The unwitting allies of forest fires include swirling winds, drought, overgrown forests, and humans building in nature's territory. Humans can escape when nature incinerates, but animals cannot.
By some accounts, more than 37,000 animals were displaced by the 2017 fires in Northern California. This tale unfolds as six of those animals – four house cats (a tuxedo cat named Jellybean, a tabby named Coco, a Maine coon named Khan, and a Himalayan named Alana), a parakeet named Skittles, and a Golden retriever named Rusty – are left homeless by the rampaging fires and decide to embark on a dangerous journey to find a new home.
The six battle the fires that relentlessly pursue them throughout their journey. Along the way, they are hunted by an animal control officer who happens to hate all pets, gun-toting teens, a coyote that needs to eat, and a troop of vicious feral cats led by a muscular black cat named Deadfoot. The final battle occurs just a few hundred yards from their new home.
The unwitting allies of forest fires include swirling winds, drought, overgrown forests, and humans building in nature's territory. Humans can escape when nature incinerates, but animals cannot.
By some accounts, more than 37,000 animals were displaced by the 2017 fires in Northern California. This tale unfolds as six of those animals – four house cats (a tuxedo cat named Jellybean, a tabby named Coco, a Maine coon named Khan, and a Himalayan named Alana), a parakeet named Skittles, and a Golden retriever named Rusty – are left homeless by the rampaging fires and decide to embark on a dangerous journey to find a new home.
The six battle the fires that relentlessly pursue them throughout their journey. Along the way, they are hunted by an animal control officer who happens to hate all pets, gun-toting teens, a coyote that needs to eat, and a troop of vicious feral cats led by a muscular black cat named Deadfoot. The final battle occurs just a few hundred yards from their new home.
Olivia could smell the smoke before she could see the flames. Even at seven years old, Olivia could tell when Daddy and Mommy were upset. Dad’s voice got louder and deeper. His eyebrows clenched. Her upper lip quivered. Mommy called her Olivia instead of Liv.
Olivia was standing on the love seat, peeking out the bay window of her home in Lakeport, California. In the distance, she could see plumes of smoke rising into the sky, and she could hear sirens and whistles. Usually, her street on Palmer Drive was quiet enough to listen to the birds in the nearby forest singing their choruses and landing on their bird feeders in their backyards for a quick meal. They were strangely silent now. And invisible.
Today, people scurried around in the street, moving quickly but in no clear direction like her cat Jellybean when he was scared, which was a lot of the time.
From that window, Olivia could see Clear Lake down below and the miles and miles of forest surrounding the town and the lake. She couldn’t see the flames, but she could see the smoke and smell it, even inside the house.
Waves of smoke choked her, and she coughed, trying to expel the grit.
Then a series of trucks came down the street all in a row. They all had the same greenish color paint, Olivia noticed. And then men and women in uniforms leaped out of the trucks, and the people in the neighborhood swarmed around the uniformed people.
Olivia watched as the uniformed people used a hornlike device to talk so everyone could hear what they said. Olivia could pick out some words.
“Evacuation...forest fire...danger...right now.”
Then people in the neighborhood were running back to their houses. So were Mommy and Daddy.
“Olivia,” her Mommy called as she burst through the door.
When she saw Olivia standing on the love seat, Mommy didn’t even yell at her. Instead, she squeezed her tight.
“I’ll go upstairs and get some stuff,” Daddy began, his voice loud and afraid, “Take Olivia to the truck. I’ll find Jellybean.”
“Let’s go, Olivia,” Mommy said as she scooped her up in her arms and went outside toward the trucks.
“Where are we going, Mommy?” Olivia asked.
“There’s a forest fire coming toward our house,” Mommy answered her. “We are going somewhere safe for a little while.”
Olivia knew from school that fire was dangerous. The school held drills, and even Daddy and Mommy taught her how to get out of the house in case of a fire. As Mommy bounced her up and down as they approached one truck, a man in a uniform was pointing to the truck and saying, “Let’s go, folks. The fire’s only a few minutes away.”
Mommy moved faster. Then they were in the truck, which had a bench on each side they could sit on. Mommy sat down, and across from her sat her best friend Tinley and her mommy. They look scared, too. Tinley’s Mom had been crying. Olivia didn’t say anything to Tinley, but they just looked at each other and locked eyes.
Olivia could see the man in the uniform outside the truck waving people into the truck and yelling, “Let’s go. We can’t take luggage in the truck. Just what you can carry.”
“Where’s Daddy?” Olivia asked, suddenly afraid the truck would drive off without Daddy.
“He’s coming, honey,” Mommy said in that comforting voice she had but then yelled out to the uniform man,” My husband’s still in the house.”
The man turned to her and said, “He’s got 30 seconds before we pull away.”
In her head, Olivia started counting. 28, 27, 26...where’s Daddy...25, 24, 23, where’s Jellybean...22, 21, 20.
Then Daddy jumped into the truck with a backpack, and they all hugged.
“Where’s Jellybean?” Olivia asked.
The engine fired up with a throaty roar, and the truck started to move.
“Daddy, Jellybean has to come with us,” Olivia cried out.
Daddy squeezed her and said, “I looked all over and couldn’t find him. He’s scared and hiding somewhere.”
“Daddy, what if the fire gets Jellybean?” Olivia sobbed.
Daddy and Mommy didn’t answer her. They just held her.
The truck picked up speed and made several turns.
As the truck pulled down the street and away from her home, Olivia saw flames torch houses on the next street and hurl themselves toward her house.
Olivia heard her Mommy say to her Daddy, “Did you look under Olivia’s bed?”
Daddy took a breath and said, “I checked there, and anywhere I could think of. You know Jellybean. When he’s afraid, he hides.”
Olivia cried and cried as the truck drove farther away from her house – and Jellybean.
“Jellybean, be brave,” Olivia sobbed. Her Mommy squeezed her tighter.
I was really drawn to this book by the synopsis and knew I had to read it. I grew up in California and have experienced similar situations with forest fires. In Away From Home, normal life is interrupted when a rapidly growing fire reaches the town of Lakeport. Emergency evacuation is under way, but everything happens so quickly that there is no time to gather belongings, including their beloved pets.
This leaves a handsome tuxedo cat and his tabby cat neighbor stranded and afraid. Together, Jellybean and Coco figure out how to escape the raging flames and smoke. They even manage to help a big maine coon escape from a locked vet office. Khan would have died from the fire for sure, but they all three decide to band together as a team, or troop, as the cats call it. They even pick up another cat along the way who fell from the back of an evacuation truck and was trapped in her carrier. Together they survive the main blaze of the fire but the four cats soon realize they have a long way to go if they want to catch up to their human families who have been taken 50 miles away to Calistoga. But it is the only place they know, so they head out on their journey to be reunited.
Along the way they face many deadly challenges. In Whispering Pines they are faced with the worst ever animal control officer, who seems to hate all animals and is set on capturing them. It is there that they manage to escape from the animal shelter with a new companion in toe, a golden retriever named Rusty. Then they must face hungry wild animals who are also afraid from the fires and a troop of feral cats in the forest.
At the halfway point of Middletown, not only is the maniacal officer still after them, but some feisty teens are out and about picking on any animal they can capture. After barely escaping from the wild teenagers, they have another animal join their troop. A blue parakeet called Skittles. Their troop continues as the fires give chase and the elements around them challenge every step forward toward their goal, reaching Jellybean's family in Calistoga.
I loved the blend of fiction with reality that the author uses in Away From Home. The true message of the devastation of forest fires is not squashed by the fun talking animal characters. As an animal lover and someone who has worked with animals for over 15 years, the personalities and mannerisms of the animals in the story was very realistic. The details of the fire and the environment was spot on and made you feel like you were there, feeling the heat of the flames alongside the characters. I loved how the author showed us pets from different types of lives with humans and how it would effect their decisions and thoughts. It was very well written and I cried toward the end for one character that doesn't make it the whole way there, but you should read it to find out because I wont give spoilers. It is a well written fictional story that has a great message within. Any animal or nature lover will enjoy reading Away From Home.