Tuesday, March 3, 2015

No More Snow! (Says The Cat)

The cat is beyond pissed. It started last night, and I should preface this by the admission that this is her house. If it wasn’t already clear to anyone who can read between the lines, Darth Jingles may be officially the family pet to those who give the household a cursory glance, but she’s the one in control.
Last night we had a wind advisory with just a little bit of moisture. A little moisture, it barely qualified as rain. Sort of a heavy fog. The Boy tried repeatedly to get her to come inside, as did The Girl. When she finally did agree to come in, she gave a series of plaintive, pathetic meows until The Girl scooped her up, wrapped her in one of my soft towels, and began a fluff and dry routine that would make any hair dresser proud. The second towel was solely for bundling purposes, which Jingles approved of.
The Girl carried her around, fawning over her and telling her she was warm and safe now and similar niceties, then gave the bundle ‘o cat to me to baby. I didn’t fare as well. Previously mentioned bundle decided I was not giving her the appropriate level of devotion, and took off. Apparently scratching her behind the ears wasn’t enough.
Fine, so she retreated to her giant kitty bed. To the layman, this might be mistaken for a beanbag – one of those really big ones. As kitten, Jingles couldn’t even climb up on the thing, now it his hers. So she jumped up there, circled to make sure everything was as it should be (ie The Boy hadn’t left wrappers or anything on it and any pillows were out of the way) and settled down in the middle. The exact middle. She won’t move for anyone, sharing is not encouraged and if you try, she’ll either attack you (most likely the outcome) or leave (and give you the cold shoulder later).
That was yesterday. Today, Jingles went out this morning as usual. The forecast showed 1% chance of snow, but there was an advisory in the mountains. We’re not in the mountains, so not an issue. Yeah. We have six inches of fluffy white snow and it’s still coming down. I also have a cat (now dry) stalking through the house with the demeanor of a caged tiger. Panther – a caged panther. She’s so mad.
I opened the blinds in my room because she loves being able to see out from that high vantage point, and that helped a little bit. Dry, warm, can still see – the problem is she can still see snow. Poor sweetums got used to it being spring, when technically it isn’t. We had one snowfall back in December, then nothing to speak of since. She got used to heavy frosts here and there, maybe an inch that was gone by mid-afternoon, but not real snow. This just hasn’t been winter like humans think of it, and she was fine with that in her little feline mind. Someone changed the rules and forgot to consult my cat.
I’m not happy with it, I’ve sort of gotten used to it being warmer too, but I was worried about the lack of a snow pack in the mountains and what that was going to mean for the people relying on the meltwater later in the year. Silly me. This will be good for the farmers. Not so much maybe for the buds on my fruit trees, but we’ll see.
I’m sort of curious about how a 1% chance of snow became several inches in just a couple of hours. I thought the weather service was better than that. It wasn’t just for today either, there was 1-0% chance of precipitation all week at 6am. It’s still showing nothing for the next two days, and it’s up to an 80% chance for today. Huh. I know how it works, but I still have to laugh when I look at that 80% chance of snow, and then look out the window at the big fluffy flakes coming down right now. I want to drink hot chocolate and watch a Doctor Who Christmas Special. (And the cat walks away in disgust.)


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