The Snow of 96

Today Victoria is having a grand snow day which is a rather unusual event. We have received a lot of snow today which has everyone hoping for another storm like 96. I completely missed it because I was at my parents home and the storm hit the day I was to leave. My parents live in snow country so we were fine as long as you did not want to leave. Leave you could not! Not in any direction. Every road out was closed along with the airport. For six days I was unable to leave but hey I was at my parents and they spoiled me rotten so it was the best kind of stranding.

For the first couple of days we would make the trek to the bus depot to see if buses were running. The bus terminal was in chaos. The station was filled with harassed workers, stranded skiers and travellers all wanting to leave. The terminal would post signs on the blackboard with any news about when possibly the buses might start running again. My father's favorite was, "Don't even ask!"

On one of our treks one of the station workers flipped out at a man that made the mistake of asking her if she had any idea when the buses might be running. The poor woman was at the end of her tether and instead of simply saying no she yelled back, "Do you want to die? Is that it! Do you want to die?" Her voice kept rising until it reached an ear splitting level of hysteria. You could watch the entire station full of people in one formation stepping back giving her a wide berth. After that we decided not to even bother trying for a couple of more days.

So by now you are probably wondering why on earth is this on your cat blog? Well, while I was storm stayed at my parents my sister was here in Victoria and she was given the job of making her way through 9 foot snowdrifts to save and feed my cat! She said everytime she came in Sammy Jo would fly to the furthest corner letting her know there is no way I am going out in that!

After a couple of days she called and asked, "How long does it take your cat to eat through his kitty kibble?" His kitty kibble is just something to snack on if I'm out longer than I plan it's not his usual food. So I tell her, "Oh, I don't know about three weeks." To this she replied, "Well, he just ate an entire bowl in a day!" I couldn't believe it.

When I finally managed to arrive home I found myself with one fat cat! I couldn't believe it. He was huge! For a time people would ask, "Is that really Sammy Jo?" They seemed to think I had traded him in for another.

That first night back when he wanted out I climbed down the stairs opened the door with the chain still on and found he was too fat to get out the door! I had to remove the chain to let him out!

So that New Year even my cat had to go on a diet!

(The pictures you see posted were taken today. The first is him deciding if he really wants to bother with the white stuff and the second was taken about a foot from the back stairs. That was as far as he would venture. He lasted about 3 minutes and is back on his perch above the heater where any smart cat would be.)