Paying Attention

It was 5:00 and I was still in my conference at work. They knew I needed to leave by 5pm all this week because I'm on fire call this week. I'm a DAT Team Leader volunteer for the Red Cross (Disaster action team). Basically it means any major fire calls from 5pm to 8am that come into my county while I'm on call I have to respond with a team to assist.

I left, at 5:15 but while walking to my car I heard mewling. I thought it was kittens..but it definately sounded like they were in trouble. There's a very active road/hwy right outside my building and as I heard them meowing loud and angry I knew they were hurt. My friends who read this know .. I'm not a cat person. I'm just going to leave it at that so i don't offend anyone.

Instead of going to my car I went to find the cats, this was so much a sound of distress I couldn't ignore it. I walked and walked...and even crossed the hwy.... I thought ok.. now I can hear them still..but where are they? I searched the bushes but the crying still sounded far away. I realized as I went for the woods that even though I was walking toward the sound, the sound never got any closer.

I gave up. I thought they were deep in the woods and I can't get to them. I returned across the hwy to my car and pulled out down the road. I heard them again... or still... and I realized they still seemed just as far away.

I went home, and a terrible blackness was in the sky in the distance. I thought crap (ok.. I guess I need to be honest here...I though Shit, I hope that storm blows over.. because its going to be a long nite if it doesn't) The fire call came an hour later at 6:20 and I was talking to my sister when the call came.. I hung up and called a team to respond and left. While I was on the scene, chills came up my scalp and not 30 seconds later a local resident came around the house (which was heavily damaged) announcing that "they found the cat". Just then, I got another call ... another fire... it was a kitchen fire.

I asked two of the responders to this fire to work with the dispatcher getting the details of the next call while I worked with another volunteer to finish up this one. We finished up, they gave us the notes for the next call and all four of us left. I barely had time to think. about what just took place. To add stress to my night a semi truck cut me off on the highway as I left one scene heading to the next. I slammed on the breaks and reached for a smoke and swore. (I left them at home.)

We got to the 2nd call, it was a kitchen fire but very minor. While we chatted I mentioned how glad I was that the missing cat was found alive hiding in the bushes at the first fire. One of the volunteers turned to me and said.. but its sad that it was the only one who survived. I gave her my deer in the headlites look. She said, "didn't you know? Five burned in the fire".

I was floored... as the sounds flooded my head again... of the cats crying out in distress. I know I couldn't change it. I know I was only receiving it as a precursor to the event. Its not for me to change. Its for me to pay attention. Time isn't Linear. Pay attention. You may know it before it happens, it doesn't mean you can affect a change, it is merely a lesson to .."pay attention", Thank you Michael for teaching me that.