered to deliver the cub to the California center.

KOMO-TV reports that Cinder is now safely at the Lake Tahoe center and receiving care.