The Pee-pee Blizzard of 2012

This weekend marked the first blizzard of the season. As blizzards go, it didn't turn out to be much, but it was still a very nice winter storm that dumped a lot of snow on the area. It even rated a name---Winter Storm Brutus. But to me, it will always be remembered as the Pee-pee Blizzard.

It all started when my mom befriended a stray cat we named Fulton Montmorency III. He was a tough, scrappy little thing, surviving on his own for at least a couple winters. Independent. Resourceful. Unfazed. Ruggedly at-home in the great outdoors. Right up until he found out what was in the large, strange box his people lived in. Once he discovered things like warmth and ease, the palatial igloo and warm, cozy quilt we'd provided for him the previous winter were no longer good enough. He would sit, shivering by the door rather than demean himself to enter That Slum.

Well, that couldn't continue, so when temperatures dropped this year, poor Fulton came out to stay at my house for a couple weeks while his parents pimped his 'gloo. An electric bed was ordered, and my dad put in carpet and constructed a doorway that kept out the weather.

So far, so good, but unfortunately, some of my cats chose to take offense at the interloper. It wasn't so bad until the storm hit and they couldn't go outside at all. At that point, a random, anonymous cat we shall call Plazarus-You're-Gonna-Find-Your-Fluffy-Entitled-Butt-Cooling-It-Outside-All-Winter-If-You-Don't-Knock-It-Off-And-I-Mean-It-Ploopsie developed a distressing habit of taking out his deep emotional issues by spraying various corners.

Somehow, I just couldn't get behind the new decorating scheme of Ew de Urine, so I spent the blizzard following him around with vinegar and Febreeze. Boy, was it a happy day when the sun peeped out again! Fulton's bed was finished, the weather was warming, and Someone felt a little better about the world.

Blizzards are fun as long as you're inside and the power stays on. There's such a coziness about being safe and warm while the wind howls angrily outside. I count my blessings even more than the average person because of how bad things used to be. Two winters ago, when I first moved in, I used my living room as a refrigerator and my entry as a freezer because it stayed cold enough out there. Now I was sitting in the same room, snug and warm. What a difference!

 After the storm dies down a bit, it's time to suit up and head out to play. This storm had a large amount of light, fluffy snow. It was like wading through cattail fluff everywhere. Caleb spent a great deal of time jumping into snow drifts, but at my mature age, I can't get that excited about wet snow-melt trickling down my neck, so I stayed out of the deep snow in favor of more demure pursuits.

By Sunday night, the storm was spent, and we went to bed with temperatures falling into the minuses. My house is built along the architectural lines of a colander, so it was getting a little chilly inside. Not that it was SO bad, but it wasn't SO cold yet either. However, sub-zero temperatures bring their own activities, as the morrow would show.