Friday September 4th was a very frightening day for Nick and I. I was at work and he was on his way to work in Miami (he's working with some guys doing construction work a few days a week.) I got Nick's call that our house was on fire, I needed to go home. I tore out of here as fast as I could. Thank goodness my bosses are awesome and I didn't loose my job. All I could think of as I was driving home was that my babies were at school and they were okay. And of course thinking of my animals... My snakes and my cats... I didn't know if they would be okay. Turns out, our house was still standing. I had laid a wet towel over Luca's cage to help raise the humidity in his cage because he was getting ready to shed his skin. It's just something I do to help, always have done this. Well, the heat lamp I have over his cage got knocked down (probably my cat!!) and fell onto the towel. It dried it up and began to burn it. Because the towel was still wet on the ends, all it did was smoke and smolder. The smoke alarm went off and, because it is linked with a phone line to our ADT alarm system, it called the fire department for us. They had to bust our front door window to get inside. By the time I arrived, they had the towel and the lamp out and had big fans set up in the door to help get the smoke out. They said I could go inside and I immediately began bagging up the snakes and getting them outside. The smoke was all gone, but the smell was still very strong and I just wanted them to have some fresh air. I was actually very surprised poor Luca was still alive. The poor thing was terrified though. He balled up and hid his head when I picked him up. The other snakes also acted strangely, thrashing around is something they never do... The fire department packed up their stuff and left since everything was okay. Nick and I had to run to town to buy a whole new door because they couldn't order new replacement glass. It was a very stressful morning. All of my snakes seem to be doing just fine. And all the cats are fine, too. I was worried they had escaped outside when the front door was wide open earlier. They didn't come out when we called and we couldn't find them anywhere. They were hid good though, because one by one, they all came out when everything settled back down. I was so relieved. That night I washed all our bedding to get rid of the smoke smell. Surprisingly, it didn't take long at all for it to all air out. We couldn't smell anything the next day. I am so very grateful that everything turned out okay. It could have been so much worse. Had we not had the ADT smoke alarm, it would have taken flames on the outside of our home and a neighbor seeing it before the fire department was called. ADT literally saved our home and our pets' lives. And of course our Heavenly Father, I cannot thank Him enough for His hand in everything. It has all been a wake up call. I wonder how much renter's insurance is? =)