Snowed In!

"There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes."

--Emily Dickinson

After her experience in the Wild, Strombeek was ready to face the snow as it actually fell from the sky. So was Louie. It helped that the birds reappeared.

So the cats were snowed in for another day, which shouldn't affect them much since they don't go outside. But it affected their outlook. The snow clung to the screens and blocked the windows, so by afternoon they didn't have much outlook at all.

Louie intended to spend the afternoon with a fascinating book about birds, but then he made a startling discovery.

On the tablet was written, "I am mouse, here me roar" [sic]. Impossible!  They knew that mice didn't have thumbs to grasp and maneuver a pen.  (Not even considering the mouse in question was stuffed with catnip--this is the extreme to which the cabin fever had set in.) All they could fixate on was their certainty that mice couldn't write any better than cats.

There was only one possibility: Squirrels! The realization made Strombeek sick with jealousy. Louie was too distraught to concentrate on his book. Both cats, since kittenhood, had literary aspiration--or at least of one day getting a pen to function properly. And now the squirrels had used their thumbs to break in the house taunt them with humiliating messages.

Paranoia set in and the cats set off to find the squirrels, wherever they may be hiding. After little success, they turned instead to a  game of charades, but this only caused the situation to further devolve.

One of the beavers from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe? Oh, of course. (When she sticks out her belly Strombeek resembles most any round, pudgy animal.)

And then Louie's turn. See what I mean? Luckily there's not supposed to be any more snow tomorrow.