We’re still here, as confused as ever. Tuesday night will be four weeks since we moved into our new house. We still don’t have a kitchen, which is every bit as inconvenient as you might imagine. We have four doors, including on the bathrooms. We have no baseboards and no trim on the windows. The yard is bare dirt. This is probably the first time I have thought it just as well to be in a drought; dirt is easier to handle than mud, especially on a dog’s foot. We finally have some rods in our closet so we can take our clothes out of our trailer and hand them up.
We are less than satisfied by some of the work the subs did on the house. The painter was absolutely terrible. He used a sprayer to prime and got overspray all over the hardwood and tile floors and windows. There are globs of trash on the walls that I certainly would have wiped off before calling the job done. The electrician is a nice guy, but we keep having to call him back to fix problems. Some of the work on the deck is also not very professional.
But every night we can look at the twinkling lights of town and see the stars, if they’re out, and every morning we can watch the sun rise, right from our bed. And this was the view Sunday night from our porch.
This is where the cats have been spending their time.
Leah and I were both surprised at how well the cats handled the move, and we remain surprised at how well they’re handling their incarceration. Chloe and Dusty are in the pen on the right, and Smokey and Sylvester are on the left. Leah has brought Sylvester, Smokey and Chloe inside separately a few times. Sylvester seems OK and Smokey somewhat less so. Chloe wanders around like a little lost cat and seems to want to go back out to the familiarity of her pen. We opened the door to her pen Sunday morning but she just stared. Dusty didn’t even respond.
It came as no surprised when we noticed a few days ago that someone had stolen the “Slow Cat Crossing” sign we put up near our new mailbox. I guess we’ll order a new one once the cats get parole. I may move our game camera to get a good view of the sign. Maybe we can identify whoever steals it the next time.
There was a happy note a few days ago. I was walking the dogs down Fouche Gap Road and thought I heard a cat. I listened and wasn’t able to convince myself that it was a cat. I thought it might have been a weird call from a bird I wasn’t familiar with. The next day I heard it and eventually saw where it came from. It was a small kitten that had been dumped and was hiding in a hollow in a tree trunk. It came right out and up to me and the dogs. On the way back up, it came out again and followed us to the house where the people who bought from us had been renting. Some workers were repairing various things and they saw the cat. A few hours later Leah and I came back down the mountain on the way to dinner and stopped to leave food and water. One of the workers had given the kitten a piece of ham from his sandwich so it was staying in the back yard.
The kitten is smaller than it looks here.
The worker ended up taking the kitten home. He told us the next day it had slept on his bed with him that night. It’s too good to be true. Not every animal story has that good an ending.
Thanks for the update; I was worried about you and Leah, but knew you were busy. Beautiful panoramic image of the clouds. I had no idea that the cats were going to stay in pens, but it makes sense; I imagine you thought they’d hightail it back to the old house if you didn’t acclimate them to the new place. And the story of the kitten is wonderful; it made my day. Thank you, and keep us posted as “things” progress.
Scott — The cats are doing pretty well with the pens. Leah let Chloe and Dusty out on Tuesday. They wandered around into the woods behind the pens and then across the yard and into the woods on the other side of the house. They eventually came back and settled down under the trailer, which we have parked temporarily next to their pens. Leah later put them back into the pens because she was worried about leaving them out all night. Next the bad boys, Smokey and Sylvester, get out.
So glad to see this update. Absolutely love that sky panorama. Wow! Our skies have been so uniformly blue and utterly dull. So what a treat to see that. Lots of stuff still happening there, but so glad to know you are delighted with the sunrise view and the night skies and lights. Sounds great! The kitty cat rescue story is the BEST! Take care there.
Surely anyone would be discombobulated, moving into a new house, especially one in which the finish work is still incomplete. I hope you all grow to love it. Surely the view of the sky will make up for some of the not quite stellar details.
Very happy the kitty found a home so quickly.
We just adopted a young stray female cat, black and white with green/gold eyes. She has settled right in to the household.
Robin — I keep stopping to look out the windows. We really hit the jackpot with the view.
Minnie — We’re slowly taking care of the details. When I got a haircut earlier this week, I told the barber about the state of the house. She encouraged me by saying that it took them a year to get all the baseboards down in the house they live in now. I plan and certainly hope it doesn’t take us that long. Nice about your new kitty. Leah was wondering how you came to get her and what her name is.
As you well know, a house is an on-going, never-to-be-completed project. And I don’t mean that as discouragement.
This young cat is a stray that found us. We tried to locate her previous people to no avail, but it’s obvious that she was well-cared for. Don’t know if she slipped out (she was in heat) and couldn’t find her way home or was dumped in this suburban neighborhood. She’s an independent little thing.
Please tell Leah that after trying out several names we finally settled on Lily. This commemorates a family pet cat from my husband’s childhood and references a musical group we like, The Black Lillies. AND her appearance coincided with a late daylily blooming in our yard. It also contains the eee sound cats are said to appreciate.
Your post on the most recent doings amongst your cats was satisfying. Looking forward to the next chapter.