Yesterday I headed over to M’s after work and right after the turnoff for his street there was a state trooper blocking everyone else from entering a very busy neighborhood. Apparently, around 3 p.m. a tree had fallen across the road, and at 5 p.m. crews were still working to clear it. (We’ve sustained two days of near constant rain and high winds, so this doesn’t surprise me at all… I spent the entire night on Sunday waking up from dreams where a tree came down on the house. Luckily, the debris was limited to a ton of leaves and a few medium-sized sticks or small branches.)
So there I am, in the driveway clearing the fallen branches that I’d failed to remove on my commute to work that morning, and I hear a woman’s voice, “Hi there!” It was B, M’s sister-in-law who saw me pull into the driveway. She wanted to let me know that the fallen tree had wiped out the power to the entire neighborhood, and that if I needed anything at all that evening to just give her a call. Isn’t she a super-duper nice woman?!
I finished clearing the driveway and sure enough – the house was dark. And I couldn’t remember if M is on a well or if he has public water, so I didn’t try to turn on the water or flush any toilets. Instead, I called Mom.
“Hi Mom! Do you have power? You do? Well, do you want house guests? M lost power and it’s too dark to read inside the house. I’ll have to bring the dogs so ask Dad. Yeah? Well, ask again. You’re sure he’s okay with this? He’ll have to watch them while I’m at work tomorrow, because I won’t be able to drive them home before I go in. You’re sure? Ask again. It’s cool? Okay, I’ll pack up the car and see you in a few.”
So Kelsy, Dakota and I piled into the car and headed to my parents’ house. After being cooped up inside for two days due to rain, this was a grand adventure!
And sure enough — despite my best attempts the previous night, this morning Dad made a comment to the cat that indicated that he thought I’d be taking the dogs with me. Take them with me where? To work?!? I don’t think so! I might be able to get away with one dog on a CWS Friday but two? On a Tuesday?! C’mon. Mom and I looked at him like, “Are you serious?”
In the end though, Dad didn’t object to a day with the dogs. Actually, I think he’s looking forward to a day without Ben (the cat) underfoot because Ben will most likely be hiding under the bed for the next 12 hours or so, trying to disguise himself as a dust bunny. A 15-pound, growling dust bunny…
Holy crap! Ben is 15 puonds?! What has your mom been feeding him? Small children?…
Yeah, the vet said if we were lucky we might be able to get him down to 13 lbs., but that he’s just a really big cat. *shrug* He hasn’t gotten bigger since being at Mom’s, he was that big when I bought him! He’s long, tall, and solid… but still “healthy.” We’ve limited his availability to have dry food because he’s carb-addicted — if given the choice he’d only eat kibble and not touch wet food. We try to offer him a little bit of wet once a day and have reduced the amount of dry that he’s allowed, but he sustains his weight on minimal food, and he’s not begging or acting like he’s starving so…