Living at 7K

The Way of the Toe, Part 2

The monsoon weather in the southwest United States can be challenging enough for humans. For a cat, the resulting storms can be terrifying. Up until last year, the cats free reign to explore our rural and wild 4 acres. Upon loosing one of our cats one cloudless night, outdoor privileges were revoked and all access laminates were confiscated. You have all been deemed indoor cats. So it is said.

In the age when our cats had free access outdoors, they would often be ushered back into the house by the approaching storms of summer. Morning blue skies giving way to increasing cloudiness which then ultimately turn in to a churning angry mass of boiling clouds. In their nature, copious rain accumulations were the dividends of such storms. With a simple rain fall was insufficient for the day, mother nature brought upon the land a side order of cold. The collision of intense hot and wracking cold produced amazing thunder and lightning storms. But, when ample moisture was present, the result could be hail. 

On one such event, the suddenness of the storm attacked the land, driving all living creatures for shelter. All of the cats navigated the monstrous storm and made good their escape into the house. All but Toe. Possibly hiding under the back deck, in hopes of outlasting the storm, which they have been know to do, decided the hail and might of the thunder would not abate. Self preservation his primary thought, he ran for the back door where upon he found the cat door - locked!

NOOOOO!!!!!

In such storms, I would have to lock and close the cat door to keep the ravaging storm from reaching into the house. In the frantic reactions of the storm, I missed a cat when I counted heads. I had not realized Toe was missing, at first. Running to back door, I look through the windows there upon the ground, pushing against the cat door was Toe. His shrill screams seemed muffled by the deafening crash of hail on a metal roof. 

Water was cascading over the gutter, crashing on to Toe while hail quickly threatened to bury him. Rain coat poorly adorned, and wide brimmed hat askew, I raced out outside to rescue Toe from the wilds of the storm. Resting the corner of the house to the back door, I put up Toe while he was screaming in fear. I tucked into into already soaked coat, and pounded on the kitchen window to my wife to get towels to Toe. My own voice was shrouded by the ferocity of the storm. Terror, screams, and claws were company as I carried Toe back into the house. I handed him over to my wife while I returned to the backyard to support a sagging gutter, teasing its desire to disengage from the house.

After the storm had passed, and Toe had dried, he decided a nap was most appropriate. Unharmed from the rain and hail, he continued the next day as if nothing had happened, exploring the outdoors as was his want, but showed a bit my attention to future storms and an eagerness to get into the house before the rains came.

Word Counts:

Daily 07/29/2015 =  553

July 2015             = 3,431

Project total         =  3,431