Fire Escape Planning

Many years ago, when Ophelia was a wee kitty, our next door neighbour fell asleep with a cigarette on her couch, setting off the smoke detector, and filling our apartment with smoke. I was already asleep, so I succumbed to the effects of carbon monoxide immediately. Yup, I pulled the covers over my head to drown out the noise of the fire alarm. I also remember thinking that it smelled like smoke, but I was unable to clue in that maybe I should do something about it. Fortunately, Ophelia was there. 

I have never heard her meow as loudly as she did that night - not before and not since. When even her plaintive yodelling failed to wake me, she burrowed under the covers and began to bat at my face with her claws out. That worked. I was awake, and suddenly very scared. The whole apartment was full of smoke. I could barely see, and breathing was hard. Ophelia was so stressed that she was bouncing off the walls like a ping pong ball. There was a little old man knocking on doors shouting "Get the cats! There's a fire!" and I finally clued in. (In case you're wondering, the building was full of old people and cats). I looked at Princess O and said "Ophelia, you need to come to mommy right now", and she did, quite calmly in fact. We ran out the door and into the January night. No shoes, no jacket, no sense. I didn't stop to check if the door to the hallway was hot. I didn't get Ophelia's carrier. I just ran. It was a total gong show.

When the firefighters got there, they heaved the whole couch off the balcony and hosed it. The hole was about an inch in diameter, but it filled the whole floor with smoke. I coughed for days. I was lucky. I was lucky that Ophelia woke me, I was lucky that we made it out, I was lucky that Ophelia remained calm when the fire trucks with their blaring sirens got within 5 feet of her delicate little ears, and I was lucky that she didn't freak out and run into the street or something. 

I had been totally unprepared. Now that I know better, I have a plan. In the old ground floor apartment, we used the dog stroller to get both pets out safely. Now I plan to carry Lilith and put Ophelia in a pillowcase. Um, like I said...I plan to do that. It wouldn't be pleasant, but we're ten floors up, and you do what you have to do sometimes. Reality check: I can't carry the carrier down ten floors and carry Lilith. I can barely make it to the car with the carrier when with just Ophelia! I also have a sticker on the door to alert the firefighters that there are pets inside in case something happens when I'm not home. I hope that's sufficient. At least now I have a plan.