As you know I’m a Wisconsin Snowcat. So imagine my pleasure on waking yesterday morning to find a lovely carpet of snow here in my new New York home. I’ve missed the frigid, snow-filled winter that other Snowcats in my home state have experienced this year. Nothing like falling to the bottom of a good 10 foot drift to help you rethink your priorities and the meaning of life! Snow in Wisconsin is not just about the joy of snow cat angels, sliding down hills, and playing guess-the-tracks, it’s about community, helping one another, and meeting your neighbors, furry and feathered.
I like snow. Actually, I love snow.
So moving to this water-based strip of land – while it has been a wonderful experience in new sights and sounds – has been disappointing on the snow front thus far this year. The beach is nice, but in summer it is warm out there when you’re furry. It is wicked hot to the paw, and the sand accumulated on your coat does not melt away when you come home – requiring assistance to be nicely groomed for the ladies.
Yesterday morning’s snowfall was quite fine: mostly plates, some with dendrites (petals to you), some wiithout. Humans recognize four kinds of snowflakes, as I understand it: plates, needles, columns (which we had earlier yesterday morning), and bricks. They can all have petals or not, depending on the circumstances, and when there are petals, there are always six, though they are rarely symmetrical.
But cats, especially Snowcats, are more explicit about snow…more like the Yu’pik or other Eskimo human groups. We think of snow in terms of how it rests on our coats, how in compresses under our paws, how long it lasts, how it holds a track, sticks to a tree trunk and – critically – how it tastes.But after all this fun, I do note that my friends the Carolina Wrens, the Common Grackles and the two Red-tailed Hawks who are apartment hunting in the neighborhood, are convinced that spring is right around the corner. My little furry friends, the moles, have not chimed in yet.
I wonder what my old friend from Rock Springs, Marmot, is doing right now?
