Waterlogged

I have not had a chance to post much recently and I apologize. It has been a bit mental here in the past few days.

On Wednesday, I thought the fridge was making a funny noise. I noticed an odd hissing noise a few times as I passed it. Each time I would start to investigate, something would happen; the phone would ring, a kid would need help, the dog might scratch on the door.

Then George The Cat failed to show up for dinner. George loves his food, so I reckoned something was not right. The kids and I started a search: Joe took the upstairs, Grace the main level, and I went down to the basement.

As soon as I opened the door, the heat and steam hit me. And the hissing noise became very loud... Then I noticed the water.  About an inch or more, throughout the entire space...

It turns out that a hot water hose that feeds the washing machine had broken. That was the hissing noise I had thought was coming from the fridge (the basement leak was directly below the fridge). 

I found George on the top of the cat tree, which was an island in the basement lake. He is too vain to get his little paws wet. Not even for food! I eventually got him down, and only one of us got wet (me).

George's little world has been rocked by this event and all that followed.  The basement -his usual escape from kids- has been off-limits,. We have had cleaning crews (two. -long story) in, the plumber, the claims adjuster and  all sorts of activity. 

You know it is so true that all cats are Aspies. Some moreso than others. George doesn't like change one bit. He has been totally out-of sorts the past few days (as has Joe!). Not his usual gregarious self at all. He has even relinquished his self-appointed role as house greeter. I wonder if one of the men accidently trod on him or something? He seems quite wary of men right now -even Himself, who was quite hurt when George refused to come to him when called.

It is sad when trust is broken, even inadvertently. Grace blames the plumber. When Gorge was young a plumber came and freaked him out, and ever since then, she tells people that "George is afraid of plumbers" (Of course, it has never occurred to Grace that he may have been afraid of that particular person, and not plumbers as a group!). She lectured poor Kenny the plumber about this while he was here yesterday. Poor Kenny! He adores animals, so I think his feelings were a bit hurt.

This photo of George was taken by Grace last year. She is quite a good little photographer,  isn't she