A Quick Samson Update and What Rachael Did (Again!)

The good news is that Samson is home. The bad news is that the steroids he is taking for the UDS has triggered Cushing's syndrome (more about that later in another post). Our dog Bandit had Cushings and it's not pretty. To add this syndrome to all the other issues Samson suffers from, this was quite a blow to me. So I will have to absorb it, refresh my memory about Cushing's, and then write some more.

Samson Says: I'm fine mommy, just give me some food. 

I called Rachael last night because Mary told me there had been a fire off the 14 freeway at Placerita Canyon. The wildlife rescue where Rachael volunteered, maybe still does, and where her favorite bird, Orion, the greathorned owl used to live, is located in that canyon. As is her favorite hiking trail. So I was concerned. 

Rachael and Orion

Rachael told me that she and her boss at the park saw the fire as they were leaving work around 2:30 p.m. And Rachael, being who she is, got one of the park's county trucks and drove up to the canyon with her boss. Both the freeway and the other main thoroughfare, Sierra Highway, were closed, but with the county truck and on their way to rescue animals, the cops let them in.

Rachael said all the firetrucks were staged at the Disney estate and the road they drove to the rescue was empty of fire personnel, even though the fire was burning on one side of it. When they arrived, there were only two staff at the rescue and they had been told to stay in place. Rachael said the fire is right around the corner, go and look, and proceeded to stuff snakes in pillowcases, and get all the lizards and spiders together. Her boss and the two staff, who finally saw the fire and woke up to the seriousness of it all, rescued the birds and a couple small wild critters.  They then drove the animals up to another rescue in the mountains, at Vasquez canyon. 

Rachael said she came home around 5:30 suffering from a splitting headache, dehydration, and smoke inhalation. But that's Rachael. Last year, she and another woman rescued several horses from a fire. Not sure if they were wild horses or not, but they were loose in a field, scared and panicky. That time one scared horse knocked his head into Rachael's and injured her mouth. She is something else, my friend Rachael.