The Weather and Neighborhood Cats

17 Sharaf 163 B.E. - Tuesday, January 16, 2007

It’s been below freezing here in Vegas for the past few nights. In fact, there are warnings about ice on the roads. Not that it’s rained or anything like that, but the freezing weather has caused sprinklers to leak and the water runs into the streets. The water freezes at night and in the morning, people have to be careful driving to work. The weather report says the temperatures will continue through midweek. It usually doesn’t get this cold. The homeless shelters have added beds and the ones that accept only men (there are shelters that accept only women and children) are accepting men, women, and children as well.

Then there is the wind chill factor. Today there are no winds, but there’s been wind for the past few days. I’ve got to say that I’m cold, I’m not even going to think about the power bill at this point. I’m having enough trouble keeping warm. It’s not so bad at night because I bundle up in blankets, but during the day I can’t put on enough cloths to keep warm. We’re just not used to this type of weather here. It’s not that we don’t get freezing weather, but normally it doesn’t last this long.

There are a couple of cats in the neighborhood that usually get out and prowl every night. They haven’t been doing their prowling at night lately. In fact, I don’t see them outside until about noon. They get out, walk around the neighborhood, and then go home. These cats always stop at my house to see if my cats are on the back porch. If my cats aren’t where they can see or smell them, then they walk straight through the back yard, but if mine on the enclosed patio then the neighbor cats get on the outside of the patio and look in on mine. It’s just too cold for any of them to do anything but sleep right now.

Right now Midnight is setting on the back of the love seat and looking out the living room window. I haven’t seen any of the neighbors cats or the winter birds that usually nest in the trees around the house. In fact, I haven’t seen any of the pigeons that eat the olives on the ground. Usually there are two or three pigeons eat olives, but I guess it’s too cold for them to get out of their cadges or fly from wherever they nest. I don’t know where the pigeons come from at this point. They imploded the Castaways (used to be the Show Boat) a while back and so there’s no place there for pigeons to nest. The only thing I can figure out is that someone in the neighborhood has pigeons.

It’s not like any of the cats in this area of town are going to chase pigeons or any other bird. The cats around here are well fed and aren’t interested in birds. If a bird does fly into the patio my cats will attempt to catch it, but then they don’t know what to do with the bird if they do catch it. The bird stops struggle and the cat holds it in its mouth waiting for my Mom or I to tell it to let the bird go. Then one of us has to get the cat in the house and let the bird out the patio door. Originally the bird came in a small hole by the top of the patio, but naturally the bird can’t leave that way. We don’t get a lot of birds on the patio, maybe one sparrow every two or three years manages to find the hole and get into the patio.