Fire Update

That last post is hardly legible, so apologies. I will go back and edit it later.

Anyway, today was spent phoning in the claim, waiting and waiting (and still I'm waiting) for the adjuster to call me back, buying a few new clothes, a suit case and going into work for 4 hours to catch up on my work, which incidentally, I was late on anyway.

We were allowed back in the apartments, but the lord only knows what for. There is no electricity. Everything smells of smoke. You can't even stay in the apartment long or your throat, eyes and nose start hurting.

My mom and I went in to execute the plan for saving Gati, my cat. The plan was this: take the hair from his brush, rub it all over the door mat. Put his bed outside by the door, put out food, and lastly his litterbox. My hope is that he can smell his way back with those outside. I also put some old sneakers out, thinking they might smell like me. But they probably just reek of smoke....perhaps that was a bad idea afterall.

We grabbed a laundry basket of "fresh" clothes (I had just pulled them out of the dryer before the fire) and anything from the closet that might be washable. I also grabbed a couple pair of sandals and ballet flats, hoping they would air out.

I went to school, and threw my laundry basket of whites and a couple of other things in the washer with the foods teacher's towels. It seemed to work, the clothes smelled pretty good. But then, my nose isn't exactly working very well after this entire ordeal.

I went back to the apartment, only to find the power is still off, so I can't charge my phone, which is now dead. So I take to looking for the cat. No luck. But when I walked past the maintenance area, I saw a cat run by. This is the ONLY cat I have ever seen in this complex. So I begin to wonder if maybe Gati is hanging out there, as well.

I eventually found the maintenance guys getting ready to go home, and asked if they had seen a cat in their garage. They said they have two or three. I said "mine's orange." One guy says "yeah, we have an orange mangy one," but "my" maintenance guy says "no, her cat only ran away yesterday." A third guy comes by and says what color is it? So I told him, orange. He asks "white chest?" I yelled "yes! With long hair!" He said "oh, he was here this morning scaling the fence. He's fine." At least I know he didn't go to far, and he found a cool place to hang out.

Anyway, tonight I'm back at my moms. I'm going to stay here one more night and then I'm off to Atlanta for a week. I'm concerned that Gati might try to go home by then, but I can only have neighbors look out for him, or hope he just stays in that garage. I imagine he'll come home sometime. If we ever figure out where home is.