“Okay, great. See ya.” Constance hung up.
The smell got stronger, and I started to look around.
“Do you smell that?” I asked.
“Now that you mention it, yeah.”
I stood up and walked to the back where the smell was stronger.
When I got to the hallway that connected the front building to the back building where all the kennels were located, my heart sank.
Because the hallway was billowing with smoke and I could hear dogs barking and crying. Kittens meowing.
“Oh, my god!” I called out. “Call 9-1-1!”
I didn’t hesitate.
I only ran toward the smoke.
As I got closer, the smoke got thicker.
I didn’t see anything on fire, but something had to be.
I could feel the heat.
I ran for cages as I got into the smoke-filled room, opening every one of them so that animals that were mobile could get out.
Barks and meows filled the room and there were animals everywhere.
Then there was a woman inside the room with me, corralling them and guiding them out of the room.
As Sawyer worked next to me getting them all out, I had no idea where she was taking them, I got started on the animals that weren’t able to get out on their own.
Old Otis that had his back leg amputated that was still slightly sedated. Marigold, the kitten, that’d been brought in after being hit by a car.
I had six animals that were unable to move out of their kennels and laid them practically on top of each other on the table in the middle of the room.
Thank God there was a table in this room that moved. Because I wouldn’t be able to get them out except for one at a time.
And the smoke in the room was intense and getting thicker.
I pushed the table toward the middle section where we performed surgeries and exams, as well as housed the larger animals in the outside stables, and nearly ran over a cat.
I scooped that cat up and plopped her on top of the other animals and rushed out of the room.
I had them all but the baby raccoons.
When I met Sawyer in the hallway, I urged, “Take them back and close the doors! I don’t need any more smoke coming into that area!”
Sawyer did what I asked, and she was closing the doors behind her as I left back the way I came.
When I got to the room again, the smoke was too thick to see.
So I got onto my hands and knees and crawled to the wall of cages.
I found the one that I needed with only my hands and spatial awareness of the room.
I found the two raccoons huddled close and stuffed them into my shirt that was luckily still tucked in, coughing the entire time as the smoke ravaged my lungs.
