Feral Cat Fridays: A Snowy Interlude
I’m taking a break from feral cat updates to share a look at this week’s weather here in the Texas Hill Country. We awoke Monday to 4 inches of snow. It all stayed on the ground until Wednesday afternoon when we finally got above freezing to a high of 41 degrees. But it cooled off and started to snow again on Thursday morning. We had between 3 and 4 inches of new snow by dark. Monday’s snowfall was small, dry, powdery flakes. Thursday’s was large wet flakes. The first 3 photos below are from Monday. The last is from Thursday. More photos are in Loretta’s smugmug page, here.
And just to stay in the spirit of Feral Cat Fridays, here’s a MiniMo update. She is out of the crate and wandering my study. She shows no urge to go outside and seems happy to nap on chairs and on her heated pad in the crate. We’re leaving the crate door propped open and the pad on low heat even though the room is at 68 degrees. She seems to like the extra warmth on her old bones. So far it looks like she’s headed for an indoor life in her senior years. She’s even starting to like a little contact.
You’re right. The view from your place does bear some similarity to the photos of the Llano County ranch. The biggest difference, which isn’t immediately obvious from the photos, is that they got a terrific amount of freezing rain in the beginning, and ended up with a pretty crunchy landscape even before the snow came.
The roadrunner does look a bit bemused. I enjoyed seeing the squirrel and deer in Loretta’s photos, too. I discovered that SmugMug won’t allow comments unless you’re logged in, and when I tried to register, they wouldn’t allow that. Who knows? There are so many online glitches just now, it may be a temporary server problem. Pass on my appreciation; I’ll give it another try later.
I’m really tickled that MiniMo is taking to life on the inside, so to speak. Old bones do appreciate a little warmth, and old patterns sometimes change. She may never have imagined such a life, but it sounds like she appreciates it.
We were lucky with the freezing rain and ice accumulation and only got a very light glaze before the snow started. I’m sure that saved a lot of our trees and power lines.
The smugmug comment system is cumbersome in several ways. Loretta’s been tinkering with it and we’ll let you know when and if it smooths out. Sumgmug sees itself as more of a photo storage and distribution site than a social network, so comments aren’t at the top of their priority list. Loretta will see your comments here, anyway. She checks in regularly to see what’s happening.
It’s been entertaining watching MiniMo adapt. I’ve been surprised at how comfortable she is inside. I’m sure the level of misery outside made the transition easier. Who knows what’s going on in that cat brain, but I’m not sure she had any idea about windows and views outside until yesterday after the snow had melted a bit. She looked out the window and seemed curious, although she just jumped over to one of her favorite chairs and took a nap. It was the first time the world out there looked like her territory. It had been a solid white sheet ever since she’d been inside.