White Out

When Hurricane Juan came through Atlantic Canada (quite a few years ago now) I was living in Europe and missed it.  When White Juan, the blizzard came through I was... living in Europe again.  So when the media started naming the snowstorm coming through I was fairly skeptical.  We get a lot of snowstorms here on the east coast of Canada.  I figured that we were just under our usual number so they were needing something to talk about.  This one wasn't even predicted to have the amount of snow that we got between Christmas and New Years.

Here's the thing,  I've never seen a snowstorm with this much wind before.  I woke up to the house shaking and thought "here we go again" because last week we had a major rain storm with a great deal of wind and lost a tree out front.  The back yard was littered with branches and the odd bit that blew in from the neighbourhood.  I got up to find we still had power and therefore running water (well system uses an electric pump) and noticed the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from the last storm so we're likely to have some trees come down in the neighbourhood that survived the last one.  We should be fine from that direction though.

I headed downstairs to let the pets out.  Our three cats and golden retriever spend the night in our utility room.  It's a room that some might describe as a laundry room except that about 1/3 is dedicated to laundry facilities and the water heater and tub sink and the other 2/3 are dedicated to pet stuff.  It's a fully finished room with paint on the walls and a lino floor. It's 10 x 17 and has 5 cat beds (yes we only have 3 cats, we like to give them choice) as well as a shelf for food and water bowls for each cat and then the dog bed, bowls and toys on the floor. 

And when I opened the door to the utility room a cold gust of wind blew out at me.  The back door which I always lock and bolt every night had somehow blown open. There were 3 inches of snow in our boots by the back door and in Sadie's food bowl and a fair amount of slush on the back door mat.  I ran to shut the door (which my sock covered feet are still not pleased about) while trying to count furry heads.  I had the two oldest cats and the dog but not the baby of the household.  The others all had grown up experiences of being homeless, but we rescued Spock at 5 weeks and he has no sense of danger ever.  He thinks everything and everyone is awesome.

I start frantically checking the rooms closest to the utility room while alternating between calling for Spock in a "I'm totally reasonable so of course you should come see Mama" tone and screaming for Husband who was still in bed in a "I'm completely losing it and also my feet are soaked with snow and they all could have died" tone. Spock came trotting down the stairs after I'm sure mere seconds wondering what all the fuss was about and why breakfast hadn't materialized.  Husband followed not far after to find me quite a wreck.

So I got to spend the time between 6:30 and 7:15am emptying snow out of boots and putting them in various places to dry, piling dog bedding and towels in the wash and scooping snow into a bucket and then throwing it out the door into the wind.  Not a single pet shows any indication that they remember the incident.  Spock bounced around trying to play with snow balls and at one point the golden retriever tried to carry the snow bucket off to her bed in the tv room (we have one dog and three dog beds... and she still often prefers to lay directly next to a dog bed).

I figured I've earned a nice cup of tea... which I just realise has been steeping the entire time I've been typing this.  We'll see if it's still drinkable.

PS. You know I was traumatized if there isn't a photo of the snow in the utility room.  Here's a glimpse of what it normally looks like.