Boo – Page 15

The Furry Philosopher

My wife and I were discussing how we’d love to know what Boo is thinking. Like Scout, the black-and-white cat that preceded him, Boo is clever, but more than that he seems to ponder, to wonder, to want to understand not just the what of the world but the why. We’ve had other curious cats but there is a depth to Boo’s curiosity that is unique, so much so that it sometimes takes me aback when he plays with all the joy and enthusiasm of the other cats, even though we’ve had him since he was a kitten and we’ve played together countless hours.

Would that all so desired to understand the unknown, rather than fear it.

Consistency

Some days it feels like everything has changed since we moved to Arizona but it’s not true. Boo still loves his Boo Boxes. Boo still has no bones.

Loved to the End

The movers had come the day before so the house was nearly empty but the wooden grate above the heating vent was loved to the very end.

Getting There

Today is the last day of our three day drive to Arizona, we should be in our rental house this evening. The pets have done far better than I expected but it’s clearly been stressful for them, particularly the cats. Both hotels have a 2 pet per room limit, so my wife and I have gotten separate rooms and split the pets, she’s had Ellie and Trixie while I’ve had Sam and Boo. The first night we stayed at the La Quinta in Reddng, CA, and enjoyed the hotel. Although the brothers fell asleep after the stress of a long car ride, Boo woke me up at 4 a.m. and kept mewing, so I tried to comfort him and keep him quiet. I’d get him settled when Sam started up and this continued for the next hour and a half. So I didn’t get the best night’s sleep but that was no fault of the hotel, and the next night we gave them a mild sedative in the evenings and I had a wonderful night’s sleep. The sedative has also kept their stress levels down during the car ride but still left them alert.

The Last Picture I Took in Portland

This is the last picture I took before leaving Portland, the three cats crated up, the last thing to be packed into the car. I love how Ellie snuck into the picture. I thought today was going to be more emotional than it was, leaving the house for the last time after 16 years, leaving Portland, leaving Oregon. Maybe it’s because the past month has been a slow-motion move, maybe it’s because I just want the move to be over with, maybe it’s because I’m more than ready to start my life anew in Arizona.

Goodbye House, I Love You

I’ve saved my last goodbye for the house that has been our home for sixteen years. Built in 1925, old homes have their charms and their challenges. This one has charmed me and it’s hard to say goodbye but it is time. The movers are packing our belongings and loading it onto the truck. Tomorrow we leave for Arizona.

It’s funny what you fall in love with, sometimes it’s the little things. I’ll always remember the wooden grate over the heating vent that attracted the cats like a watering hole in a dry savannah. Trixie loves it, as have many of our cats, including Boo who was already occupying it and wondering about his sister’s intentions as he gave her the side-eye on her approach.

The mover’s were surprised we aren’t taking the stained glass windows with us, which hang just inside of the real windows. They were here when we bought the house, home-made I would guess, but do a lovely job of providing privacy while letting in light.

These old houses have their challenges too. I won’t miss the tiny one car garage. You get used to contractors coming out to fix what seems like a simple problem and hearing them say “I’ve never seen this before”. We had an electrician out recently who based on my description of the problem thought it would be an easy fix, as it had been a long day and he was ready for home. Two hours later …

When I think of home I think of this house. I’ve never lived anywhere nearly as long as we’ve lived here. It will still be a home, just not ours. I hope it protects and delights its new owners as well it has us. Goodbye, I love you.

What Matters

If our rental application is approved, we leave for Arizona in a week-and-a-half.

A week-and-a-half.

How can it be that it is time to say goodbye to my home? But it is time. I’m planning to write goodbye posts to a few of my favorite parts of life here, tributes to a place that I have loved to my very core, but I don’t want to give the impression that just because it saddens me to leave the Pacific Northwest that I’m not excited about exploring the Southwest. The Sonoran desert has a unique beauty all its own and I have much to learn on many levels and I’m eager for the journey to begin. I wish I was already there.

But even if the job was in a place I wasn’t excited about, what matters most is our little family will be together.

When our plane landed Saturday night and we took our phones out of airplane mode, my wife had texts from our pet sitter that she and our three cats were at DoveLewis, our emergency vet. She had prepared Ellie’s pills by covering them with pill pockets, but when she let Ellie outside briefly to go to the bathroom one of the cats ate all of Ellie’s pills. With a long history of pet ownership this is not our first brush with an accidental poisoning, I shudder to think how many things Ellie ate in her first months with us as we learned the hard way just how low the bar our pup sets for what qualifies as food.

And of course when I started this blog 12 years ago one of my first posts was about our cat Templeton swallowing a sewing needle right before we were leaving for a trip. Accidents happen, I’m sure all pet owners (and parents) have their own stories.

Thankfully she got all three cats into their carriers (trust me, this is no small feat) and took them to DoveLewis so they were already getting treatment by the time we arrived. It would be easy to panic in a situation like this but I’m grateful she did exactly what was needed.

We suspected Boo was the culprit but until we knew for sure all cats were getting treatment. They gave them medicine to get the cats to throw up but only Trixie cooperated, and she didn’t have any pills (or pill pockets) in her stomach as we suspected. Sam and Boo weren’t revealing their secrets and neither was talking so we left them overnight after talking with both the doctors there and the experts at the ASPCA poison control hotline (1-888-426-4435), while we took Trixie home with us.

The brothers were given charcoal to absorb as much of the medicine as possible, Sam never showed any symptoms but overnight Boo developed an elevated temperature and was anxious and over-reactive, one of the effects the ASPCA predicted, confirming our suspicions about the identify of the pill thief. Those symptoms cleared up by morning and by 2 p.m. they were cleared to come home.

At this point we’re just monitoring Boo, he only ate half his food last night but ate most of it this morning although it took him two passes. He’s been a bit lethargic but not frighteningly so, he could just be recovering from everything he went through physically and emotionally. It could be because he’s upset I recycled all his Boo Boxes. He’s asleep on my legs at the moment, I hate to disturb him but the dog must be walked and I have more to do today than I have time to do.

I’m thankful for my little ones, and so very thankful that we have the income to afford treatments like this when something goes wrong. And I’m deeply thankful for everyone who has looked after our little ones during our stay here, from the sitters to the doctors and everyone in between. We’ll have to find new people in Arizona to fill those roles, and will want to know a good emergency vet before we leave Oregon, one of the many little tasks to be done.

But for now we’re all together and that makes me happy.

Guarding Boo

Portland, You Have to Let Me Go

This is what Portland looked like as the sun started to rise on the morning I was leaving for my interview in Arizona. It snowed the night before and iced up a little overnight but the trains were still running on time and I was able to walk down and take the train to the airport as planned. I loved seeing the snow one last time but all I wanted was an easy departure as I set out on the trip that would determine how we spend the next phase of our lives. I was sad I didn’t have time to go out and photograph the neighborhood in the snow, but I had a plane to catch, and at least I had my pictures from the heavier snow a year prior. This is resident philosopher Boo enjoying his last snow from one of our two picture windows at the front of the house, his future storms will not be so tranquil as they will be the occasional but ferocious summer thunderstorms of Arizona’s monsoon season.

Take Me With You

To prepare for my trip to Arizona, I started laying out on the guest bed everything I wanted to take with me and stepped away for a moment. I came back to find an extra item that I couldn’t bring with me, much as I would have loved to, but which will come along to wherever we end up.