Careful What You Wish For, Cat

     It's been cold this week in Texas.  We're used to the occasional norther blowing in and making things frigid for a couple of days, but this time, it just got cold and stayed that way.  All the roads iced over last week and still aren't fully thawed.

     On one of the first days of the ice storm Ella indicated that she'd like to go hang out in the back yard.  She communicated this by standing at the back door crying incessantly.

     I explained to her that, no, she didn't want to go out, since it was freakin' cold out there.

     But she just explained (in ever-louder cat-speak) that yes she, definitely, did.


     She continued to cat-yell at me until I finally gave up and let her out.

     She bounded past me onto the back deck and skidded to a stop where the white sleet accumulation started.  She looked back at me as if to say:  "What have you done to my backyard!?"
   
     I said:  "Have fun!" and shut the back door.

     She sniffed and pawed at the white stuff, gave it a taste, and looked annoyed.

     She slowly began to make her way across the deck and onto the patio...lifting her paws up and flicking ice off with each step.

     She was even more skittish outside than usual.  (Which is saying a lot...she really is an indoor cat.)  Every sound made her jump.  The fact that her familiar back yard had turned into a wintery shadow of it's former self made her question everything.

     I watched her make a tentative path to her favorite bamboo plant.  (Which she enjoys chewing on.)  She tasted the leaves.  They were covered with ice.  She turned and looked at me accusingly.

     Interestingly, she looked right at me...even though I'd left the back door and walked through our bedroom so I could see her out the bathroom window.  (How do they always know exactly where you are?  It's kind of creepy.)

     I watched for a while, but she was being so slow and meticulous in her exploration of every newly ice-covered rock and leaf I just left her to it.  She had no interest in coming back in so I went back to the kitchen to check on my cooking.

     A little while later, as I cleaned up the kitchen, I went to check on her.

     I spotted her huddled under a bench not far from the back door.

     Our eyes met.

     "You sorry, no-good, *%$#%@$!@, hateful human!" her glare seemed to say.

     I opened the door and she streaked into the kitchen.

     Then she turned on me and started meowing even louder than when she was begging to get out...this time accusingly.

     "Why did you force me out into the cold against my will?!!" she seemed to be saying.

     Which proves, yet again, that the only cat logic is:  "If kitty's unhappy-humans have wronged them."

     The good news is that when the weather gets cold she is extra-interested in snuggling and taking naps.  I've had some sort of bug and she was very helpful to my healing (i.e. sleeping) process.