Fire On The Mountain! — Part II

After Officer Janie of Kerr County Animal Control arrived with her crew of rescuers, Diana Ross, of D and D K-9 Training, arrived to help us evacuate! We had planned with Leifeste Animal Hospital and Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic to bring our dogs there, but Janie’s emergency evacuation plan made more sense.

Ellen, Charlie, Lance, Travis, Curtis and Tony then took off to drop off the dogs in Medina at Tony’s father’s house.

While they were gone—we got busy! In less than thirty-five minutes, thirty one remaining dogs were loaded up into crates and taken to the Ag Barn in Kerrville to spend the night!

After Diana and Janie had left with her extremely efficient crew, Tony, John, Lance and his wife Stassa, Curtis and I returned to the trailer. Somewhere in the next ten minutes—I crashed from the adrenaline rush that I had been on. I was suddenly exhausted and so was everyone else.

After a brief visit, Lance, Stassa and Curtis left to go back to Kerrville, and then John went home. Tony and I then went outside, and for the very first time—the rescue ranch gave me goosebumps—it just didn’t feel right—it was like it had become a ghost town! No dogs. No barking. In less than two hours, the rescue ranch’s vibes had changed from vibrant and alive— to stillness and silence.

When we returned to the trailer, I phoned Kinky. “Kink, this is Nance,” I said. “First off, before I tell you what has been going on—I want you to know, that everything has turned out fine. Okay?”

“Okay, Nance. Tell me what’s going on!”

“All of our dogs are gone.”

There was silence. “What?” Kinky asked. “What do you mean?”

I then gave Kinky a quick version of what all had taken place. When I had finished my story he was glad that we had evacuated our dogs and pleased that all of our dogs were safe.

“One last thing, Nance,” Kinky said. “Who pulled the trigger on deciding to evacuate?”

“I guess you could say, that Tony loaded the gun, and then I pulled the trigger.”

“You made the right choice. Please thank everyone involved for me. Take care and call me tomorrow.”

After that conversation, I wrote yesterday’s blog, and then I went to bed. Tony stayed up most of the night checking outdoors to make sure that the fire hadn’t started up again.