Written by Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 — -4˚C / +25˚F & snowing @ 11:50 am in Atlantic Canada —
Moe – The mischievous orange ‘Cat and a half’ escaped for a couple seconds this snowy morning, explored something he’s probably been obsessed with for weeks, decided he’d had enough and hurried back to where I was waiting at the door. “This isn’t ‘outside’ – This is Snow!” he seems to say.
— We’re supposed to get about 10 cm / 4 inches of snow before the precipitation turns to a projected couple hours of freezing rain and then transitions to a lot of rain later. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be +12˚C / +54˚F & might have more rain in store for us.
“But – But – There might be mice in there!” The object of Moe’s consternation, in spite of the morning’s snow – is our new side additions to our steel garden shed. The side additions now house cut and split firewood, nicely stacked and covered with plastic to keep the weather away from the wood. Moe has always been an expert mouser. I remember my sensitive step-daughter screaming when she saw the cats torturing a mouse. Moe’s reaction? When the mouse was no fun to play with any more – it disappeared in two bites and a swallow. Chomp chomp, gulp – yum?
— This time last year our driveway had about four or five foot high walls of snow around the area we had cleared with our snow-blower. This year we were day dreaming about an early spring. People on the radio keep arguing whether global warming or climate change is a scientific reality. Here in the ‘Real World’ our escapee cat loves the fact that he can dash out past who-ever just opened a door and run outside and smile at the grass instead of trying to keep his feet out of the white stuff.
“Okay, Been There – Done That – & I’ve had enough of this cold wet white stuff!” Moe turned around and hurried back to the safety of the nice warm enclosed porch a split second after he decided that there weren’t any mice in the wood shed.
— We do have another pet. Jassper, the perennial puppy dog (Black Lab) who doesn’t understand that he weighs five times as much as Moe, and wants to sit on my lap, or jump on my chest any time he sees the cat get away with that. Jassper was out and about this morning, slipping and sliding around in the shallow snow over slick ice from recent thaw and re-freeze cycles.
Slightly tipped photo of Jassper (shot through the door’s insulated glass window) out prowling around, slipping and sliding, and probably disappointed there was no one about to bark at, nothing to “Boof!” about. Three dogs from the house shown down the hill there sometimes hang out in that fenced in area. Last year at this time we knew the brown hound-type dog was in there only by seeing her head moving back and forth in the groove she wore down between the three feet deep untouched snow on both sides.
— And here we are, watching the weather – expecting it to turn treacherous soon, waiting to grit our teeth and hope Cathi gets home all right, knowing she’s found the safest route from where she works to here. ( There are steep hills in Town -)
— Other than that, I’ve been hearing weird “boom boom boom” sounds all morning, thought our neighbour might have been unloading large logs from the back of his pickup truck, but no – nothing is happening there. These booms are mildly shaking the house every time they happen. — Weird ? —
— And – um, That’s probably all for now –,
~~~~~ Jim
