My Twitter friend @SeaBasscat, who blogs at Sebastian The Sensitive Soul; his dad and mom, @BoSoxAmy; and his Guinea pig sib, @DottieGP, lost their home to a big fire last night. Sebastian’s family is safe, but they don’t have an apartment anymore and they don’t have any of their stuff.

This awful fire in Sebastian’s apartment building reminded me of my very first days here at my house.

We had a fire three days after I moved in under the house here when I was a tiny kitten. Big men in big boots and smoke.

Becket and Belle were coming out of the smokey area upstairs, but UH went back in to put out the fire before it spread, and they followed her back in. She was on the 911 call while she did it, too. Thank goodness she was not hurt, the fire fighters came and made sure no fire had spread. Then, the humans had to find Belle and Becket, who were now hiding in the smokey upstairs. (Note to all cat readers: humans are not always smarter than we are, no matter how much they claim they are!)

I was still called “Under-the-House Kitten” and was about a month old. Robin was really worried that I had been squashed by a firefighter who was focused on the house and not looking for a tiny kitten. I didn’t show my face again for several days after all the noise and anxious feelings and smoke swirling around, but I was OK.

In the end, nobody in our house was hurt and insurance paid for cleaning and replacing the part of the house that burned. (Robin is reminding me that it paid for PART of the renovation and cleaning.) Insurance is great, but it doesn’t usually cover all of the material loss of a fire. Nothing can make up for lost sense of safety and comfort. This fire, actually, any fire, touches our hearts. We remember how our little fire unsettled everyone. We can’t even imagine how scared Sebastian and his family must have been and how long they will be smelling for smoke and listening for crackling fire.

I hope you will consider sharing, even a little bit, with Sebastian and his family to help them recover from the trauma of losing their home to a fire. I did.

NOTE: When I published this post, the Chip In! for “Seabasscat & Bosoxamy Fire Help Fund” had raised $900 already! My human can’t figure out how to embed the widget for the Chip In page and suspects that wordpress.com won’t let her anyway.

Photo credit goes to @BosoxAmy. The image is from @SeabassCat’s Twitter account and I apologize for not asking if I could use it. I hope they don’t mind.