Station Fire update

Sunday, Aug 30 -  I came home from a day at the Del Mar races and learned that many of the birds, reptiles and small animals had been evacuated to private homes.  There were still over 300 chimps, lions, tigers, bears, hooved animals, and our lovely Zebra Zulu at the ranch.  The firefighters had dug fire lines all day and would do the best they could to keep the fires from spreading to the Waystaion.  I was so distraught and felt so helpless sitting at home.  I google'd and google'd info on the fires all night.  I barely got any sleep...my mind was racing.  The Waystation had sent out an email saying the evacuation process was in place and all was under control.  They were being bombarded with phone calls, and I didn't want to add to the confusion.  If they needed me, they knew how to contact me.

Monday, Aug 31 - I woke up and decided to go to Pierce College were many of the area horses had been evacuated.  I thought perhaps they could use an extra pair of hands in feeding and cleaning.  To my surprise, when I arrived the LA County Animal Control Officer told me they had a barn full of our animals.  I went up and saw our four goats, four of our llamas (where were the other five), our two sheep, and our beloved pig Oreo.  I went into each of their stalls and gave them love, telling them all was okay and they were safe.  They all seemed very calm with the exception of Chicha, a black llama. He was in the corner, ears back, and very alert.  So I spoke to him from a distance to soothe him.  I don't know if was my speaking to him, or if he just got comfortable after being there for a while, but after a few minutes he laid down and seemed to accept the fact that all was okay.  I like to think it was the first one.  : )

So Oreo needed pot-belly pig pellets and some greens and fruit.  So off I went on my hunt.  I had the nice Produce Man at a Calabasas market donate five boxes of veggies and fruits.  No luck on getting the pig pellets donated.  So out came my wallet and $9 dollars later, I had pig pellets in my truck.  I headed back to my place to wash and prep all the produce.  On the 10 headed east, I began worrying about the remaining animals at the ranch.  What would happen to them?  Would they be evacuated?  Could they be evacuated?  Would they be left there?  And just then, a truck passed by me and the side of the truck read, "Angel City Automatic Water Sprinklers".  Those five words gave me such a tremendous peace.  I knew then that all of the animals would not be harmed.  Whether they were evacuated or not, I knew that some higher power was watching over them, and I was not to worry.  What a great sign!

A quick trip back to my place to prep all the greens and fruit and then I was on my way back to the Ag Center at Pierce  College.  With the sun quickly disappearing and no electricity in the barn, I fed and watered the four goats, the four llamas, two sheep and our pig Oreo in the dark.  Oreo was very hungry and I made myself laugh when I told him he ate like a pig.

Then two trailers pulled up full of ostriches.  Pierce faculty said they had no room for the ostriches so a series of phone calls were made by me, a couple of LA County Animal Control Officers, and Pierce faculty.  A film animal wrangler named Phil could take them....and, ah-ha!  the missing llamas!  He also had our five llamas, four emus, and two rheas.

So all of the hooved animals are accounted for, fed, watered, and content.

At 10pm, I headed home and get an email that all of the remaining animals had been evacuated today and taken to Moorepark, the zoo, and another wildlife center.  I felt good that they were all safe.  Then I looked up along the ridge and saw the fires burning off in the distance.  A think orange blaze lit up the sky.  It looked like something out of a movie.  From what I've read, the firefighters have built up fire lines and are basically waiting for the fires to come to them.  There's just over 105,000 acres that have been burned with still only 5% containment.  3,600 firefighters from California as well as other states in that mountain range.  75 homes destroyed.  7,000 evacuated.  They expect to have the fires under control in another seven days.  Let's pray it doesn't take that long.

I'm scheduled for my regular produce pick-up tomorrow, but we'll see what the conditions are like in the morning.  Will it not happen at all?  Or will I be asked to deliver to the animals temp homes?

We'll see...and in the meantime, I know that the Angel City Automatic Sprinklers are watching over the animals keeping them safe : )