On March 3, 1997, while I was at work at my children were elsewhere, a fire destroyed much of my home and almost all of my posessions. The fire department managed to rescue Dork and Lizzie but my beloved friend and confident, Spike perished in the fire. Pecker the parakeet also didn't make it. I found his little body in front of the curtain at the front of the house. His cage door had been open and he seemed to have made a valiant effort to try and gain freedom from the smoke and flames. All of the goldfish and tropical fish died, but when I returned to house and saw them gasping for air in their tanks, I reached in and pulled out whomever I could spare and put them into whatever I could grab, but alas, only two african toads (Bilbo and Frodo) made it along with Snailzilla the giant apple snail.

Out of everything that I lost, what could not be replaced was my beloved pets. Three weeks after the fire Dork became ill. Lizzie also. Lizzie was showing obvious signs of a respiratory infection and Dork was wheezing and suffering from loss of appetite. I called the office of a trusted veternarian who specializes in reptiles and took my two remaining igs to be examined. They had to stay overnight and the first night, they were responding to treatment, but the second morning, Dork has passed away in his sleep. It is strongly suspected that it was kidney failure. What I saw though is another loss and another stab in the heart in this time of great dispair.

It was 8 months until we were able to return to my home. It had to be totally gutted and rebuilt. We returned to our home in November of 1998 with little left in life, but the children and I survived and they are the ones who keep me going. Thank G-d no human was in the house at the time of the fire. Losing my pets really hurt us all..for they were loved, they were our friends and they were living things that cannot be replaced. We'll remember our beloved friends forever, Spike, Dork, Pecker and the fish friends and be ever so careful that our new friends, Beans, Dante and Harley are not harmed in anyway. I've also lived and learned and the hard blight of reality is that the unexpected does occur and it can happen to anyone. I couldn't wait to get home from work that day, and realized upon my arrival, there was no home to return to.