What a sweet Foppa!
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| Fri, 01-21-2005 - 7:59am |
Wednesday afternoon, evening and early Thursday morning I had quite an interest experience. About 1/2 to 1 inch of snow fell in the Raleigh/Durham, NC area, but you would have thought it was about 10 feet from the way traffic reacted. I left work at 1:30pm (I was supposed to have the cat at the vet by 3, needless to say that didn't happen). A commute that normally takes about 1/2 hour ended up taking me just over 13 hours. It was an amazing scene.
Anyway, my concern was my cats, although I did know my neighbor would feed them in the morning if my car wasn't there by that time. When I arrive home both my kitties were sitting at the door waiting for me. They were all purrs with the tails up. I took off my shoes and called my mom (who I'd been talking to every hour to keep me sane during the craziness). Foppa, who has always had thing for shoes, was all over my shoes. For ten minutes he rubbed and purred. I fed them and myself and took a good hour to calm down. Foppa was never more that a foot away from me all night and he followed me to bed.
Now Foppa has always been a sweet, wonderful, even obedient cat but affection has always been my other cat's (Essence) niche. She's the one to crawl in my lap and give me kisses and lick my face.
Anyway Foppa came in on my bed wanting some love and we had an extended petting session - with him bonking me and licking my face and hands (things he's never done before). Then I turned out the light and laid down to sleep. Foppa normal sleeps at my feet or between my knees, but that night he curled up right under my arm and put his head on my shoulder. It really was just what I needed after 13 hours in a car. I have never been one to give my cats human emotions, but I honestly think that he was worried and just knew something wasn't right.
Sorry this is so long, but I just wanted to share my story.
Take care and be safe out there on those roads!

What a sweet little boy!!! He was probably so worried about you and was happy beyond description to see you when you finally got home! Aren't our kitties the sweetest!
13 hours???? ::eeeeekkkkk::
Animals are forever - and so is their love.
Animals are forever - and so is their love.
cats are SO wonderful. they know our every mood. I can't get enough of them. how sweet of foppa to do that. he knew his mama was stressed...
13hrs!!!!!!!!!! yoweeee... I would have been stressed too... glad you got home safe.
Ann
That's so sweet. :) Foppa loves hi mommy.
How in the world could it take 13 hours?! You can't just say that w/o explaining. LOL.
Katz
Awww if that wasn't the sweetest thing.
It was absolute gridlock. I've never seen anything like this. It snowed about an inch in most areas and was cold (in the teens) for most of the day. There are a lot of theroies on "what happened" this is mine (and please excuse my generalizations about people from the south):
It started to snow or flurrier about 11am on Wed and immediately started to stick. In NC, especially in this area, that alone is enough to make people panic. Then by 12:30ish every school in the area released early, so you had two groups (or three) of people panicing #1: those who panic b/c of snow #2: parents who paniced b/c their kids were going home and they were still at work #3 parents who paniced b/c of the snow and thier kids were going home and they were still at work. I honestly believe (and this is just my opinion so what do I know) that had schools remained in session the sand and salt trucks could have hit the roads and everyone would have gotten home in a semi-resonable amount of time. But everyone left at the same time, no one slows down of gives other people room and the result is over 500 accidents from 11am to midnight. People abandoning cars didn't help either. In a mile and a half there were over 100 cars abandoned on the side of the road, median and some in the road. In an hour I traveled maybe a hundred feet.
Bless my mother who stayed up with me and I called every hour. She helped by going online and keeping me updated and allowing me to just vent my frustrations. At one point I almost lost it I was just in tears. About 8:30pm I finally accepted I wasn't going to be home for a long time and that helped me a lot. (I also decided I wasn't going into work the next regardless of road conditions, quite frankly I had no desire to be in my car for a while).
Sad part is the roads weren't bad at all. If you took your time and drove carefully the roads were fine. (And when I finally got to an area where the roads opened up a bit, people were moving with plenty of space what did I see - a little sports car zigging in and out of traffic going about 50mph while everyone else was going about 20.)
That's quite a mouthful.
Boone
Good heavens! What a saga. We got just a couple of inches the other day, & there were a bunch of minor accidents. But nothing like that. We're due for about 12" Saturday. Uh oh. :(
Your theory sounds good to me. But people don't see the big picture. They just think about their "need" to get home. But I was surprised you said you had salt & sand trucks. I thought that was 1 of the roblems with the occasional snow in the South--that you don't have the equipment to deal w/it. Here, if it snows, but not real heavily, durig the work day, most people stay at work (although I don't know what parents whose kids are being dismissed do). Then the plows & salt trucks can get out. By the time you get out of work, the roads are OK.
Katz
Awww...Foppa is such a sweetheart! Cats sense things and like other people mentioned, he was probably anxious cause something was going on.
I live in central Illinois and even though we have seen our fair share of snow over the years, I try to stay home if at all possible since people are just stupid when it comes to rain and snow. It's like they can't deal with "weather". A co-worker of mine used to live in Virginia and she said people acted the same way there if they got snow. She's originally from central Illinois and she said it was just ridiculous how people would get. If I had to deal with that, I'd seriously be having a meltdown. lol
Michelle
^Dusty^,^Tiger^,^Ellie^and Scooby,Elvis and Maggie’s Mom,
Rachael and Jordan‘s Mom
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