You probably don’t remember, but back when I was still themysterywriter, I made a thread here about how I was scared my cats were going to die when we had to move across the ocean. Well, that move is finally over, and the kitties are safely in their new home.
It was quite the harrowing journey. Our flights were canceled twice before we finally made one that stuck. I wasn’t upset about them being canceled. I didn’t want to move and was hoping we’d be stuck in Hawaii forever, but now I’m here in Idaho. Oh well.
The day before we were scheduled to leave my dad went online to check the status of our flight and read that our flight for the next day had been rescheduled and we were booked on a new flight that was leaving in 7 hours. Luckily, we had sent by postal mail most of our stuff already, and we had the suitcases we were taking all packed. Dad had one of his parishioner friends stop by unexpectedly, which my mom keeps saying was a total “airquotes” coincidence. It’s really funny. Because yes, it was a coincidence. It’s not like he has never stopped by unexpectedly before. He even had a reason to do it. But no, it was the will of your imaginary friend. Sure.
Anywho, so we shoved our kitties into their tiny torture carriers and drove to the airport. Once we got there and were standing in line to check in we found out that Delta could get us from Hawaii to La, and and La to SanFran, but they didn’t have a flight going to Boise. So a whole bunch of employees were trying to figure out how to get us to Boise. They finally accomplished this by getting us tickets on a United Flight.
So then we lug our heavy carryon luggage plus kitties to the first 5-hour flight. The kitties meowl off and on the entire time because they’re terrified and don’t understand. They let us take them into a separate room to let them out of their carriers while they searched them though, which was nice.
Then we get to LA, and the kitties continue to meowl as we find our gate and sit down and wait for the next two hours for our next flight. Then we get on that flight and the kitties cry for another hour. Then we get off and make a loooong trek outside the SanFran airport to get to the United desk because we have to check in and go back through security.
When we get there the check-in lady says we can’t take pets on the plane without calling their pets program first and setting it all up, and paying again, even though we had already done that for Delta. Our plane was scheduled to leave in about an hour. So dad gets on his phone and calls. Someone actually answers, and he is able to set it up for us to take the kitties with us, then we get back in line to check in. Then we go through security again. They decide to just have us take the cats out there, rather than going into a separate room. Smokey almost escapes! But we manage to catch him again before he has a chance to run off and squish him back into his carrier. Then we race to the gate and get there just as they have begun boarding.
So then we get on the plane and the kitties meowl for another hour and a half before we finally land in Boise. That was the worst trip ever and I am never, ever, ever doing that again!!!
We have been here in our new/old home and the kitties are adjusting surprisingly well. About ten minutes after we got here, Patches jumped up on my bed and pissed on it. She hasn’t done that for years, but I don’t really blame here after all that stress and being in a new place. She tried doing it again two more times, but I picked her up and put her in her litter box. She’d jump out immediately and be mad, but then she eventually used it.
Patches was the cat I was the most worried about because she’s the cat version of me, and she hates change. But she’s done so well. I’m so proud of her. I’m proud of both of them. The very best part is that Patches, who has hated me ever since we rescued Smokey and he took over what used to be “her room” seems to have forgotten she hates me. I can pet her now, she doesn’t growl at me except when I pick her up. They both come into my room. It’s like she’s a totally different cat. She even played with me this morning, something she hasn’t done since she was a kitten.
We’ve kept them inside, but this morning we let them out for the first time. They’re both pretty skittish about outside though and are staying in for the most part, which is so weird because Patches pretty much lived outside in Hawaii.
The house is a mess and it smells because the previous owners also had cats and didn’t clean it very well. So we’ll be living in a construction zone for a while. I still call Hawaii home, but eventually I’ll start to think of here as home, too. My brother brought over a new WiFi modem for us this morning, so we finally have WiFi again. I was using the 3G on my phone until my dad texted to say that I’d used 80% of that months’ data, so I quit using it except for imessage. I was missing the dope a lot, so I’m super happy to be back.
All-in-all, the move was successful, I guess. No one got kicked off any of the 3 flights I was on. The United plane was super tiny and they were offering zero services, not even water, so the only time you saw any attendants was when they were obsessively picking up trash, and they were all wearing their masks. On our first Delta flight the attendants slipped their masks off whenever they sat down and only put them on when they were serving. They would toss these wrapped plastic packs at you that came with a small water bottle, a bag of Cheezits, and a bag of nuts. We got them on both of our flights with them. I slept through it the second time though.
I was worried about my laptop because Smokey jumped on it and knocked it to the ground a while ago which broke one of the hinges, and now it won’t close all the way. But it managed to survive the trip and is still working for the moment.
We went shopping at WinCo our first day back and hardly anyone was wearing a mask. None of the employees were. It’s like that in most places. Although most of the food places are still drive-thru/delivery only. But not all. Idaho is a very red state though.