Feral Fables

Well------I have been off-line for several days again due to the catastrophic (ha, ha, no pun intended!) weather we have had here in Milwaukee in the past couple of days. Thursday night the sky got that funny looking color that always signals severe weather. Within a half hour tornado warnings were posted and severe downpours hit my area. We have never seen anything like this........the TV channel office not too far from our home reported 5 1/2 inches of rain in 45 minutes! Total rainfall for the day----8 inches-----if you can imagine that! The neighborhood had water rushing down the street like it was a river. Concrete from the street was just flipped up in the air by the force of the water. Cars and people were stranded all over the place.

The cats behavior during these types of storms is always interesting. Several of them will seek dryness and safety on the covered porch. A couple of them will come in the house. One of them----that crazy Braveheart-----runs for cover under the deck only to emerge hours later after the storm has passed, safe but a little wet! Thursday night we actually had Kibble, Hunter and Snow in the house with us. Jingle was on the porch and Braveheart, of course---under the deck. We were trying to herd the inside cats downstairs in the basement family room because of the tornado warning. Marty was glued to the TV as I tried to entertain the cats. With the amount of rain that was coming down, we were hoping we wouldn't get any perimeter leaking. A few times in 20 some years this has happened with extremely high amounts of rain. It has never been anything that couldn't be dealt with by using a few old towels.

All of a sudden on we noticed water coming in. We jumped up------chased the cats back upstairs-----started grabbing towels and rugs and blankets to try and stop the water. Where was it coming from? It was coming in so fast!! Which wall---------Holy Smokes!!! The sewer drain was backing up!! OMG. I have never seen anything like it. Marty was trying, without success to bail water down the washtub drain, but the water came out so fast their wasn't anything that could be done. Within a few minutes, our entire basement family room, laundry and storage areas were full of raw sewage water. I tried to grab what I could to save. Yuck----walking around in that water to grab stuff was disgusting. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Our neighbors are in the same situation we found as we were all comparing notes later that evening. Finally, during a lull in the weather, Braveheart came out from under the deck. He ran over to me mewing softly as he does and just waited for me to start rubbing him dry with a towel. He tolerates this well as I think he knows what I am trying to do.

We had to cutoff many of the breakers because we now had electrical under water. We sure didn't want a fire. So, no lights, no computer. We started making calls to the insurance company and got emergency workers lined up to deal with the removal and cleaning. People have been in and out of the house all day long. The cats are generally affected by this kind of activity. They become tense and more reclusive until things quiet down. More to come tomorrow-----.