Thanks for joining me Over Coffee
A writer by passion and profession, I've been writing since I was old enough to know how, so establishing a weblog
seemed a natural progression. By adding a blog to my site, I can speak about my passions and life, share my writing, art
and photos, and comment on current events.
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Happy Solstice! ...but why the hell am I up and blogging at this hour?! Half an hour ago an ear-piercing alert woke me, but despite smacking the alarm clock -- which isn't set for 4:03 anyway -- the noise did not subside. It only took my mind a few seconds to realize that the building alarm was going off. We always take emergency alarms as real...especially now that I work for an organization that take preparedness and emergency response so seriously.
Hubby and I threw on sweat shirts and then went about the quick business of getting the cats. Marble was surprisingly easy--Phil is still impressed that I scooped her up and got her in the soft carrier in nearly one swift movement. We fumbled a little getting the hard carrier together. Its future resident, Chestnut - my loving, sweet baby - evacuated her bladder on me as I pulled her out from under the futon and placed her in it. We had to make a deft decision, and it was that 3 out of the 4 cats was the best we could do under the circumstances -- Scooter, the former feral is a unique challenge and had disappeared from sight. So, I grabbed by purse with wallet and critical ID. With Rusty in my jacket and Phil carrying both of the other carriers, we headed downstairs to wait (in the car) to see if this was a false alarm.
While remaining fairly calm in response and moving swiftly to catch the three, tears formed in my eyes as we made for the car to wait out the alarm...waiting and wondering if this one was real and whether Scooter would really be left behind. We are taught to treat and react as if all alarms are real even though we usually harbor a belief in our hearts that they're not. If we got outside and learned it was real, I'd be beside myself with worry and grief over leaving her...only taking comfort that we had at least three of our cat kids with us.
Obviously I'm here and writing so it was seemingly a false alarm. We returned to find Scooter huddled in her covered litter box. We definitely need to develop a plan to deal with our most skittish one to capture her in any emergency and get her to safety with the the rest. If she does go to her litter box for safety, we may have an answer (the last time the alarm went off, she did not do that and nearly took my arms off with her razor little claws before we conceded to not catching her in the intensity of the moment). We will go back to the drawing board of planning our emergency escape that ensures 4 out of 4 furbabies come with us...because 3 out of 4 just isn't good enough for me.
Some resources that may help (and I hope you'll visit too) include:
While fire trucks didn't arrive with sirens blaring (though we eventually saw one dimly-lit truck parked some distance away and one firemen checking buildings), we were greeted upstairs with no water when we returned to our apartment...not the best discovery for someone with cat urine down her shirt and pants (wet through to the leg). I was able to make do with pre-moisted cleansing clothes and a bit of rubbing alcohol to clean up, but I would've preferred real soap and hot water from the shower.
Thankfully, the cats all quickly returned to normal behavior. Considering how much that alarm hurts our (Phil and my) ears when it screeches, I can only imagine what the frequency and decimals does to theirs. The important thing is that we are still safe and sound, and I'm going back to bed for an hour and hoping we'll be able to shower for work when the alarm does go off...thank heavens today is the shortest day of the year!
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