The Plague Diaries: COVID-19 Tests and Unexpected Cats, 2 of 2
I hauled two tubs of laundry all the way down to my car (remember the torn-up lot?) and drove to Albion. The cats were thrilled to see me and demanded a great deal in the way of petting after being abandoned for several days.
I started up the laundry. My intent was to write while the machines did their work, but there were a lot of sundry chores around the house that needed doing. I also gathered up all the cat stuff. It was time to move it all.
See, we'd brought Dora and Dinah to Albion because we didn't want them in the way when we were selling the house, packing, moving, and unpacking. But our intent had been all along to have the cats permanently in Waterford. Darwin barely tolerates Dora and Dinah, and definitely doesn't like having them at the house in Albion, where he has to do most of the cat-related chores, since he's there four days out of seven. The cats are really mine (though I frequently remind Darwin that HE chose Dora, not me), and they needed to come to Waterford.
We'd figured on bringing them down in another week. But then Darwin got sick and there was no one at the Albion house to take care of them, and wouldn't be for quite a while. So we moved up the schedule. I would bring them today.
My original plan had been to get some tranquilizers from the vet and set the carriers out at Albion for a week with their food inside them to get them acclimated to them. But--new schedule. No time. It would have to be the hard way.
I set out the cat carriers, which made the cats uneasy, but I gave them treats and turned my main attention to household chores--so much laundry--which calmed them down again. But at last, all the chores were done and I'd loaded everything into the car.
I lured Dinah upstairs with more treats and locked her in a bedroom, then snatched up Dora before she quite understood what was going on, stuffed her into the carrier, and zipped it shut. She freaked badly. She yowled and clawed, and the carrier shook like the Tasmanian devil cage in a Warner Brothers cartoon.
Meanwhile, I cornered Dinah upstairs and slid her into the other carrier. She's smaller and more tractable, so it wasn't difficult. But both of them shit in the carriers. I couldn't open the carriers to clean them out, either, because I'd never get the cats back in.
I drove back to Waterford with a carload of yowling cats. Darwin and I hauled them up to the condo and let them out (though I had to clean cat poop off Dora's fur first). They prowled uneasily around the place while I brought up load after load of stuff--two tubs of laundry, cat trees, cat litter, cat food. Why do I have cats, again?
The condo isn't really set up for cats. There's no good spot for a litter box. Neither bathroom is big enough for one, and we didn't want it in the dressing room or in the storage closet with our clothes. In the end, we settled on converting the exercise room closet into the kitty space. I laid down a vinyl floor mat, and there's just enough room for the litter box, bag of litter, and their bowls.
This was four days ago. Dinah and Dora have settled into a new normal, though neither of them is willing to set paw on the balcony, which I find interesting. Dinah stares out the window at the lake like she's trying to figure out what it is. Dora discovered she can lay in her customary place under my desk again, which is what she's doing now.
And the cats are back!
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I started up the laundry. My intent was to write while the machines did their work, but there were a lot of sundry chores around the house that needed doing. I also gathered up all the cat stuff. It was time to move it all.
See, we'd brought Dora and Dinah to Albion because we didn't want them in the way when we were selling the house, packing, moving, and unpacking. But our intent had been all along to have the cats permanently in Waterford. Darwin barely tolerates Dora and Dinah, and definitely doesn't like having them at the house in Albion, where he has to do most of the cat-related chores, since he's there four days out of seven. The cats are really mine (though I frequently remind Darwin that HE chose Dora, not me), and they needed to come to Waterford.
We'd figured on bringing them down in another week. But then Darwin got sick and there was no one at the Albion house to take care of them, and wouldn't be for quite a while. So we moved up the schedule. I would bring them today.
My original plan had been to get some tranquilizers from the vet and set the carriers out at Albion for a week with their food inside them to get them acclimated to them. But--new schedule. No time. It would have to be the hard way.
I set out the cat carriers, which made the cats uneasy, but I gave them treats and turned my main attention to household chores--so much laundry--which calmed them down again. But at last, all the chores were done and I'd loaded everything into the car.
I lured Dinah upstairs with more treats and locked her in a bedroom, then snatched up Dora before she quite understood what was going on, stuffed her into the carrier, and zipped it shut. She freaked badly. She yowled and clawed, and the carrier shook like the Tasmanian devil cage in a Warner Brothers cartoon.
Meanwhile, I cornered Dinah upstairs and slid her into the other carrier. She's smaller and more tractable, so it wasn't difficult. But both of them shit in the carriers. I couldn't open the carriers to clean them out, either, because I'd never get the cats back in.
I drove back to Waterford with a carload of yowling cats. Darwin and I hauled them up to the condo and let them out (though I had to clean cat poop off Dora's fur first). They prowled uneasily around the place while I brought up load after load of stuff--two tubs of laundry, cat trees, cat litter, cat food. Why do I have cats, again?
The condo isn't really set up for cats. There's no good spot for a litter box. Neither bathroom is big enough for one, and we didn't want it in the dressing room or in the storage closet with our clothes. In the end, we settled on converting the exercise room closet into the kitty space. I laid down a vinyl floor mat, and there's just enough room for the litter box, bag of litter, and their bowls.
This was four days ago. Dinah and Dora have settled into a new normal, though neither of them is willing to set paw on the balcony, which I find interesting. Dinah stares out the window at the lake like she's trying to figure out what it is. Dora discovered she can lay in her customary place under my desk again, which is what she's doing now.
And the cats are back!
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