I went over this morning and took a few pictures of what’s left of Clyde’s house:

This is all that’s left. It spread so fast it was scary. There was a moment of absolute terror when I thought that there were still kids in the house. I had a flash of I HAVE TO HELP OMG but the fire was already coming out of the windows. The sense of relief to know that everyone was out ok was overwhelming. I just started shaking. I was shaking for hours afterwards. I’ve had nightmares all my life of fires, I don’t know why… and stuff like this just brings them back.

The families who lived here (7 people total) have lost almost everything. They managed to salvage some clothes and kid supplies out of the back bedrooms, but everything else is a total loss. The Red Cross is putting them up for the next few days, and I think they’ll be staying with family after that. I wish I could do more to help. I’ve donated our old king size bed to them when they get somewhere they can use it, and I’ll be watching Clyde for the next few days until she can get him over to her uncle’s house.

Clyde is doing well, but he just seems very confused and a bit stressed. I don’t blame him! We finally brought him into the house last night, but we had to keep him on a leash because he thinks cats need to be chased. Can’t have that. I wound up putting him in Ares’ crate last night, because I didn’t have anywhere else for him to sleep. He cried for a bit, so I brought my pillow down on the floor and lay down by the crate until he calmed down. Ares came and put his head on my pillow, I guess he was showing the new guy what to do. They’ve all been up since about 5am, so I’m a little tired. I leashed Clyde to the couch for a bit so I could take about an hour nap, that really helped a lot.

All the dogs are outside now, and it’s a gorgeous day, so I’m going to make them stay out for a while.