Crazy Kitties in the Wind!!

[Nomilynn]

Does anyone have any funny stories about their cats when a big storm is about it hit? Every time we are going to get wind and rain here (which is a lot, being on the west coast) Bassett and Tilly go bonkers, running around, chasing each other, and trying to jump up in the windows to look out. Because they are both so hyper, usually one falls off! I shouldn't laugh, but it's so funny! And then they immediatly start to lick themselves like, I meant to do that! I know there was a post about that somewhere, and I couldn't agree more! Heaven forbid you catch a cat making a MISTAKE!! :eek: :eek: Hehehe... anyway, I thought it would be fun to read about goofy cat stories :D :D

[4 feline house]

It's funny you should say that, because for the last three weekends we have had heavy storms. I have noticed Cookie has been enduring the storms under the bed! She's almost three years old, and this is the first time she's been frightened by the storms!

[krazyaboutkatz]

One night it was thundering. This doesn't happen very often in Ca. so I'm not really used to it either. Anyway my cat Storm became so scared that he jumped up in the air. LOL:D

[Nomilynn]

It's not that my two get frightened.. it's like the air pressure affects them some how... they just go crazy! :D

[yorkster]

Hi Nomilynn. Could you be talking about the same storm we had here in the Seattle area this weekend................B.C. Cananda being so close? I notice we often have the same weather report! (rain,rain,rain,wind,cloudy,rain,wind,rain,SUN,rai n,cloudy,wind,rain,rain,rain,.............and so on). :D
Oh-well, I guess that is what makes it soooo beautiful! :D :rolleyes:

Yes, I notice my cats get a little crazy before a storm. This past week they have been running around, sleeping less, and being a bit irritable with each other..............then we got the stormy weather this weekend.
I think you're right, it is the electricity or something in the air. I have read somewhere that animals react to the electro-magnetic- field changes that also happen with earthquakes.
I don't understand it too well- maybe someone out there does understand it better, and can explain it. Wayne, maybe? :confused:

[Nomilynn]

It likely was the same storm! I'm in the Victoria area, so on the map I'm almost beside Seattle. I'm actually in Sidney.. the Seattle ferry is within walking distance to my house! I think the cats can feel the air pressure or something.. because I know when it's going to get windy without having to watch the TV.. I just watch the two furballs acting up! And then when the air pressure goes up again, and we get a high pressure system, they are nice and relaxed and sleepy. They are great radar! :)

[yorkster]

Victoria is beautiful :cool:
My Mum grew up in Vancouver (born in Lethbridge, Alberta). I have spent alot of time in Cananda, and just love it. :D
We also go to Whistler a couple of times or so every year.

It's not windy anymore, and the cats are asleep now zzzzzzzzz

Do you have pics of your kitties?

[Nomilynn]

I only have a webcam, and it's pretty grainy. And Bassett REALLY doens't like to pose! But I can try. I am hoping to borrow a digital camera :)

My mom was born in Sask! And my dad in Victoria. It's a beautiful city.. that's for sure! :cool:

[Nomilynn]

I can't get the images small enough!! I'm going to have to try and play with this a bit :(

how funny : a cat named Storm , who is afraid of storms !!!
:D :confused: :rolleyes: :D

[Lachesis]

We rarely get storms here... We havent had any since we've gotten the kittens...

[LoudLou]

We live in Port Townsend and one of the reasons we stay is I LOVE the weather. Very WINDY. The cats get ALL crazy at night when the wind blows. Racing around the house more than usual and then Louie starts chasing them .... they all have this great little party.:rolleyes: Well, not so great late at night. That was some storm the other night up here. I think they clocked 60-65mph wind here.:eek: :D WHEEEEEE!

[yorkster]

Hi LoudLou.
Yes that was some storm! I don't think it was quite as windy here in Edmonds as it was there, but close :D
I LOVE the wind too. :p

[4 feline house]

Well, tonight Cookie did not weather the storm under the bed - she was in the closet!

I was on the way home from work and started looking for a station that was playing a better song when I came across the tail end of a tornado warning - it was on the ground, in my county, but I missed where! After punching the buttons for about five minutes (and always getting the tail end) I found out it was headed straight for my house! Because of the normally heavy traffic, that is currently exacerbated by construction, it was another ten minutes before I could find a phone. I called my son and said "put the cats in the cages, get the little TV and the phone and go in my closet! But if you hear the sirens, stop looking for cats and just get in the closet!" And he said "the sirens are going off now!" So I told him to go! I told him I'd try to find a safe place to pull over.

But, of course, since the very five lives that are more important to me than my own were fixing to be blown away, I got right back on the road! I was close enough to the storm that it was starting to rain really hard and it was also very windy. Instead of getting back on the freeway, which didn't seem to be moving, I turned right to go home through the airport. The closer I got the worse it got. There was lightning hitting the ground just yards from me, hail was battering my car, and the rain was coming down in sheets so thick I couldn't even see the white line on the road! On the radio they were saying people were just stopping under the overpasses, in the false assumption that it was a safe place to be in a tornado, blocking everyone behind them from being able to go anywhere! I sure was glad I veered off through the airport. The streets were flooded, even at the top of crests it was so deep I was throwing up rooster tails! I got home just as the golfball sized hail started. The creek behind us was well over its banks.

But my house has a bad foundation, and my son had to shove the closet door closed, and it stuck. So I couldn't get in!

But since I'm the mom, I'm invincible of course, so I weathered the storm watching out my window. Eventually, it died down, and everyone came out of the closet. Alan said he heard some of the loudest thunder in his life while they were huddled in their "storm shelter"!

Here's some pics:

http://images.ibsys.com/2002/0416/1402012.jpg

http://images.ibsys.com/2002/0417/1402078_120X90.jpg

http://a1416.g.akamai.net/f/1416/744/1d/www.dallasnews.com/img/04-02/041602damage.jpg

http://www.dfw.com/images/dfw/startelegram/3077/thumb_9468586478.jpg

http://a392.g.akamai.net/f/392/745/1d/www.wfaa.com/latestnews/stories/M_IMAGE.ecc1070c00.93.88.fa.80.806ab7b0.jpg

I hope everyone has an emergency plan in their house!

[Logan]

Leah!!! How frightening!!!! I'm glad you and your whole family are ok!!! :)

[yorkster]

Oh wow! what an interesting story, and soooo scary! :eek:
Those pictures are incredible! Who is the person with the red top in the first pic? Did you take those pics?
We don't really have tornados/twisters up here (east of the Cascade Mountains maybe),
just wind storms, flooding, and of course the occasional earthquake!...........:eek:

How are your cats now? Still scared? Did you find them all?

[LoudLou]

Heard about this onour local news tonight... Hope everyone is OK. Are all kitties accounted for? I worry about all my friends now anytime I see reports like these on the news. 4 feline house I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE OK.

[4 feline house]

Everyone made it into, and back out of, the closet (except me! :( ).

I didn't take the pics, they're all from our local news outlets' websites.

The closest touchdown was about 10 miles from us, so we were safe all along, but of course I'd rather be safe than sorry! Funnel clouds and wall clouds were everywhere, though, and it's likely one was very close to either the house or me in the car, if not right over! But the rain was so heavy even the professional storm spotters were saying they couldn't be seen, so take cover as if there was one!

That drive was probably the scariest I've ever driven!

While I was headed to the airport, I was thinking "I've never heard of a tornado striking a major airport, so I'll be safe going this way!" :rolleyes:

The car dealers wasted no time - they're playing a commercial for a "storm damage sale" as I type this. :mad:

Ho, hum, another spring day in North Texas. :D

[AmberLee]

Merciful heavens!!! So glad to hear that you are okay, but my heart was in my throat as I read about the danger you'd been in!!! Part of me want to shake you and part of me wants to hug you. {{{Leah and family, furred and not!}}}

:eek: :( :o :confused:
Is there an all weather radio channel in your area?

[lynnestankard]

Good grief Leah that sounds so frightening! I'm so pleased that Alan and the furbabies obeyed Mum and are safe and sound - strange isn't it that Mum's are invincible. The pics were really good, thanks for giving us a chance to have a look/see.
We're so lucky here not to be bothered by such really bad storms.
Hugs to you and all the family - glad your OK.

Lynne

[auggie]

Leah! I was driving in the middle of the bad storm and barely missed the tornado touch down in Handley, just obout one mile from work. I started to go home that way to avoid the freeway. Don't know what made me change my mind in the last minute, but I would have been right in that area when the tornado struck.

[tuxluvr]

The tornado thing scares me. My mother grew up in texas and witnessed two tornados.....you make me stop and think about the emergency plan - on mylist, buy a cat cage...

I do think animals in general have a sense about the weather. Ritz loves wind but really hates thunder, it sends her under the chair in seconds flat.

Leah, so glad you and your family withstood this storm! It's tornado season where I live too, can relate

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Oh my Leah! And auggie too! We, of course, heard about this on the news. Since I'm on a few lists, with people all across the country and the world, the first thing that goes through my mind when I hear something like this is I hope everyone is safe. So glad to hear you and your family are ok, and give your son an extra hug for listening so well.

Isn't it funny how this post just happened to come up at this time? Weird, huh?

[Ila]

So glad everyone is all right!! That had to be scarey. We get touch downs once in awhile around here. Neighbors have had problems we have been lucky. Glad your all ok!! Misty and I hate storms.

[4 feline house]

Yeah, Nomilynn, that was awfully nice of you to start this thread so me and the Fort Worth Twister could hijack it! ;) :D

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm so glad to here that both Leah and Auggie and their families are okay. I guess you were in the right place at the right time when the tornado hit.:)

[toughCookie]

the only thing I can say about cats and storms, is....
during one rain/thunder storm, Muffin got scared and hid under my bed, so I went in there with her, sat on the floor and pet her, talked to her, and the next time there was a storm, I guess she decided it wasn't so bad, she wanted to go outside!! well she had to settle for looking out the window with Cookie and me:)

those pics, how awful, scary!