This year saw first responders go to great lengths to pull off some amazing animal rescues

In preparing to write this post, I started wondering about when a habit officially becomes a tradition. According to the top result on Google, “at least two transmissions over three generations are required for a practice, belief or object to be seen as traditional.” So, while it might be a bit premature to call this four times running series a true tradition, I would argue that for first responders, pulling off amazing rescues (both animal and human) certainly is a tradition going back many generations. And hopefully, this annual list will someday become tradition as well.

Moving on, while learning that four blog posts does not equal one tradition was a bit disappointing, this year’s animal rescues certainly did not disappoint. In fact, 2022 saw animal rescues go to new heights (radio towers) and lows (sewers), and even saw the first bat rescue to ever land on our Facebook page.

After logging nearly 100 rescues this year, which were then rigorously reviewed and ranked by FPPA’s official animal rescue story search committee (not really, it’s just me), here are the very best animal rescues of 2022, in no particular order:

The Best Animal Rescues of 2022

When a cut and dry raccoon rescue got a bit saucy

When officers worked their tails off to neigh-l this horse rescue

When a group of ducklings learned the highway isn’t all it’s quacked up to be

When rescuers dug deep in their bag of tricks to save a lost dog

When corny cat jokes got to have a moment

When first responders helped a deer out of a pane-ful situation

When Oklahoma had a total Oklahoma moment

When firefighters pulled off this boring rescue

When we got to bust out our favorite first responder poetry

And finally, this positively porpoise-ful rescue