Finishing Up My Time On My Own

Finishing up Wed through Friday: Time to Reflect

Going to Oklahoma on my own was definitely an experience. Not only did I negotiate all my travel plans without incident, it gave me some time to look into the future of setting up in a new state, as I have lived my entire life in California, first southern then northern. I also realized that having pets and relocating with them cannot be done easily without someone else’s help. You just can’. Not unless you give up your animals to shelters or rehome them, moving with animals is exceedingly difficult.

As the night rolled into the morning, my day was ultimately going to be spent taking care of my animals. If it wasn’t for my sister, none of this would be possible. Yes, we pay for all needs of the animal’s, food, litter, vet bills etc, and pay her a little “spending money” for her too, but she is the one going everyday to check on them, feed them, interact with them, and generally take care of every detail necessary. With only one more full day before heading out, I have come to realize that my sister, in all of our 60 years of not seeing eye to eye on ANYTHING, finally see eye to eye on helping family, and that it is okay to ask for help. The interesting thing is most of the time, the help will only come from family.

The day was long, as I wanted to do a thorough job of cleaning. Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping the floors, cleaning all the kennels and providing fresh litter, clean food bowls filled with food, clean water and toys. And of course, brushing the cats, playing with them, and interacting with them, because I do miss them. This day we gave all the cats worm medicine to be sure they are healthy, and the veterinarian told my sister to start backing off of the canned food, as some cats were having too soft of stools. Okay, you didn’t come to the blog to read about icky stuff, but I wanted to express that caring for animals isn’t always pretty. There is good and bad at caring for any living thing, as that is just the reality of life. During the day, my sister also came and hung out with me as much as she could, as her husband was still visiting and was going to leave in a few days also.

As the evening fell, I said my goodbyes to my cats, brother-in-law, and of course my sister. I told her I loved her, and all she was doing for us, and our cats. She stated she is starting to really enjoy them, as sees it less and less as a chore. I told her if she knew anyone who needed barn cats, that she trusted, she was free to find homes for a few of the more feral ones. She said, “I’ll see”. I headed to the cabin, cleaned up, and enjoyed my evening. It was going to be an early morning, so I packed up my items that I would need for the next day's trip, and called it a night.

Thursday brought a busy, but not rushed morning, as it was a two hour drive to the hotel next to the airport, Getting a hotel room next to the airport was convenient, something I am learning to give a lot of time to transitions, instead of leaving everything to the last minute making a stressfully tight schedule. I returned the rental car without a hitch, and caught the shuttle to the hotel for the night. The hotel was close to the airport, but isolated from any other restaurant or convenience stores. As again the next morning I would have an early flight out of Arkansas to Dallas. And then a longer flight from Dallas to California.

I woke up to the new morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the airport for my flights home.

A good trip. A necessary trip. A productive trip. An important trip. Until next time.