Deep Freeze

It has been colder than a brass monkey (as Father used to say) for over a week and is supposed to continue for at least another week. I mean, hey, we're talking about end of november (!) and zero degrees Fahrenheit more or less (minus 15 to 20 centrigrade). This is highly unusual. We normally don't get a cold spell like this before Christmas, usually not until february/march. Here is our house - you can see the smoke rising from the chimney against the frost-lined trees.

Inside we have a fire roaring in the wood stove, spreading comfort.

And outside lies next years firewood, ready to be cut, split and stacked at some time after the cold spell breaks.

It is also too cold for outdoor cycling, so here is Husband training indoors. He has his bike attaced to a kind of frame that allows him to ride stationary.

So how do the animals react to this weather. The cats spend most of the time sleeping in their various hideouts:

Puseline in a laundry basket

Piril in the kitty bed in the bathroom

Funky, or «Tjukken» (Fatty) as we like to call him, on the sofa in the dining room. Funky had to go to the vet the other day because we discovered a film or growth or something covering his eye. Imagine his outrage when he was picked up off the chair that he was comfortably sleeping on, and stuffed into a cat carrier, and then being carried out into the cold car and for a drive (to the vet). He yowled most pitifully. Once at the vets however (strange room, strange smells) he was not at all sure that he wanted to leave the safety of his carrier. The vet thinks it is keratitis and it turns out to be on both eyes. I have to drip his eyes with medisine 3X a day. It may or may not get better, or at least not worse. He seems to function normally for now, though his vision must be at least somewhat impaired.

Even Fluffy sleeps inside more than usual. Here she has just woken from her nap and is preparing to go outside to see if she can find any mice, or maybe have a chance at the birds by the bird feeder. After spending her first year or so as an indoor cat, I have never seen a cat enjoy the outdoors more than Fluffy. No weather is too nasty to go out in, and while other cats are meticulous about keeping their paws clean, Fluffy tracks in more dirt than the dogs.

This has been a rhodent year and Fluffy has been catching mice faster than she can eat them. She leaves frozen dead mice on the driveway for the dogs to play with and brings them as gifts to Husband whom she has adopted. One day he found 4 dead mice lined up on his desk, with Fluffy lying beside them.

Topsy, our border collie spends much of the day warming her 10-year old bones under the stove, occasionally getting so close that you can smell burnt fur.

Lucy has her own agility course out in the yard, though it has been to cold to really train on it much.