Fire Update: Week 3

Good Morning from my Writing Lair! This is Shadow_8472, and today, I'm still a bit slim on creative writing, but I have a few thoughts on the fire situation. Let's get started!

They say it takes four weeks for things to settle again. The insurance adjuster came by and assured us that since we were dealing with smoke from dead vegetation and not other peoples' homes, it was chemically a big camp fire. Any fallout from such fires tends to land on horizontal surfaces without penetrating soft things like bean bags or furniture. The bad smoky smell was from the smoke getting caught in convection currents, raising under the warmth of the sun, and sinking to ground level at night.

What I haven't been doing in terms of writing, I have been working on my main robotics blog, where I'm setting up a fancy Minecraft server. I gave myself about two weeks to work on it, but right now, after a week of focusing on it, I'm thinking three or four is more likely, with all the issues I'm running into. If anyone asks over the weekend, I can link to part 1 of the story after it gets posted on Monday.

One thing I have noticed different is how a couple of our cats are acting a little differently. We have this super-skittish cat called Tribble. Normally, he hangs out upstairs with a gate between him and the dogs during the day. Lately, we've been having sightings of him that prove he's a little less unsure of himself.

Our other cat of note is Bella. We got her after her family lost their home a couple years ago in a fire. The housing they found either didn't allow pets or didn't allow cats. Either way, she ended up in a shelter where she found her way to us. Taking in a previously loved pet -- you just end up feeling bad for the animal and the people who didn't actually have to give her up. Therapy animals are a thing; any animal can serve as one, and losing a house is more than enough reason to graduate a family pet to a full therapy animal.

Bella is scared of smoke in the air. When she was smaller, the smoke came, her family packed up, took her, and left her in a place of uncertainty. This year when the smoke came, we packed up, cats included, and left them with family for future retrieval. All Bella knew was that she was with one cat she knew and that the people she was with were strangers, but at least one of them was fluent in Cat.

This week, when we took Bella to the vet for a regular appointment, she wasn't as nervous. Her family came back for her, and took her home.

Final Question: Have you ever had your critters act differently after a major disaster?