Waldo Canyon Fire

100% contained.  A week ago that seemed like wishful thinking.  And this morning the view to the north from my deck could almost be that of another city from just days ago. No visible flames, no blankets or boiling plumes of smoke and no helicopters with their buckets of water.  I also no longer hear the drone of C-130’s and the smell of burning forest does not seep into the closed-up house.  “Almost” is the operative term because, of course, in the lives of many the fire remains all too real and the results long lasting.  

Thanks to the whims of the wind I was never evacuated like my sister and several friends but I was never without that knot of anxiety and to some extent still feel it. It will be a long summer, it seems. The greatest source of my anxiety was my dogs and what would happen if I were not home when an evacuation was ordered.  I had heard that it was likely I would not be allowed back in to get them.  And then I read on Face Book that officers from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, at the frantic request of a dog’s owners, had gone into an evacuated neighborhood to bring out their dog.  After that, rescuing these animals became one of the vital services HSPPR offered to our community during this disaster.  Not to mention what it did for my state of anxiety. I am still concerned about fire but I know my dogs have friends in the right places.