I'm trying to figure out how she managed to tie anything around a cat's testicles. It must have had a rip-roaring case of brucellosis or something...Can cats get that?

It's almost time for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The situation with the Valley Fire is more an outcome of the heat and prolonged drought than anything else. Unlike situations in SoCal and (more sadly to me, personally, since I grew up there) Sonoma County, where idiot developers have been allowed to expand densely and willy-nilly into urban-wildland interfaces that overwhelm resources available and cannot be defended from wildfires, the areas around Middletown are historically rural where populations have increased only slowly since I was a kid 50 years ago. (Just as the town of Laytonville, in Mendocino County, where many of my relatives live, has hovered around a population of 1200 since 1950 at least. Middletown has similarly seen little economic development, even though closer to the Bay Area.) The vegetations there are relatively "lush" (because they get fairly large amounts of rain in normal years) versions of chaparral, oak savanna, and mixed evergreen forest that, when as dry as they are now, provide a scary amount of fuel for fires. As a CalFire spokesman said in this morning's paper, even if they had more firefighters, equipment and other resources, it wouldn't matter because the dryness of the vegetation, the terrain, and winds allow this fire to easily jump the lines and make it virtually unstoppable. I am associated with a 400-acre nature preserve in Pope Valley that was at least ten miles away from this fire when it started. The fire has come within a few miles of the preserve (which is mixed evergreen forest and will go up like a flare if the fire reaches it) within just a day. Unbelievable. Around Livermore, we aren't smelling the smoke at ground level, at least, but the smoke in the upper atmosphere gave us an eerie sepia-tone sunset last night.

Thank you for doing that, K... I just heard the Thomas Fire is burning and up to 242,000 acres and gaining.. its only 30 % contained. It's just heartbreaking to see so many homes lost. The poor animals too.. Please continue to send prayers.. I had a friend post a picture of his plumeria and it survived but the whole house is burned down. He called it " The survivor " To be able to do this in a time when he lost everything, just amazes me. Rox.. that picture of the palm tree nursery just made me cry... im worried about Jean in Santa Barbara... Sending you the biggest and most loving hugs, my friend.. Laura