No Hydro!

My video of Lake Effect Snow

The sunset yesterday was deceiving. We lost our power in the big wind storm. At 6:30 a.m., with wind howling, cats prowling around hoping for breakfast the phone gave several pretend rings and power was off. The generator kicked in immediately and did well to keep us going. My first priority, with double digit, subzero Celsius temperatures, is to get the wood stove going. Mind you, I had to navigate through several cats winding around me feet. Their position was that they haven’t been fed in a week, despite two half-dishes containing dry kibble, and the squeaky wheel... The ritual revolves around dividing up two cans of food in three dishes for three cats. Two sat at my feet meowing, and reminding me of my job.

happy in front of the fire

They all have fur balls and I have to sneak a squirt of medicine in each. Alpha cat, Sady, needs to go out and hunt prey, but I insisted she have some food first. Sady wants out and then Ollie is free to sample from each bowl. Next in the royal lineage, Prince Oliver, who needs to sample from each of the bowls, nudging the oldest and largest cat, Mitzi, out of his way. I think Ollie imagines Sady as the queen, whose well-being must be protected in a throw back to good old fashioned Russian politics, with great risk of poisoning in a coup by the royal pretender.

On the way by I feed two similarly starving goldfish. Their girth belies this fact, but that, too, is their story. Once Mitzi finished eating she likes to hunt them. She sits enraptured at the base of the fish tank. The light highlights their orangey-gold fins. They are fairly large now. Their lengths would span my outstretched thumb to baby finger. She pops up and frantically paws the glass in an effort to capture them. Failure does not dissuade her, she quietly goes off for another bite of food for sustenance.

The next project is to get the wood stove going. My hubby usually makes coffee in the a.m., once the alpha cat/Queen eats, she goes out for a bit (yes, -10 degrees here!), then she goes upstairs and gets him up for the day! I like to start early and can wait until coffee is made.

Eventually, using the one outlet in the kitchen that is run off of the generator, we have coffee, toast, and all is well with the world. The power crews, bless them, repaired the downed line up our road, and we are back on the grid. The wind still howls, but we sit cosy in the warmth of the fire.