Winston ~ Blizzard of '78

On the 26th of December, the plan was to drive Winston to a humane society about 1 hour from here.  They said they would take any animal, from any county, and not charge a thing.   Perfect, right?  Well, he didn't go there.  He's still here.  Sigh....

He has been quite the entertainment here lately.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  There are still cat fights, and growling, and cornering him by the other two boys here (in fact, I hear growling right now). They've had a few pee wars too (most likely why his last owner dumped him, and I will spare you my thoughts on dumped animals, but you probably already know them by now).




 

However, he's shown us another side of him.  While the wind was blowing madly in that last snow storm, Winston dove under this rug and watched the snow hit the door.  Oh, and see those chickens on the wall?  He was mesmerized by those too one day, ha ha!

We discovered he loves to help strip a bed, and re-dress it.  He can't stop himself from diving in under the sheets and blankets. 

He discovered I crochet and knit too.  Sigh....my yarn has been a bit slobbery lately.  I can't sit and crochet without him discovering me, so I sent my youngest into my closet for scrap yarn for him. 

His purr is like a loud motor, he comes when he's called, and loves to be held.  Not your typical stray cat.

One day, while Sadie (my 19 year-old's black lab) was laying next to my drying rack, as I put laundry on it (she was a bit depressed I had said the "L" word, and was not going outside), Winston walked by and face-rubbed her nose - two times!  Unbelievable.  This cat is just not your ordinary cat.

Hubby is not one to approve of any pet, let alone a stray kept at a pet, and he even shocked us.  I woke up to find a bowl of water in my bathroom.  Huh?  Later, Hubby said that Winston was on his nightstand at 3:00am, trying to get water from his water bottle.  He said he got up, and put water in the bathroom, because the big, bad bully Tiger and Jasper would not let him in the kitchen without bothering him.  

So where is Winston now?

Well, he's here.  Most of the time, he's curled up on my bed, following me around, and loving on me.  The plan is to "babysit" him for a year, and let him go live with my soon-to-be 20 year-old daughter.  I'm already "babysitting" her dog and cat, so it will be hard to tell where Winston will be in a year from now.  As of now, it looks like he's staying.  Sigh....

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If you read yesterday's post, we did get hot water on about noon.  Hot showers never felt so good.

Yesterday the kids and I talked about the "blizzard of '78."  I remember the snow so high on the street sides, we could not see the houses.  I remember having to boil water too.  We lived in town, thankfully.  This upcoming weather brought on a history lesson for my kids.  We can even go online and watch old videos taken during the blizzard.  They all seem very interested in learning about it.  

The forecast here has changed yet again - 6-9 inches of snow possible, and Monday night wind chill of -20 to -40°F.  This continuously changes, but one thing is for sure, we are putting a lot more wood on the porch this morning (before it snows).