Evacuation

I've never really been into those Hollywood apocolyptic movies. You know, the ones where the city is devastated by an out of control disaster and the ordinary person leads a small remnant of people to safety. I tend to put myself in the movie and the thought of having to deal with that kind of devastation is unthinkable and upsetting - even if it is fictional.

Until now.

It is the beginning of the year 2020. Sounds futuristic in itself, given I spent more than half my life starting the year with a 19. And we are facing a disaster unlike anything anyone currently living has ever seen before. The country of Australia is literally on fire, with the closest one to us a mere seven kilometers away. The sun glows orange. Smoke in the air is now part of the landscape. It resembles the apocolypse depicted by Hollywood with eery accuracy (or is it the other way around?). We are packed and ready to go as soon as the wind changes.

This summer has been frightening and it's only just started. Anxiety producing... and I'm currently on anti-anxiety medication! It's so horrifying to see the devastation of homes, wildlife and lives .... to not know if you will still have your house and belongings in a week's time is a scary prospect. It's so hard to see any joy in a landscape like this.

Challenge accepted ...

The most important thing, obviously, is life. So my kids and myself need to be my top prority. Then there are the animals....who's idea again was it to have two large dogs, a cat, a rat and a budgie??? As much as I felt responsible to stay and defend the house (we have been told that if we called 000 we may not get any help for an hour or more), ensuring our safety is most important. So I made the decision to leave.

I had it all sorted in my head, after a game of 'the cat can't sit next to the bird and the dog can't sit next to the cat' logic. On a day of temps into the 40s and NW winds, we began to pack the car to head to the coast.

Except the dog crate didn't fit in the boot like we thought it would. Mmmm, with three people and five animals, we needed all the seats available. So with a quick display of my tetris skills, we managed to put a seat down and still fit everyone in - the border collie in the crate in the boot, the German shepherd-cross in front on the remainder of the folded seat, son next to him with bird in a cage on his lap, cat carrier in the boot next to the dog (risky, but not as much as other pet combinations) with daughter in the front and rat on her lap. Done!

But the bags wouldn't fit. Bugger. So I grabbed the luggage pod and attached it to the car roof. An hour later, and a few bruises trying to wrestle the fixings in place, the bags were in. Time to get the animals.

Except the border collie wouldn't go into the crate. Not for love or money or any kind of treat (and he loves his treats!). So cat carrier went inside the crate and the dog in the space next to it. All good.

The shepherd-cross was content to perch himself on the folded seat, but the border collie wasn't have a bar of being stashed in the boot. He kept jumping over the seat and squishing himself between the shepherd-cross and the bird cage. So we swapped the dogs around. The border collie was used to being on the back seat anyway.

Off we went. One important detail of this retelling is the border collie doesn't like travelling in cars. At all. A five minute trip to the dog park includes psychotic pacing on the back seat, lots of barking, yelping and a healthy spray of dog saliva on anything within a metre radius - that is, the whole car. Our destination was an hour away, so ten minutes in, the border collie ups the anti on his protest (after all, his car trips are never this long) and in his meltdown, accidently headbuts the son on the nose. Tears. More yelps. A stop and swap, as son and daughter trade places and daughter tries to settle her dog by sitting next to him.

We arrived at our destination over an hour later, with headaches and pounding ears from the mournful feline wails and border collie exclamations. No wonder sheep are scared of border collies, the pitch of their barking is literally painful. It was such a relief to be out of the car and at my parents' house. I so keen to get everyone settled so I could take a moment... or a drink... or three.

But no, the border collie refused to settle. He continued panting and whining despite three half-hour walks. He was still so highly stressed so, thank you Google, I found a local vet who could see us for some emergency sedatives. Which are now anti-anxiety medications that also work as sedatives. My two children are Autistic and are medicated, as am I. Mmm, now the dog. What is the universe trying to tell me?

The border collie finally quietened down a bit, so we had dinner and a chat with my parents. It was New Year's Eve but none of us were really in a partying mood, except the son who wanted to stay up till after midnight watching movies. He too, was feeling the effects of the last minute night away and sleep evades him in moments of stress. Despite his medication he was still awake at 2 am. The border collie, despite his medication, was also awake at 2 am, and 3.30 am, and 5 am.... Nah, who needs sleep anyway?

The next morning I found out our house was fine and the fires didn't come close, thank goodness. So we piled the animals and bags back in the car (thankfully a much quicker process) and dosed the border collie up so he would hopefully sleep in the car. Unfortunately the medication didn't work and we had the same behaviour on the way home, testing our already strained coping effects. Once we arrived, animals and people alike went to respective corners to recooperate....quietly. It was bliss.

There was a moment in the car as we were driving away from our home where I wondered if this trip would be more stressful than staying for a fire that might not arrive. Though I have since seen footage of fire fronts that defy description. Words can't convey the atrocity of a fire like the ones our country is currently experiencing. If I had my time over again I would have still decided to leave. Except maybe had a practise run of packing the car. And maybe a tranquiliser dart or two....

Anyway, I do get to have my time over again - the same conditions will be reappearing in two days so we will head out of our town with the kids and animals in tow. Again. There might even be another story to rival this one. And I wouldn't have it any other way.