Mrrrrrr,
Well, there’s leaving, and then there’s arriving. With humans, both rarely seem to be discreet events. Cats, we wolf down a little extra food, make sure we have on a sturdy catsuit, and we leave. We get somewhere, wolf down a little food and go to sleep – a sure sign that we’ve arrived.
Alex and I have been unpacking with our humans. And I thought packing was difficult!
Unpacking can be fun for cats because there is lots of rumpled paper ready for pursuit. It is, at the same time, very boring for cats because of the prevalence of vacuum cleaner use and the constant morphing of cat runways: one minute a fellow can scamper from end to end of the house, unobstructed, chasing his gal pal, and the next minute there are 3 chairs to be climbed and 2 boxes to be forded.
It has only been a week since our good friend Joel backed the 14-foot high, 21-foot long truck, packed to the roof with people stuff, into the driveway after driving 1127 miles. Talk about a definition of friendship! We have other definitions ready at hand: friends helping repair a boat trailer, friends helping load heavy boxes, friends providing food and drink, friends simply being good companions.
Since the big truck backed up to the little house, a myriad of goodies have come out of the truck. The truck then disappeared – I dread to think that someone else will soon begin doing what we’ve been doing. We were left with a fully furnished front yard and garage. I was a bit worried about that, but the people did finally bring the stuff inside.
We unpacked a kitchen, put together two big beds, laid the thick rugs, hung clothes in closets, positioned litter boxes, settled chests of drawers (sometimes with a cat or two in them), lamps, electronics, a camel saddle, a horse saddle, and all the other stuff that people use and cats keep marked.
Then we did some very cool work cutting and laying a new floor in the basement. I was integral to this project, sitting on various portions of the flooring as it was cut, sometimes redirecting the angle of the cutting tool with my paw, and often going under the flooring just before it was laid to ensure the concrete was clean underneath. I was a little worried about installing this vinyl product, but it didn’t stink, required no glues (yucky and toxic) or tacks (bad for cat paws) so, given the ease of installation and the cushy, warm result (the basement is becoming part cat pad, part storage area), I think it was a sound choice.
Yesterday, after all this work and lots more shuffling things around and unpacking, our people reached a milestone – they claim they got all the furniture, rugs, lamps, and other goodies in their proper places. Of course there’s lots of little stuff yet…
We’ve got a nice big guestroom now with a nice comfy feather bed. Who’s first?!
