Crisis Mode

I saw this Discovery Channel show once about how wildlife survives forest fires. We always think about everything running out in a mad panic, a la Bambi's family, but what I thought was interesting is that lots of animals can't escape via land, water, or air because they are too small. I don't remember what they said about small woodland creatures, but I do remember what they said about insects.

All sort of insects - centipedes, moths, spiders, ants - crawl into specific types of flowers that have a sort of insulation layer where the heat of the fire doesn't get them and, if the flower isn't actually burnt up, the insects can survive. What's interesting about this is that they are all in there together. Natural enemies, predators and prey, big and small, they all end up inside the same flowers just to survive. And the really fascinating part is that they don't attack or eat each other during the blaze. They have a sort of imposed truce associated with surviving the disaster, as if they all understand that the future of everything - of their lives and the lives of their spawn - depends on them coexisting harmoniously during the crisis.

The reason that I bring this up is that I have three cats that can't stand to be in the same room as each other without extreme hissing, fighting, and brawling. But right now, now when I have two guys in the house ripping out every existing window and sliding glass door in the place (more to follow) they are coexisting beneath the bed. There is no hissing, no bad blood, they are merely aware of a new threat and deciding, even needing, to be in the same place for safety. Nature is so interesting.