Out of the Fire

Gail Stark                                                                                        June 2, 2016

BUTTE FIRE MEMOIRS THE MIDDLE

Today is like most days here on the ranch, guarding the forty goats who mostly eat grass or rest all day. Not hard duty, so I, too, rest by the barn keeping my eye on them and our surroundings, but I feel uneasy. I smell smoke. Something is not right.

Then, I hear my master’s truck. I run to the gate to greet him as usual and to get my favorite snack. We share the daily wagging and patting, but, suddenly,

I don’t know what is happening. Bill is shoving me onto the bed of his pickup truck. I’m confused because this has never happened before, and, I’m scared because this truck makes strange noises I don’t understand.

Bill starts the engine, the truck begins to move, in my fear and panic I leap over the side of the pickup. Now, my one hundred five pounds is hanging outside of the truck by my collar, paws off the ground with neck being painfully stretched. The truck stops.

Bill jumps out looking very worried. Fortunately, Brad, his son, is nearby and helps Bill get me back down to the ground. I’m done with vehicles. Way too scary.

But, suddenly, together Bill and Brad are attempting to lift me into Brad’s Subaru. They push me, talk to me, lift my butt and legs and, surprisingly, I find myself a prisoner in the car. I don’t remember being in a car before. Something is not right. In desperation I crawl to Brad and put my head in his lap while he drives.

The car stops. I am happy and relieved to see Bill again. He helps me out of the car, pats me, talks to me, then puts me in a big chain linked fence enclosure with a little house inside. I realize I can’t get out; so I watch Gail (she’s like my Mom) and some other family I know carrying boxes from the house to the cars in front. What are they doing? Warm, black oak leaves are falling on me. Something is not right.

The next thing I know Bill leads me out of the wire cage to Gail’s SUV. He wants to put me in the back of it! Scared again, I resist, I really resist. I don’t bark or bite. I just use all of my strength to stay out of that car; but, four humans later I am back in a metal monster along with a yowling orange and white cat! They talk of evacuation. I hear the words, “time to go”. Gail’s car engine starts. I don’t know what is happening as we pull onto Whiskey Slide Road into a line of many other cars, trucks and horses in trailers.

The sky is black and a diabolical light illuminates the pines. Gail drives. After a while she calls Mike, her neighbor and friend. “You must get out of there,” she almost shouts at Mike. “You can’t stay. I see the flames from here from Mountain Ranch Road!”

We stop at last. Bill lets me out of the car. Everyone from the house in Mountain Ranch is at their son Hy’s house in San Andreas. They think they are safe from the fire. I must stay outside tied to a stair railing since I’ve never been inside a house in my entire life; so, Bill sits with me. He takes me for walks and brings me food and water. Sometimes Hy or Katie sits with me as well. Gail is inside on the phone or computer trying to find out what is going on. Susan organizes the needed food while waiting for her son Michael and her husband, to arrive bringing his concern and moral support.

After two days I hear the word “evacuation” again. Something is not right. Again, I am loaded into the back of the SUV, but this time Bill squeezes in there with me to help me be less frightened. We spend three days at Michael and Susan’s in Walnut Creek while the people have a small birthday party for Bill and visit with family even though they are upset and preoccupied. Gail continues on her phone and computer trying to find out if their house has burned down or not.

Again, back in the car; now, back to Hy’s in San Andreas. The Highway Patrol has blocked all roads leading into the burn zone so I must stay tied to the stair railing for so many days it is a blur.

Finally, at last, and none too soon Bill takes me home to my ranch. I literally jump for joy as I run in the grass and greet my goats which are grazing by the barn as if nothing had happened. But, something did happen for the land across the road is burned beyond imagination and the houses have disappeared.