What's it's like in a burning building with pockets full of kittens.
When I got into the building during the fire, the mother cat was running around at full speed howling. I couldn't see her, of course, even when she was at my feet, but I could sure hear her. Funny thing, I thought it was a siren INSIDE the building at first, going from one end to the other. Sort of a "Cat-Howling Doppler Effect." She was either lending moral support to my efforts or saying some VERY bad words in felinese.
She was also AMAZINGLY frantic, in "Full Panic Mode" which I never even saw in combat. Guess it was a maternal thing. I also just realized recently that I have no idea how I knew where those kittens were. There were about 250-300 places in that shop where she could have hidden them. I know I didn't check anywhere else at all. Didn't have time. I just went straight to that counter and began trying to move it. I couldn't budge it at first, and then I heard her howling right next to me, so I knew the kittens must be nearby, probably underneath. That's when the adrenilin took over, I guess.
There were 6 anchor bolts through 2X4's into a concrete wall. Two people could not do that today. Danny and I tried it on the other counter. I also don't know why I went to the end of the counter where she had put them. By that time, the floor was really hot, probably about 150F, and those kittens were dancing around trying to keep their feet off the floor. When I started grabbing them and stuffing them in my coat pockets, I came up with seven, and I KNEW she'd only had 6. I must have been losing oxygen at about that time, because I actually thought about stopping and checking them.
Then I said to myself, "You moron! She'll DEFINITELY be happier with an extra lump of whatever than with only 5 babies. Get the hell out of here!" When I had them all, she was willing to come to me because she knew I was the only way to get those kittens out, but she also knew, I think, that if I had been holding onto her, I'd have had a harder time finding the kittens. That's why I honestly don't think she cared if I got her out, as long as I had all the kittens. That was probably my number one fear, not getting all of those kittens, and maybe leaving one in there to burn.
She knew the front way was blocked by smoke by that time, cause I think she'd decided that when she tried to go that way herself. I think she also realized that if I didn't get the back door open, we were all going to die, so she pretty much stayed out of the way. She heard me rip the counter off the wall, but wasn't sure I had all the kittens, so when I grabbed her, she struggled quite a bit. I'm not sure, but I think I put her back down while I looked for the screwdriver and got the door screws out. Then I grabbed her again and got us all out of that place. Maybe she went and checked to see if all the kittens were gone from where she'd hidden them and then came back? Dunno. She got a lot quieter, though.
I'm not a religious person but I believe that for some reason, God wanted those cats out of there alive. That's why He had my neighbor listen to the scanner, He had my neighbor's wife call me, He made sure I was still dressed and ready to go, He made sure I had a quick way to my office, and He made sure I could find the kittens when I got in there. I had time to go to one place and one place only, and that was it. There were a lot more of what some people would call coincidences that night. I prefer to think of them as God choosing to remain anonymous.
A couple other weird things:
The next day, I noticed that all the kittens' eyes were open, and I've since been told that they don't usually open them for a couple of weeks. Must be some kind of "Danger-Instinct" thing. Anybody got any ideas?
Also, I mentioned that when I first took her in, my cat made her nervous. He's had his 'biological-modification' long ago, and he's well past fighting age, but she didn't know that and it drove her nuts. Well, after the fire, I took her back to the house, and those kittens just about drove HIM crazy! I took her back to the office while we were cleaning up. She didn't seem particularly disturbed about being there, but one day we went to lunch and when we came back, she had moved all those kittens up to my office and put them in one of my desk drawers. I think she figured, "That's sure to happen again, and we'd best be near this guy when it does."