Between the firefighters, the police, the emergency vets, the neighbor and good friend, and myself, everything is under control. One of the cats, Lavinia, was slightly singed and is at the emergency vets' overnight. I took her in. She's stable and okay for now, but they want to watch her for smoke inhalation and any other damage that might not be immediately apparent.

Simon (the owner) and I will be talking more as things progress. (Aren't cell phones marvelous?!) The fire was mostly contained to one room, which the cats don't normally get into anyway.

I found 8 of the 12 cats pretty quickly, but the other 4 were still missing when Lavinia and I went to the vet's. Lavinia is being kept overnight, and we'll decide where to go from there. She is a very elderly lady with already a whole lot of things going on.

A couple hours later, after we were done checking her out there and consulting with Simon over the phone, I went back to the house to see that the others had food and water and litterboxes. During that time, the other four turned up. HALLELUJAH! OH, THANK GOD.

THANK GOD: Someone walking down the street saw the smoke and called the fire department RIGHT AWAY. The house is a big old wooden structure and would have gone up like a bonfire, cats and all, if it had had much more time to burn.