As the Los Angeles wildfires tore through neighborhoods, turning skies red and choking the air with smoke, a police officer was patrolling the edge of an evacuated zone.
The fires had already destroyed homes and hillsides.
In the haze and silence, a sudden crash caught his attention.
Thinking it might be a break-in, he approached with caution.
What he found instead was something that stopped him in his tracks.
A burned-out sedan sat by the roadside, windows coated in soot.
Inside, a large figure sat still in the driver’s seat.
It was a mother bear, hunched over the lifeless body of her cub. Her fur was singed, her breathing labored, and her eyes met his with a depth of emotion that felt almost human: grief, pain, and exhaustion. The cub lay at her feet, small and motionless, covered in ash. Firefighters…
