December 13, 2003. Br-r-r-r-r-r-r! First came the snow and the dark and, finally, the cold. I don't get outside much when the temperature drops below zero. "It's too cold out for kitty cats," Miss Jerrianne says, as she puts me into my kennel and drives off without me. Still, it didn't seem so bad until the cold tried to sneak inside the house.

Four nights in a row I spent a few hours confined to quarters until Miss Jerrianne came home from various meetings and holiday parties, and we stayed up very late every night all week. I was ready for a change of pace on Saturday morning when I finally convinced her it was time to get up.

All the rooms seemed a bit chilly when we made our morning rounds, as though she might have turned the thermostat down a little too far the night before. Then she checked the furnace. Cold! No whooshing sounds of the gas burner heating water in the boiler. No sounds of water gurgling through furnace pipes or the humidifier. No sounds. No heat! Cold!

Miss Jerrianne called the plumbing repair place ... only one plumber working on a Saturday, she heard ... maybe by 5 or 6 p.m. ... overtime rates ... 2 hour minimum, portal to portal ... maybe ... maybe not, too. She called the backup plumbing repair place and left a message on a recorder ... and we waited by the phone while she worried about freezing pipes ... and considered a trip down the snow covered back steps, to plug in a heat tape in the shed. We waited some more ... nothing ...

As soon as Miss Jerrianne poured fresh water and kitty crunchies into my dish and started making some breakfast for herself, our luck improved. The backup plumbing shop called back and said they would send a plumber out right away. Miss Jerrianne got dressed quickly and she decided that I should get dressed, too ... in my harness. She said I could watch the plumber from inside my Celltei pouch, so I wouldn't be afraid and hide.

Of course, I played hard to get ... escaped from her grasp several times and slipped into the bedroom to hide from her. She outsmarted me, I hate to admit. She shut the door and waited a few minutes. When she opened the door, I was standing there, waiting to be let out, and she caught me. She buckled me into my harness and zipped me into the pouch.

The plumber arrived at the front door, just as I made my escape out the front window of the pouch ... though there was really no hope of escaping from its 10-inch leash. Miss Jerrianne said she was tired of peeling the cat (me!) off the top shelf of the closet whenever someone came up the front steps. She gave the plumber directions to the furnace room and stuffed me back into the pouch, rather unceremoniously.

Miss Jerrianne is very big on self-improvement, I'm afraid. She said I would just have to face my fear of strangers and learn to overcome it. (!) She carried the pouch, with me inside it, down to the furnace room and set it on the floor so I could observe the furnace repair. I liked seeing shiny copper wire unrolled and puddles of water wiped up with rags, but I hope she's not expecting ME to repair the thing if it goes out again.

In an hour or so, the furnace was feeling much better and it started making little whooshing sounds again, as soon as the pilot light was re-lit. The dripping water dried up, the plumber collected his check and went away. The pipes (and I!) didn't freeze. Miss Jerrianne let me out of jail.

I needed a catnap after all that excitement. I think she needed one, too, but she opted for a hot bath with bubbles that smelled like roses. I learned my lesson about rose bushes, though, and I slept right through it.