Well, it seems it’s a bit tougher than I anticipated to post a
daily blog at this time of the year! There are Christmas preparations, getting
the house ready for my son’s visit with his lady (whom I have never met in
person), cold weather inconveniences and trying to keep outside kitties from
freezing to death!
I’ve lived in Idaho for two and a half years now and this
is the first real snow we’ve gotten here. We still can’t measure it in feet or
anything but 6-7 inches is a respectable amount to deal with. On top of that,
the temperatures, without wind chill, are down to just above single digits and
with wind chill, it’s in the negative as low as -25°.
.
Saturday night I experienced a night of calamities just like the
good old days!
Every evening I set up dishes of cat food on two trays; 5
dishes on the small one and 6 places on the big one with empty dishes under
those to fill once I get out to the shelter and on top of those I put little
plates and pile on another 4 dishes and a stack of opened cans. Most of the
dishes of food get a bit of half and half poured over them. I then stack the
smaller tray on top of the larger and proceed out the door, very gingerly, to
the back yard.
Most nights, the outside cats are waiting for me by the door and
I have to trip over and step on quite a few to get all the way over to the
shelter but lately, it’s been so cold that they are just waiting for me to get
out there.
On the southeast side of the shelter flap there is a stack of
cages that we sometimes use to cart kitties to the vet or for ‘time-outs’ for
naughty kitties. Since I can’t get both decks of trays into the entry way at
once, I set the top tray on the top cage and enter with the biggest tray first.
Last night I had to set both trays down because I had closed up the entry way
and needed to get inside from the northeast side to open it. As soon as I took
one step away from the trays (and this is in the dark), both trays of food
crashed to the ground! Apparently, my husband had knocked out the support under
the cages that kept them level while he was shoveling snow and I couldn’t see
that the cages had become unstable. So there I am, groveling around in the dark
and snow trying to retrieve pet dishes and cat food from the ground and serving
them up as fast as I could to hollering cats. They were none too happy to be
getting their food with a pile of snow in the dishes either!
At any rate, I made the best of the situation and then decided
I’d better light up the propane heater for a little while to take some of the
chill off the place. I tried 4 times to get the thing lit and it went out each
time! I finally gave up.
Thirdly, one of the ‘babies’ was nowhere to be found and this
was the most upsetting of all. Ironically, earlier in the day, I had finally
won the trust of her brother, Calypso, a long-haired Turkish Angora. We had
spent several quality minutes together playing ‘paw swipe’ and him letting me
pet and scratch his fur while he rolled over and got his tummy tickled! It was
awesome for me since I have not been able to touch him since he was born last
April. But, his sister, Cadet, never showed up to eat and I could only stay out
there for so long before I had to call that quits too.
To anybody who knows me, it would be needless to say that I
was somewhat irritated when I finally got back into the house! Enough said.
As my dearest friend in all the world always says, “This, too,
shall pass.” ...and the faster it passes, the happier I will be...and so will
all of my cats! We are looking forward to Tuesday when the temperature will
reach a high of 22°!
Amazing, isn’t it? The Law of Relativity...how 22° can feel ‘warm’
after suffering temps as low as -25°!
I will post again when my fingers thaw out.
Cheers! ♥
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