From wildfire to snow in a day

This winter has been warm and very dry so far. Yesterday, I spotted a plume of smoke during a brief blast of wind. In the photo below, it had spread out a bit (it's in the right center) and looked less threatening than when I first saw it. It is very odd to be concerned about fires in December.

I called the emergency number, and then sprinted toward where I believed that the fire was. Often, the firefighters have trouble finding the source of a smoke plume - especially because forest locations tend not to have official names around here.

When I arrived at the location, I saw that the firefighters were all over it, and the fire was almost out.

People said that the fire source had been a small grill that a transient had been using for cooking. It had been overturned, and the grass around it went up like tinder. The person had a fire extinguisher but didn't use it - he just disappeared. When I was there, the grill and fire extinguisher were lying on the ground near the fire. The fire spread to about 30 yds by 30 yds before it was stopped.

That was a disaster narrowly averted. I was shocked to learn that, even if they catch the guy who abandoned a growing fire that he'd started, he would be charged with only a misdemeanor. That's insane - we need stronger laws to protect against negligence with fire in the forest.

Today, we awakened to a welcome sight! Snow! Not much - but it's something.

Shyla was hopping with manic energy at the sight of snow! I'm not letting her be at her normal activity level yet but she had fun in the brief period that she was outside. Yes, she was airborne quite frequently during our short ride.

Then she decided that she wanted to play with a stick. I threw it for her, and even the exertion of playing fetch didn't make her cough. Actually, I don't think that she's ever coughed during this illness while she was running around outside. It always happens when she's been resting indoors and gets up suddenly.

There's little doubt that we are almost to the end of this illness. The Duo started antibiotics mid-week when our vet became worried that they were both getting secondary infections and might be heading toward pneumonia. The antibiotics halted the coughing in its tracks.

More than anything, I think that Shyla is very glad to be feeling better again!

Happy Friday!