Wild NIght in Corvallis

A wildfire up above Timberhill shopping center in Corvallis was reported about 9:00 p.m. last night, in the brush and trees of Chip Ross park.  This area is heavily populated.  On twitter, check out #CorvallisFire and #ChipRossFire.

I was in Corvallis at that time, returning Dweezil to the apartments where she is fed.  The return took some time, because the daughter of the feeder wanted to chat, and I was asking her about the mystery black tux, with the inverted V of white and a black chin spot.  Her mother, the feeder, had claimed that was a new show cat, whom, I had pointed out, looked pregnant in the photo she sent me of the cat.  Her daughter claims that cat is actually "Shy", (a name not description), a cat her mother told me vanished over a month ago.  If this is indeed "Shy", then she's going to be pregnant for sure. And, given the timeline of when I got all the boys there fixed, she has to be very close to full term (60 days).  I was horrified.

Then the daughter told me they'll all be gone for four days and they figure I can sit there in my car and catch anybody unfixed during the time they are gone.  I began to bristle inside to hear that.  These are able bodied people who actually own two traps and why in the world can't they trap the cats they feed?  Why do they treat me this way, like my time is theirs to take, for nothing, like some kind of a slave to everyone who does not fix the cats they feed?

That's how I felt.  I know however they will never take the time to do it and the cats suffer and have for years, born to die, because they don't take the time.

So I bristle and feel used but know inside I have to be the one, because no one else will.

But about when I was leaving, the sirens began.  I figured it was just party problems with returning students.  But when I got home, I saw the posts on facebook about the fire, rapidly expanding and in an area just above and beside multiple housing developments.  My stomach began to churn in worry, thinking about animals in those houses, and the cats allowed to free roam that can't be quickly found and contained for evacuation.

By midnight, the fire was mostly contained, the paper's facebook page said.  There had been, in the space of those few hours, hurried mandatory evacuations and massive numbers of people migrating to the fire area to gawk.  That must have made the fire harder to fight.

Check out some fabulous photos at the Corvallis Gazette Times website:

See Corvallis fire photos here!

And this video of the fire!