Sonoma County skies are still smoke-filled from fires burning all over northern and central California. Tens of thousands of acres have burned and hundreds of residents have fled. As I write, residents are still fleeing areas of Mendocino County and animal evacuation centers have been set up. They're in Ukiah at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds (for large animals) and the Mendocino County Animal Care & Control Shelter (for small animals).

Yesterday I breathed too much smoke while I was out with dog-ma at my vet checkup. (Dr. Gurevitch is pleased with my progress. He said I've got "neuro deficits" but will improve more. Good. I went for a little walk and got a compliment on my reverese mohawk from a human hair stylist. Nice.) But since we came home, I can't breathe right and neither can dog-ma. We learned that health warnings about staying indoors have been issued as far east as Nevada.

Add Lassen, Monterey, and San Benito counties to yesterday's fire list by county. The summary of Wildland Fires by Unit shows reports from Siskiyou, Del-Norte Humboldt, Mendocino, Santa Clara, San Mateo-Santa Cruz, Amador-El Dorado, Nevada-Yuba-Placer, Butte, Tehama-Glenn, Shasta-Trinity, Sonoma-Lake-Napa, Lassen-Modoc (including Plumas Co.), Tuolomne-Calaveras, and Madera-Mariposa-Merced.

There are SO MANY FIRES that I had to google earth and look at USGS GeoMAC maps to comprehend the number. Hundreds of fires are burning just in my region. In Mendocino county, 131 fires have burned more than 8,900 acres. . . . In Lake County, the Walker fire has burned at least 8,600 acres. . . . In Napa County, fire has scorched 4,089 acres.

Firefighting resources are stretched thin. Cal Fire has deployed more than 4,300 firefighters and tons of equipment. Cal Fire Chief Mark Romerao was quoted as saying "We're in fairly dire straits . . ." The California National Guard has been added to the fight, along with personnel from Nevada and Montana.

Firefighters from here in Sonoma County are dispatched all over the North State. Nearby Penngrove's Rancho Adobe Fire District Captain Bill Adams, a 20-year veteran, was quoted as saying he hasn't seen fires like this start so early in the year. "It's crazy," he said. "This is stuff you wouldn't expect to see until September or October."

Here's what an anonymous fire insider says: "The State of California is in the midst of the worst wildfire crisis in modern state history. More than 900 wildland fires are burning, many unstaffed. Incident commanders are making do with skeleton crews in most cases."

What a crazy year this has been thus far. We've gone from record-late spring frost (which hurt winegrape buds and other crops) to record-early major fires. What's the rest of the fire season going to be like?

I hope everybuddy stays safe.

Scooter's keeping an eye on things from his Santa Cruz water truck.

I don't drink wine, but my dog-ma teaches me wine lingo. Most people who live and visit here drink wine. When I say "here," I mean appellations and sub-appellations around Sonoma Valley and Sonoma Coast and the Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley and Dry Creek Valley and Napa Valley, "that other valley."

Here are grown and crafted great reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah, Malbec, and of course Pinot Noir. And lots of others like Barbera and Mourvedre. . . . Then there are the great whites: Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and of course Freestone Fogdog Chardonnay. And some other whites like Muscat and Rieslings.

I know more about wine and winemaking than most dogs. Not that I'm the Jancis Robinson of the dog world or anything, but I do do my homework, so to bark.

I drink a little beer. It helps me when I have muscle spasms. My dog-ma will search for a lovely pilsener like Blue Paddle, or a pale ale like Mendocino Brewing Company Blue Heron, or sometimes Rogue Brewery HazelNut Brown Ale. According to Rogue's Brewdog, their ales are made with "coastal free range water." Woof?

People in winemaking are often beer aficionados who know more about beer making than the average bear. Try asking 'em when they're not being bears, like when they're bored from working long harvest hours hand-sorting grapes or doing punch-downs.

Or go to the annual Sonoma County Harvest Fair and change the subject from wine to beer. You can change the subject to anything you want by the end of the winetasting day. You can even sneak in with me, a Welsh corgi, and your dog, I bet.