Back home to CA for a bit...

---

---

In December 1994 I lost my job and as the major bread winner in the household I had to do something to bring in income. My dad had been in Southern California since the Northridge Earthquake. Working first as a FEMA assessor and then as a residential adjuster for Allstate with a company called Pilot Catastrophe. He needed help with paperwork and was willing to pay me more than enough money to live with him while still paying all the bills in Texas. I jumped at the chance! So off to Southern California I went. I stayed there through the end of May.

A digression to talk about pets:

In the 1980's I was given a pure bred Burmese cat as part of a breeding progam her name was Quota. She stayed with my mom and dad while Robert and I were overseas and when we were living in Georgia. But she moved with us to Virginia and to Texas.

While we were in Virginia we adopted a male tabby whom we called Hobbs. He was a handful and loved to play with Quota who felt he was quite beneath her as he was just a youngster!

During that time we also adopted a Greencheek Conue named Beeper. He was a hold over from the pet store I worked in when the pet store finally went under. The pet store was one of 23 all over the metro DC area called "The Pet Stop" I worked for the owner (one Robert Guidry, from Louisiana) for several months riding the beast from Chapter 11 to Chapter 13.

When we moved back to Texas we had two cats and one bird. It made for an interesting trip from DC to Texas.

When we moved back one of Robert's uncles who lived in Mertzon had a litter of kittens, I fell in love with one of them and we brought her home and named her Velcro as she stayed stuck to my clothes during the entire drive home from Mertzon.

During December of 1994 we visited my parents in CA for Christmas. It was a week long trip and during the trip Hobbs went missing at home. When we returned home we found him floating in the above ground pool of the house we were renting. It was a bad day.

A few days later I was searching for a cat to replace Hobbs when I wandered into a local vet and found a solid grey cat I thought Robert would love. When we returned to visit, the grey cat went completely wild and wouldn't allow the vet tech to pick him up. However, his all white brother made extra efforts to keep watch on us the entire time we were there. We ended up going home with the white one! We named him Q-Tip. And after he spend 2 nights under the bed and 3 days behind the dishwasher he finally came out and socialized with the rest of the cats.

At this time we had also given up Beeper because Robert didn't have time to play with him and we both felt it was cruel to leave him in his cage all the time. We gave him to my boss, before I got fired.

On the 15th of April I got a call from Robert telling my Quota had died in her sleep that day. It was one of the toughest things I ever endured because I felt like I had abandoned her when I came to CA.

Right before I moved home from CA, Velcro blessed our house with two little kittens who I swear looked like baby Ewoks. Which is why the brother and sister ended up with the names Luke and Leia.


Northridge, California
1994 01 17 12:30:55 UTC (local time: 4:30 a.m.)
Magnitude 6.7

Sixty people were killed, more than 7,000 injured, 20,000 homeless and more than 40,000 buildings damaged in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and San Bernardino Counties. Severe damage occurred in the San Fernando Valley: maximum intensities of (IX) were observed in and near Northridge and in Sherman Oaks. Lesser, but still significant damage occurred at Fillmore, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Santa Monica, Simi Valley and in western and central Los Angeles. Damage was also sustained to Anaheim Stadium. Collapsed overpasses closed sections of the Santa Monica Freeway, the Antelope Valley Freeway, the Simi Valley Freeway and the Golden State Freeway. Fires caused additional damage in the San Fernando Valley and at Malibu and Venice. Preliminary estimates of damage are between 13 and 20 billion U.S. dollars. Felt throughout much of southern California and as far away as Turlock, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Richfield, Utah and Ensenada, Mexico. The maximum recorded acceleration exceeded 1.0g at several sites in the area with the largest value of 1.8g recorded at Tarzana, about 7 km south of the epicenter. A maximum uplift of about 15 cm occurred in the Santa Susana Mountains and many rockslides occurred in mountain areas, blocking some roads. Some ground cracks were observed at Granada Hills and in Potrero Canyon. Some liquefaction occurred at Simi Valley and in some other parts of the Los Angeles Basin.

From: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1994_01_17.php

---