The Frozen Cat

It's sunny but still cold today. We're in the mid 20's, but the wind chill is 16. It's still pretty miserable out there. In yesterday's blog I started out intending to go one direction and ended up going another. It happens. It's not unusual for me to get scatter-brained that way.....just ask my hubby!

There are so many professions that you have to admire in this nasty weather – those who work in public utilities, road crews, emergency workers. But as I mentioned yesterday, farmers really have it tough. Critters have to be fed and watered. And inevitably some little four-footed baby will decide it's time to be born.

It's nice that cattle waterers have been developed that keep the water above the freezing point so farmers no longer have to chop the ice on ponds. When the kids and I were living in that farm rental, the landlord used the farm itself for cattle. There were a couple of the electric waterers in the barn lot. It was so nice for the cattle to be able to drink whenever they wanted. However, they gave me one of my more memorable moments one frigid Saturday morning.

Older daughter was born the end of August. Because money was always tight, the poor kid was always shorted on her birthday gifts – I would have just finished getting three kids ready for school, then her birthday popped up. The year we were living in that farmhouse, I was totally broke. She had mentioned before she'd like to have a cat – someone I worked with had kittens just ready to leave their mama and had two for free – the price was right, and that was daughter's birthday gift that year.

Back to the cattle waterers - I was used to going out our back door every morning to feed the dogs and have the cats yowling for their food and water. One Saturday in December, that happened as normal. What wasn't normal was an early December frigid spell and snowstorm. Older daughter and son both worked in town and had bunked in town with friends when their Pizza Hut shifts were over on Friday night. So only younger daughter was at home with me – and since it was Saturday, she was sleeping in.

As I fed the dogs, one of the cats kept yowling. I was talking back as usual, telling him to be patient until I fed the dogs. Finally it dawned on me that the cat wasn't under my feet like he usually was by that time in our daily conversation. He yowled again and I started looking for him. As I followed the sound of his insistent little voice, I finally spotted him – on the side of that electric waterer in the barn lot.

I slid my way down to the barn lot, went through the gate, and headed to the cat, only to discover the silly thing had tried to climb up to get a drink – and his paws were frozen to the side of the unit where the cattle had sloshed water over the edge and down the side. Oh, my! The cattle weren't quite sure what to think of the cat and were standing around watching both of us. The only thing I could think to do was to slosh the water over the frozen little paws and try to loosen them. That was easier said than done – and, in case you wonder, keeping that water above the freezing point does not mean it's warm!! One paw at a time, I sloshed water over the paw until I thawed the ice holding it captive. As I loosened the paws, I had to grasp that loose paw in my other hand.......I learned that after the first loose paw flailed back against the waterer and instantly froze again.

I finally freed the cat, then almost got in my own predicament as I instinctively reached for the metal gate with my wet hand as we headed to the house – I caught myself just in time and switched the cat to that hand and used my dry one to open the gate. We got inside, I got younger daughter up and we fed the cat some warm milk and cleaned the ice off its paws with a towel. The cat was none the worse for wear.......I'm not sure I can say the same for me!