SNOW!

Boy, there's plenty of it. Only three days into the new year and New York was hit with one whopper of a snowstorm. It started the evening of January second. With each successive weather report I became more concerned for my outside cats since we hadn't gotten around to putting out the additional shelter I'd picked up awhile back.

I prepared the inside making sure there was enough straw for comfort while Artie trimmed the plastic around the doorway folding it inside and taping it down with heavy duty tape. He did this with the original shelter and it worked great. We made sure the drainage holes were big enough for water to drip out. Next I located a clear piece of heavy-duty plastic Artie cut strips to cover the doorway for added warmth. Finally the two of us each located a board to put under the shelter keeping it off the ground. Artie placed the shelter opposite the original one on our front porch.

Both of us returned to taking care of household chores when Artie went to the front hall with a bag of rock salt he just purchased. There was Porch Guy checking out the dishes looking for a meal while the snow fell quite steadily. Artie rushed in for a can of food and for the snow covered Porch Guy came into the front hall for a second time to have his evening meal. After eating half, he became wary deciding he was better off outside. He retreated to the doorstep refusing to come in to finish his food. We gave up, placing the half eaten meal on the doorstep under the awning so Porch could finish the meal safe from the steady snowfall. We shut the door and came in. Sometime later, Artie checked but he was gone. 

However an interesting thing happened - Porch Guy always walks up our front steps, has his meal then walks down the steps to cross the street disappearing under cars or running into a driveway. This time the snow showed one set of paw prints coming up the stairs to the front door and one set going from the front door to the new shelter. The rest of the snow was pristine.

I'm sure Porch Guy weathered the storm in the new shelter.