Gotcha, Charlie!

Unadilla, Ga., October 13, 2013—Both cats are traveling with us on this trip. Good thing, since we’ll be gone about two weeks, a wee bit long to have one (or both) of them left alone at home. We didn’t have any problems getting them on board, mainly because we got smarter.

As soon as I got us yesterday morning, I spied both of the felines sleeping on the porch. I then casually went outside and locked the outside cat door. That accomplished, I did the same to the inside cat door. As long as we didn’t let them in the house, the cats had no place to hide.

Junior is stored north of us, so instead of driving the RV home to load it, we began our loading Friday by packing virtually all our clothes.

With Charlie and Xena safely captured on the porch, Jim and I loaded the car. With everything else stowed, we tackled the cats. Jim took Xena (no problem). But then Charlie decided something was up and started running away from us. He had no place to hide, but it took a few minutes for us to corral him anyway. Finally, we had them both in animal crates, and we were off.

So far, so good. So far, no unwelcome “gifts” from Xena (although I anticipate this will change at some point, unfortunately, since she has a way of getting back at us for restricting her freedom). They traveled well, even coming out to see what was going on as we rambled down the road.

We are staying a couple of nights in Unadilla, Ga., about 120 miles Atlanta, off I75. Jim put the harness and leash on each of our feline friends and tried to get them to explore outside, properly tethered. They didn’t like it. He’ll try again; maybe someday they will get used to being on a leash. (On our first trip to Yuma we met a woman who took her cat for a leashed walk every night, just as if she had a dog.)

Oh...one more thing. When we came home earlier this evening, Charlie was sleeping in the lounge area, but Xena was nowhere in sight. I finally found her: In one of my underbed drawers! She had crawled under the bed and found a way to hide in the drawer.

Never under estimate the power of a cat.

Until next time,

Your Reluctant Rover,

Linda