No silly cat-in-snow pictures from me. Both cats refuse to go out, Otje because he is old and wise and has seen it all, Poempa because he is simply afraid of that white cold stuff. Instead a news story I found via this Fark-thread. Check it out, the comments in this thread are full of kitty goodness.
INKOM - Torri Hutchinson's unbelievable animal story has already crossed international borders and became an instant classic with her family. It quickly spread throughout the West on family e-mails, and her nephew, Shaun Bird, assures her it's a hit in Scotland, where he's serving on a mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Since hearing about his aunt's exploits, Shaun sometimes stops what he's doing and breaks into laughter.
Her brother-in-law from Mesa, Ariz., Robert Bird, wrote in an e-mail, "This is a true story. It blew me away."
Strange things - events that draw laughter regardless of how often she tells people about them - always seem to happen to Hutchinson.
"I'm not an airhead. I'm really pretty organized," said Hutchinson, a local massage therapist, before launching into the story:
She brushed on a shade of pink lipstick with one hand and clutched the wheel of her Subaru with the other, driving a hair over the speed limit on Interstate 15 - late again to her massage therapy class in Blackfoot.
The guy in the other lane wouldn't let Hutchinson pass. He wouldn't pass her either. He just stayed even with her in his blue car.
He seemed to be attempting to relay some message. He kept pointing to the car roof, and he had a really strange expression. She couldn't read his lips, but he motioned for her to pull over.
He had a long, dark beard and wore sunglasses and a beanie.
"What's this guy want?" Hutchinson thought.
Hutchinson's husband is a counter-terrorism specialist and is always warning her to protect herself. She was wary from the get-go.
"A woman alone on the freeway? I was like, there's no way I'm pulling over for you."
He was persistent. He kept pointing to her roof. Finally, it dawned on her. The ski rack mounted on top of her car roof had probably come unfastened.
She pulled over. But she kept her doors locked and was ready to punch the accelerator in case of anything suspicious.
"I had this little scenario in my mind of what I could do," Hutchinson said.
He pulled over. She rolled down her window - but not all the way.
It's a good thing she skis and had that rack on top of her car. And luckily, she ignored that little voice in her head, warning her it would be foolish to pull over for the stranger.
The frantic man ran up to her car shouting, "Your cat! Your cat!" He reached for the roof of her car and handed her an orange tabby. She was stunned.
She'd driven from her home on Marsh Creek Road, stopped for gas in Inkom, passed several motorists on I-15 and reached the Portneuf Gap, and the family cat, C.B. - her son gave the kitten the name, which is short for Cuddle Bug - was on the roof of her car the whole time.
When she saw the man up close, she recognized him as one of her son's favorite substitute teachers.
"Oh my God! Thank you," she said, too stunned to think of anything else to tell the man. "I was just so thankful he caught me. What a sweet man."
C.B. curled up in the passenger's seat, surprisingly mellow given what she'd just experienced.
Before she left for class, C.B. hopped into the back of her car. She grabbed him and set him back on the ground. Apparently, C.B. jumped on the car roof when she wasn't looking.
"She's always on my car," Hutchinson said.
She cracked the window for the cat during her class.
"We got home, and she came in and went to sleep," Hutchinson said.
The next time she left for a car ride, she hollered to C.B., "Hey, want to go for a ride?"
The cat ran the opposite direction.