The Last 48 hours…! (nothing bad)

So the last 48 hours have been a whirlwind.

Hubby drove up from Paso Robles to Sacramento and we met there so that we could attend a good friend’s ‘citizenship ceremony’ downtown in the morning.

(If you have never attended a ‘citizenship ceremony’, you should. It makes you even more proud to be an American. I know I was overcome a few times… very moving.)

Anyway, Hubby dressed in his uniform for the event. He looked cute! But, he had been so rushed to park the car, he had not taken excellent reference points and … well… we lost the car. As we were trying to find it, we ran across mounted police officers in front of the CA Capitol building. (Hubby was hot and not happy that he couldn’t find the car. I let him walk ahead.)

It was a zillion degrees and Hubby was dying in his uniform as we trudged around trying to remember where he had rushed to park the car.

My little legs couldn’t keep up with his long legs so I approached the mounted police to ask them where the garage (that I described to them) might be… Both of the horses were draft horses.

AFTER WE FOUND HUBBY’S CAR, MY CAR BATTERY WAS DEAD. My life is like Perils of Pauline right now…

So last week the radiator in my car leaked and I needed a tow. On this day, my car was dead. Luckily, Hubby was able to use his car to jumpstart my car… but now we know the starter is bad. Great. Hubby took my car back to Paso Robles. Luckily, it started each time he got gas… He drove it straight home to the new house – where it died again. Luckily, he made it home!

I had the truck and trailer. That was my job. I had to load it with everything possible that was left in the house and in the garage.

By the time I was done, my trailer’s tack room and horse area looked like the Beverly Hillbillies jalopy. I swear. I really did load it well, but there was so much head room, I started to pile stuff on top of stuff – which I loved because it was MORE STUFF leaving… but it did look a bit like an episode of HOARDERS.

Truly, there was a point where I thought I should just drive it all to the GoodWill and be done with it. Do we really need all of this stuff?

I’m pretty sure I am going to do that with whatever is left. Let someone else use the stuff that I don’t need but am keeping for no good reason.

I thought this was interesting that just 3 days later, the Sacramento mounted police were in the news. I don’t see either of the horse officers I had met previously in this news photo.

I DROVE DOWN TO PASO ROBLES WITH 4 CATS IN THE FRONT CAB WITH ME.

So I decided to take all 4 cats with me on this trip so I didn’t have to worry about them going down with me when I took the horses. It is a long story, but basically, the horses were supposed to leave on Tuesday which would have given me time to make one more trip to Paso with the cats and stuff before July 1. But now that the horses are leaving on Wednesday (a cooler day…), I knew I wouldn’t be able to make that other trip down before July 1 so I had to take the cats on Saturday.

Have you ever tried to catch 4 barn cats that know something is up? R-O-D-E-O. Let me tell you that my plan worked pretty well. I tricked two of them into the tack room (where I had already placed the cat carriers). Then I lovingly picked up the 3rd kitty and put him in the tack room. The last kitty was not sure what was going on but wanted breakfast, so I nabbed her, too.

Having 4 very upset cats in a tiny tack room was FUN. Then, getting those same cats in carriers was even more fun – I never knew how many hiding places there were in my tack room…

I put the siblings together in two cages. I thought they would find comfort with each other.

Oh but noooooooo, that would be too easy…. Of course, the grey and black kitty started fighting horribly, so I had to get another carrier and separate them.

So now I had 3 cages and 4 cats, shoved into the passenger seat of my truck. The last cat cage was sideways so it would fit wedged above the large cage – against the ceiling. Bagheera didn’t mind riding sideways. She was the only cat that ended up facing me. I wish I had thought to have them all face me then I could have checked on them more easily during the ride. As it was, whenever I got gas, I looked at their faces – just to make sure their cries were just normal “cat in car” cries. They were. Bagheera, who could see me, never made a peep.

*Trick for crying cats in cars… put on a MIchael Johnson audio book! As soon as I put his buttery voice in the cab, all the cats settled down. Amazing. For 5 hours, I listened to all of his CDs and the cats were totally relaxed! I swear. It was miraculous! He’s a cat whisperer!

This is tough to distinguish – I took it while I was in the driver seat…I have two cats in the big carrier on the seat. There is one cat in a carrier in the footwell and then I had to grab a dirty carrier in storage to separate Bagheera who is riding sideways in it, on top of the large carrier. She was the happiest because she could see me. Her face was level with mine.

My office as cat den. Don’t worry, the cat scooper is brand new. You can see Floppy kitty standing under the blue bag.

Bagheera, the smallest but meanest of the cats, sits calmly and looks out the window of my office. She terrorized the other cats. So odd. They’ve lived together for 4 years!

The only male. He could be my favorite… he is twice the size of the others, but he was very upset.

MADE IT!

I made it to the new house and immediately set up my office as a kitty parlor. Hubby will check in on them for the next few days.

Three of the cats were fine in the new digs, but Sally (The Barn Manager, white kitty) was very upset. I put food and water in her hiding spot.

Hubby had invited friends over who were driving up from San Diego and needed a place to stay. So, we had a full house of people who helped with offloading the truck and trailer!

I should have gotten my feet in this shot so you could get the feeling of me sitting there… After I parked the truck and trailer at the new house, Hubby brought me a glass of wine and I sat on the front landing area to watch the sun set. Ahhhh. All that green is vineyards. The trees are olive groves.

Our friends who exchanged offloading the truck and trailer for a place to stay for the night. (This is our covered area in the back yard. We need to doll it up.)

SUNDAY, I DROVE BACK TO GRASS VALLEY.

And today, after making sure the cats were OK and running over to the neighbor’s to get her phone number, I drove back home – IN MIND NUMBING TRAFFIC FOR 7 HOURS.

It seemed that no matter which path I took, it was jammed. But, the good news was that I finally made it – in one piece (after witnessing 2 accidents during my trip. Oy).

And as I drove into the driveway, I remembered how the Grass Valley house looked to me when I purchased it 13 years ago. It will always be lovely to me.

I know the renters will love it, too.

Driving up the driveway of the Grass Valley house, remembering why I bought it 13 years ago. It is very peaceful and smells great.

Scouty good dog, waiting for me.

JUNE BUCKET FUND: SONATA, THE MARE WITH THE HUGE GASH IN HER SHOULDER that was dumped at the kill pen – but they wouldn’t house/feed/water/care for her because of the wound. Now she is safe but needs round the clock care. Let’s help the ones who are helping her! Any sandwich change? All donations are 100% tax deductible! We are so close to our goal! Click here to read her story. Click here to donate!