Happy Tales

“We were to leave at 9 a.m., and make the fifteen hour drive over two days, arriving at our new home where we would joyfully unload and set up house. Unfortunately, true to form for me, we did not begin to load the RV until 1 p.m., irritating my husband to no end. Furthermore, we then discovered Annie’s cage would not fit through the very narrow RV side door, so it had to be disassembled, and reassembled, once the four individual side pieces, top piece, and bottom piece were loaded separately inside the RV. I could see my husband’s blood pressure rising, and he is a very calm, stoic man.

“In our thirty years of homing rescued dogs and cats, this particular kennel was one of the hardest to assemble that we had ever encountered. The metal rods had to be inserted correctly (not backwards) through metal loops along the outside edges of the side panels. And, these panels had to be stood up vertically, all four sides’ edges resting on each other, before the rods were precariously threaded through the loops. Only then could the top side be attached in the same manner. Even though my husband and I had assembled, and disassembled, this cage several times, the procedures always included sides falling down as the metal rods were to be threaded through loops, causing us to start all over again. After several failed attempts, (increasing our stress levels because this was taking so long, making us even later to depart), our tempers flared with threats being made between us, climaxing in my feeling our marriage was about to be over.

“By 3 p.m., we were completely loaded up, humans and cats. All I had to do was walk Annie up the two steps, through the door, into the RV kitchen, and directly into her finally, assembled cage. She went up the steps, into the RV, and flat refused to step into her cage! After several tries and being out maneuvered, and growling expletives (by me, not the dog), I squeezed between the two front seats, into my seat, with Annie sitting on the floor just behind us. My husband looked over his shoulder at Annie and asked ‘What’s Annie doing here?’ I meekly answered, ‘She won’t go into her cage.’ Two hours of silence followed.

“My husband started the RV and we took off. Annie rode like an angel, sitting between our two chairs in the front, never making a false move. We never used her kennel, as the cats were always contained in their kennels, even as I changed litter and food bowls. It did take my husband about two hours into the drive before he broke his icy silence and we could have a semi-civil conversation.

“There was one other little ‘glitch.’ Most of the cats could not be easily handled, (and some not able to be touched, much less picked up), which was not a problem because once they were with their ‘suite mates’ in their respective kennels, they were not going to leave until arriving at their new home, the kennels being carried into their wonderfully large, accommodating new cattery room, kennel doors carefully opened, and the cats gingerly walking out. There were two exceptions: Tawny, a wonderful tan and gray tiger stripe that got along with everyone and was a real love, and then there was Tara. Tara was a pipsqueak of a little thing, about four and a half pounds, polydactyl (having large thumbs on her front feet), with an attitude, but we could pick her up and she was a real love, sometimes. She was a Tortoiseshell cat, and one of the most beautifully marked ones we had ever seen. Her coloring was typical oranges, browns, and black, paint spattered onto her coat, but not dull or muted at all. The patterns of color were eye catching with sharp color contrasts of black against deep, bright orange. Tara had her own cat carrier for the trip to make sure none of the larger cats hogged her food. It was so convenient, I thought, to put her carrier on the overhead bunk right above the driver’s seat.

“Unfortunately, Tara exhibited her voice to us for the first time. Instead of the demure little squeak of a ‘mew,’ that we had heard only occasionally from her, two hours into the trip Tara began to ‘Howl’ at length, on and on and on, non-stop. My husband was just getting over the two hour silent treatment he was harboring, and Tara started howling and did not stop until we arrived at our new home. And so it was, Tara, pitting the entire force of her four and a half pounds of physical weight and high pitched wail of a voice, against my husband’s stoic 185 pounds of weight and silence. Tara continued her soprano screaming the entire trip, my husband’s steely resolve unbroken and unflinching; but me, my insides clenched with each belt of Tara’s voice, my nerves almost shot with anticipation of my husband’s verbal response. I was just waiting for my husband to say something, but it was Tara, the howler, against my husband, the stoic, and my husband won out. He never said a word about her. However, my nerves were a wreck!

“I remember the first night we stayed in the RV. Deciding it was best, and safest, to just pull off the highway and stay at a rest stop among several huge tractor trailers, that’s just what we did. It was about 9 p.m., in Oregon, on a clear, dark night, and we drove into a picturesque rest area just off the highway. Taking Annie on leash for her evening walk, in pitch darkness, Annie and I walked to the edge of the sidewalk and into the woods, looking straight up amidst eighty foot evergreen trees, spiraling high into the sky; the tree tops spreading out, revealing a canopy of blue-white sparkling stars against a deep navy, ink blue sky.”