Fire On The Mountain!

Late this morning, Maribeth and I went to Kerrville to run errands. We stopped first at Wolfmuellers Books to say hi to Sandy and Jon. As always, they had us laughing our heads off within two minutes of our visit!

“The other day, I saw Tony Parker, the famous Spur’s basketball player, at the Apple Store at La Canterra,” Sandy said. “I wanted to ask him for an autograph, but couldn’t because I’m sure everywhere he goes—people bug him for autographs.”

“That is so cool!” I said. “Did y’all know that when people do stories or documentaries on our rescue ranch, they often don’t do a fact check, and end up assuming that Tony’s last name is Parker, because a lot of people still think I use Parker as my last name.”

“Trust me,” Maribeth teased. “You’re no Eva Longoria.”

We all broke up laughing. “And, Maribeth—you’re no Eva Longoria, too,” I jokingly quipped back, because like me, Maribeth looks like a round pillar, too.

Before leaving Wolfmuellers, Sandy was sitting behind her desk, at her computer, staring at a single piece of paper. “Jon,” Sandy said. “Where is the rest of my calendar? Why do I just have the one page of January and not the rest of the calendar? I need the rest of the calendar. Please!”

We all looked over, as Sandy held up the month of January. “He wants you to live in the moment,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Jon said. “I’ll give you February’s page tomorrow! I want you to start living day by day, and not to worry about the future.”

As Maribeth and I were walking out of their store, “Jon,” Sandy said. “I want all of the pages of my calendar! Now! I need them!”

Maribeth and I were laughing, as Jon said, “I’ll give you February’s page first thing tomorrow morning. Bye y’all.”

Maribeth and I ran the other errands and then we headed back to the rescue ranch. Along the way, fire trucks raced past us! So, I turned on the radio. “There is an out of control fire at Upper Turtle Creek,” Harley reported, on The Rose 104.9. “The Kerrville, Ingram, Hunt, Bandera, Upper Turtle Creek, Fredericksburg, and Harper Fire Departments and Volunteer Fire Departments are at the scene and fighting the raging fire!”

The further we were from Kerrville, smoke filled the sky with ugly colors of orange, black and an ugly shade of pink. And, we could even smell the smoke! When we arrived at the rescue ranch there were several cars and trucks parked, and we saw John in the pens with the dogs! And, then when we pulled up to the trailer—two Kerr County Animal Control trucks were parked in front of the trailer—with lights flashing!

Tony was standing on the porch talking to two Animal Control Officers! “What in the world is going on?” I said, to Maribeth. We got out of Buttermilk and met the two officers at our gate.

“Okay, Tony,” one of the nice Animal Control Officers said. “Don’t hesitate to call us, if you need us to help you evacuate.” I then introduced myself to them, shook hands—and then they left the ranch.

“Tony, what in the world is going on?” I asked.

“Nance,” Tony said. “I’ve been trying to reach you! Thirty minutes ago, the sky filled with smoke and it looked like there was a fire fixin’ to come over the mountain!” He pointed north. I didn’t know what to do! So, I called Kerr County Animal Control!”

“Why is John still here?” I asked.

“I called Wolfmuelllers, and asked Jon to please go to John’s apartment and ask him to get out here fast! Nance, it looked like we needed to evacuate immediately. The wind has been gusting to over 35 miles per hour. And, Harley just called me, to tell me that the fire was just a few ranches away and we might need to be thinking about evacuating our dogs! I’m so glad that you’re back.”

We all came inside the trailer, while John was outside quickly putting dog collars on all of our dogs and attaching the correct number of leashes to every gates—so we could get the dogs out fast! “Ellen is here and she has just called Charlie to get over to help us. What should we do?”

I thought about it for several minutes and then pulled the trigger—evacutate now! “Tone, please call Janie, at the Kerr County Animal Control and tell them we need to evacuate. While Tony placed the call, I looked up our volunteer phone numbers. As soon as Tony was off the phone, I called our friends, Lance and Stassa and asked them to get out here as fast as they could. Then Jon Wolfmueller showed up. “What can I do to help?” Jon asked.

All of us went outside. John had finished putting dog collars on all of our dogs,with leashes attached to every gate! While Ellen, Jon and Maribeth worked furiously getting our dog crates ready!

We started on the west side of the rescue ranch—crating our dogs one by one, and then loading the crates inside our truck and van! Charlie and his son, Travis, arrived and we filled their giant red pickup truck with more dogs. Then Lance and Curtis arrived to help us fill our van with as many dogs as it could hold. And, just as our caravan was about to leave for a safe haven at Tony's father's house, in Medina—Janie, and the great people at the Kerr County Animal Control arrived!

To be continued tomorrow—I'm exhausted.