This is my father-in-law’s Facebook post – he’s a good man, young man, 4 years younger than I, which could have been right weird but he and Jerie both accepted me into the fold immediately 19+ years ago.
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By Tim Green:
Early this morning, around 4:30 am, while I was going to the bathroom – our old lab Charlie was very excited, and blocking me from going back to bed …
Turns out one of our outdoor cats (and we’d not seen any of the 3 since the first of the heavy snows fell 3 days back) had been howling plaintively into the basement from behind the crawl space access panel (all sealed up BTW).
And indeed, when I let Charlie and Augie out the front (back door was still snow blocked) into the dark, cold and snow … instead of milling about looking for a place to “do their business’, they went tearing around the corner, running to the back of our house.
I waited by the front door, wondering.
Finally, Augie came back to the front door – but not Charlie. It was just dark, still and quiet out there (and cold – yeah).
I called, and nothing – so I started to get nervous, in that cold and dark.
So I got on boots, sweater, jacket and hat … and went out the front door with Augie, and followed their path through that deep dark snow, all the way back behind the house, and stopped where the path went under the deck.
And that’s where Charlie was – and where 2 of the 3 outdoor cats were … sheltering under the back deck. In better times, Charlie will sit with one of them, on the back stoop – they are part of the same pack – so it was his duty, so see that their calls were heeded – he was actively caring for his dear outdoor friends.
Charlie is their hero now. As always.
Anyway – I grabbed the shovel – and cleared much of the back deck, the back door and the yard around the steps – so travel was possible. Still a few feet of snow out there. And Jerie laid out bowls of food for em, in various places.
And success – at 10am this morning, I saw Gray walking about out front. Nicely fed now. We hadn’t seen any of them since the first of the heavy snows fell, 3 days back.
All because Charlie heeded their distress calls last night.