Well, THAT was an experience (Part 2)

See the previous post for Part 1.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay!  So, I was supposed to be at the barn at seven yesterday morning, in order to get the cats loaded up and transported to the clinic by eight.  Except it snowed Wednesday night.  A LOT.  Several inches' worth.

Which, granted, is not a HUGE amount, but it was enough to cancel school.  And once school gets canceled, I swear to God my town's highway department employees roll over and go back to sleep, and the roads don't get plowed until they flipping well FEEL like it.  It drives me CRAZY.  Some of us have WORK to do, you lazy bastids.

So I got up at five, figuring I needed to give myself more time for the trip, got showered and dressed, and shoveled out the driveway.  At six-thirty, I headed for the farm on totally unplowed roads.  I actually made it the first three miles, but when I had start up the hill to the farm, I couldn't make it.  Not even close. I love my little Hyundai dearly, but it is TERRIBLE on snowy hills.

I couldn't even call the farm owner because I don't have cell service out there, so I turned around, headed back home, and called.  I explained that I couldn't make it the last quarter-mile, but if she could get the cats to the bottom of the hill, I could take them the rest of the way in.   She said the plow had JUST gone past her house, so I said great, I'd be right there.

I headed back to the farm, this time on plowed roads, started up the hill, and ... nope.  There was just enough snow and ice left from the plow that the car wouldn't make it.  Which is where a man who lives at the bottom of the hill, and just happened to see my plight as he was snowblowing his driveway, came out and PUSHED me far enough so that, slipping, sliding and going sideways, I was able to get up the hill and get the rest of the way to the farm.  I'm pretty sure I have no tread left on my tires at this point because I burned it all off, but I MADE IT.  Ha.

Well, the barnyard hadn't been plowed out yet, so I pulled over to the side of the road and hoofed it to the barns, where the barn owner was trying to figure out who needed to go.  The woman who usually helps identify which ferals need to be altered and which have already been done wasn't able to make it because of the freakin' ROADS, so in the end we loaded up two of the trapped cats who the farm owner was fairly certain needed to go (none of the trapped cats were ear-tipped, but because some of the cats had previously been altered without tipping, that's not really a reliable indicator), and she scooped up two of the less-ferals who she also thought needed to be done and put them in carriers.  We only had four slots, so we let the rest of the trapped cats out.  And then we hoofed the cats who were making the trip through the snowdrifts out to the car at the side of the road and loaded them up, and I was off.  Back on the terrible, plowed-but-still-icy-and-snowy roads, for the drive to the clinic.

At one point my windshield wipers FROZE to the windshield, and there was a brief moment of terror when I got to the clinic and thought that one of the cats had ESCAPED its carrier (it hadn't; it was just a small cat who had wedged itself in the very back of the carrier), but the cats all made it there safe and sound.

It turns out one of the cats had already been neutered (ooops, but at least now it's EAR-TIPPED), so they ended up neutering one male (he was a cryptorchid, so it's a good thing we got him) and spaying two females.  Total count to date:  Five males, seven females, and we've got four more slots on the 23rd. 

And my car is at the tire place right now, getting new tires.  Ha.