Hurricane Ian Report

We at It's a Wonderpurr Life are sincerely touched by the outpouring of concern by our social media friends during this past week when Hurricane Ian knocked on our door.

Compared to those who lost their lives and their homes in south Florida, we had literally nothing to complain about. 

We lost power at 4am on Thursday and didn't get it back until 10:30 pm on Friday, and our Internet didn't return until Saturday noon. We lost everything in our refrigerator/freezer. And we lost a four-foot roof panel on our Catio. But no trees fell, and we didn't flood. So your prayers for us were answered.

From 1981 - 1999 Ray and I lived in Jacksonville located in Florida's Northeast corner. During those years we never experienced a hurricane. I think at the time I recall reading Florida was in a thirty year cycle where the hurricanes were busy devastating people on the other side of the world. So having returned to Florida in 2020, this was our very first hurricane.

And like all newbies, despite reading about how to prepare, we were sadly clueless. We had a fridge full of perishables, and when I realized we may lose power, I ran back to the store to buy stuff that wouldn't go bad. Like mac and cheese... except I forgot to make it and also... without refrigeration... it will go bad. (Duh!)

Ray also ran out separate from me, so his grocery haul was giant muffins, cookies, chips, bread...frozen pizza. We've been married 44 years this November so sadly yes, we do think alike.

However with the wind at 50+ mph, our appetites were really the last thing on our minds. Our number one concern was that the pine trees behind our house would fall on us. We've had so many storms over the past weeks that the sandy ground is over-saturated. And since we had visible standing water before the hurricane arrived, I envisioned the high winds would create costly havoc for us.

As it was, the storm ripped off a roof screen on our Catio. We saw it happen and watched as it flew into the pool. Happily, that was the only damage, and one of Ray's golfing friends (think Joe Pesci in Goodfellas) called in a "favor" to get someone over as of tomorrow to give us a repair estimate. Totally appreciated... although I'm wondering what "favor" Ray will be subjected to when his buddy needs something in the future. Ah, fahgettaboudit!

After the storm passed a few members of the Wonderpurr Gang followed us outside to assess the damage. And while we were out there we saw a Great Horned Owl perched on a branch overhead. 

Talk about word getting out among the community predators!

While I ushered the cats back inside... because those birds are big enough to swoop a cat off their paws... Ray went to work building a wooden frame around the screen that had fallen into the pool. When I asked what he was doing he said he was building a patch that he would slide over the hole, thus preventing a hysterical wife watching one of her beloved fur kids be carried away to feed baby owls.

Now, I've been at the bottom of many ladders while Ray does his man-thing and there have been a couple of times when I swore I'd call a divorce lawyer once he was back on land. Kentucky comes to mind. We lived on five acres at the top of a very steep hill, and the house sat on an even steeper hill which meant Ray needed a fifty foot extension ladder in order to stain the wood siding.  

Picture this: Richmond, Kentucky, off I-75. Five acres at the top of a very steep hill surrounded by woodlands. It's mid-November with brisk high winds. Ray is perched precariously at the tippy-top of a 50-foot ladder, half-laying on the roof while applying stain. Kim, fashionably dressed in Kentucky couture - Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, sweater, wool jacket, tennis shoes with probably no socks and maybe a pair of gloves... seriously doubt there was a hat or scarf in sight -  is pressed against the bottom of the ladder freezing her bejeebies off, trying to hold it in place because the winds are strong.

Recalling this event, I asked Ray yesterday why exactly we did that particular job in No-freaking-vember and he replied, "I worried the stain would dry differently if I left it until spring." 

I also have ladder stories involving Ray perched on our Southaven home stairs trying to paint the twenty foot ceiling in the alcove. And of Ray on the same house roof tugging a tarp to cover damage after a huge tree fell on our roof. And he repainted our twenty-foot high living room several times during our 14 years there. I'm sure there are more occasions that I probably blacked out, so yeah, I have a severe ladder phobia that came into play when Ray said he planned to crawl up on our Catio roof to slide his patch into place.

And, of course, he went ahead and did it anyway, despite my concern that he would fall and break his neck, leaving me to figure out how to file insurance claims before I sold the house and moved the heck out of Florida.

For your viewing pleasure, this video reveals the snarky interaction between two people who have been together since their teens. The  man is totally in his element of Home Improvement while his wife is clearly not appreciating the finer points of his creative artistry.

Since this is a cat blog, I'm sure you are wonderpurring how the cats did during the storm. The answer: far better than Ray and I.

They knew something was going on, of course. Rabbit spent Thursday morning acting out beyond his usual AssRabbity antics to the point where I fed him kibble laced with Jackson Galaxy's Bully Solution, then sent him to his ZenDen to sleep.

The senior room became uncomfortable when the air conditioning had been off for a time, so I alternated Rabbit in his room while everyone else roamed freely. 

For those who may be new here, Rabbit is five years old, and a Turkish Van who is extremely intelligent, but has absolutely no filters when it comes to the welfare of his senior fursibs. Particularly Dori. Rabbit has been known to hunt her down, grab her by the scruff of her neck, and drag her into his lair under the couch. 

I kid you not. 

So once that happened, Dori filed a "westwaining odor" against Rabbit, and moved into the senior room.

My only regret was that Chevy and Nikolas aka the Garage Band had to spend two days without light. Nik was fine as he is a Child of the Darkness, but Chevy howled for a flashlight a few times and of course, I obliged.

There was lots of lap snuggling, kibble munching, and sleeping during the storm. And when power returned on Friday at 5 pm, we celebrated by dancing around the living room... except the power went out again a minute later.  

Ray has a theory that if the power companies boot everything up during the day, there will be a massive rush to turn everything back on, probably resulting in a power crash. So the companies turn the power back on after most everyone has gone to bed. And as usual, he was right. It came back on at 10:30 pm, this time permanently.

And so to end this incredibly long adventure, I'll leave you with a video I shot yesterday evening while Dori was in the Catio and suddenly realized she was being watched by an Osprey who belatedly heard about the hole in our roof and was hoping to pick "something" up on his way home to the wife and kids.

Until Nextime...