Warning - This is not a happy post, but it is a part of our journey.
On March 20, 2023, Paul and I cooked out on the back porch and had a fire in the fire pit, much like we always do. After the fire went out, we went to bed around 10:30 or so. At just before 1am, Te'Keo and Anaya woke us up barking at the door. Thinking they needed to go outside, Paul opened the bedroom door to find the back wall of the house and part of the kitchen engulfed in flames. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and started working on the kitchen wall as Paul ran to the back deck to grab the hose. He found half of the back deck on fire and the hose melted. He came back in and grabbed another fire extinguisher, but by this point, there was no controlling it. I ran in the room and grabbed my clothes and phone to call 911. Paul ran to get the dogs.
As I made it to the back deck, I threw my clothes on and saw the 2-day old chicks we'd just hatched by the cabinets in the kitchen in their brooder box. I grabbed the box and brought them outside and went back inside to help Paul get the dogs. I only made it a few feet into the house when I breathed in fire and hit a wall of smoke. Unable to see anything, I felt my way to the mudroom door and ran out the side of the house. I went back around to the back to grab the chicks, but by this point, their brooder box was completely engulfed. I ran to my parents' house, who are staying on property thank God, and was trying to call 911, but I couldn't get a signal. Dad called dispatch to get the fire department out and then started hosing the side of the house down.
Paul managed to find a painter's air filter mask and goggles and went back into the house 4 more times, low crawling on the floor to get to the dogs, each time losing ground inside until there was no more floor remaining.
Searching for something, anything, to help us get into the house, we located a piece of rebar and used it to break the front living-room window to give the dogs another escape, but they wouldn't come to us. They saved our lives, but we couldn't save theirs.
The fire department and sheriff's deputies arrived within 15-20 minutes - a miracle unto itself considering how far out we are - but by the time they arrived the entire house was engulfed in flames. The firefighters spent the next 6 or 7 hours trying to contain the fire and a couple more hours after that keeping it out.
From the bark at the bedroom door to the time Paul lost all available floor in the house was around 5-7 minutes. Somehow, we both made it out alive, a little burned in the face and eyelids, and with our hair singed, a bit hoarse, and with a residual cough from smoke inhalation, but alive.
You never think something like this can happen to you. Or that if something like this happens, that you won't be able to do something to get it under control. We were wrong. Your entire world can burn down around you in 5-7 minutes. And I would trade the house and everything in it had we just been able to save our babies, as they saved us.
On Thursday March 23, four bodies had been recovered: Mischka, Anaya, Alessia, and Bella. Te'Keo and Morty were still missing. After speaking with the fire crews, it seemed there may have been a possibility that they could have made it out.
There was a yellow cat that appeared out of nowhere that we thought could be Morty, but after several days of trying to get close to him, we finally verified that it was not Morty.
For Te'Keo, I reached out to animal control for the three nearest counties, put an ad on Craigslist, posted it on Facebook, purchased a package with Lost My Doggie to send his picture to the shelters and vets in the area, and started showing his picture to everyone I came in contact with.
On March 28, I received a text that someone had found my dog. I asked for pictures and if he was ok and where they found him. They gave me a good story about how he had some burns on his back and belly but that he was ok, he was found in my town on March 21. The pictures they sent were close ups of a gray dog's face, but they weren't clear. After a couple of hours of text messages, it devolved into a demand for me to Venmo or Zelle them money before they would give me my dog - a scam artist trying to take advantage of another's pain and desperation. I pray they find God because He's bigger than their problems. If I can say it, it must be true.
On Thursday evening, March 30, nine days after the fire, Paul and I went into the house for the first time. We found Te'Keo just inside our bedroom door. He did not make it out. We recovered his body and buried him with the rest of the pack by the pear tree.
We continued searching the house, hoping to find Morty so that we could bury him with the others. Unfortunately, his body was never recovered.
I'll end with this. When picking our way through the ashes of our life, Paul found a challenge coin he was given years ago that has the emblem for each of the 5 branches of military service with a gold star in the middle, and it reads "Thank You For Your Service". He found a decorative axe he had given me for my birthday the prior year that has a wolf's head etched into the blade. And he found his Leatherman tool that he's had for 30 years. It seems fitting that the coin has 5 branches of service surrounding a gold star, one for each of our dogs lost and a gold star for our sweet Morty, who was never recovered.
A challenge coin, an axe, and a Leatherman. Challenge accepted. Now we begin to rebuild. We have a long road ahead of us and it may be a fight, but all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.