Is it just me, or is it a common experience that life accelerates substantially in the last few days before vacation? We’ve been busy in the past few weeks, really, but much of that is the typical stuff life throws at us. Things like helping one daughter buy a new vehicle after the engine quit on the old one; celebrating the other daughter’s 20th birthday; spending hours at the tag office getting the title work done on my new SUV (more hours anticipated today), and just the regular busy-ness of life.
When it comes to the trip the days have been filled with things like getting the last few things we need in from Amazon, confirming arrangements for the cats, stopping the mail and trash service, getting home watch set up with the police and detailed contact information distributed to those needing it, and yes a little bit of packing.
Our Fur Kids
On previous cruises we’ve been packed by a day before leaving…but we have had the fur kids to consider this time. A couple of weeks ago Roxan got the first suitcase out and started throwing stuff into it, and both cats started showing signs of stress…Charlie in particular. That day he started hiding for the first time in a while and became very clingy. He has moved around a lot in his life before coming to us last year, and I believe Roxan packing triggered some connection with the last time he moved — his former owner packed up for a several day stay with friends, and put him in the carrier and he never went back to that home, coming to live with us instead.
Tippy has been much more affectionate, too…she doesn’t want to be far form Mom at any time, and hangs around me much closer when Roxan is at work than she used to. We work with an animal communicator from time to time and both of the kids know vacation is coming up and they will be staying somewhere else for a month. It happens to be with the foster from whom we obtained Tippy last Christmas season. So we believe they are anticipating the trip, and Charlie seems to be more settled now since we talked about his trauma over the weekend.
Today consists of trying to get this tag issue worked out, finding out how much our car warranty company will pay toward replacing the transmission in my SUV, some work for both of us, and my last night training a fill-in for my audio work at church. Then the kitties go to “summer camp,” and we’ll come home and start packing in earnest. Hard to believe the great adventure starts in 32 hours!
and then