Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
Someone from the moving company came the other day to do a walk-through of our house. Ellie was eager to greet him, as is her wont, but then she got her orange ball and starting tossing it at me. She followed us around, trying unsuccessfully to get me to play, the entire time he was there. When we were finished, the moment he was out the door I turned to Ellie to play with the ball but she wouldn’t even put it in her mouth much less play with it.
You make me laugh, my pup, my heart and my joy.
Don’t worry little Squeaks, we are going to great lengths to make sure you and your siblings join us in Arizona. My wife and I fly out on Thursday so we can meet with a realtor on Friday and Saturday to look for a rental house. We know it is going to be difficult to find a place that will take 3 cats and a dog, but we’ll do our best. If we find a place then we’ll move down before I start my new job, regardless of when our stuff can follow us down. I meet with the moving company later today so I might have a better feel then for when they can pack our things and get them started on their journey.
When my team got laid off at the start of November, one nice thing the company did was set us up with another company that gives advice to people in our position in starting the job search and updating resumes and online profiles. They gave a lot of good advice which genuinely helped on the job search, but one piece of advice I deliberately didn’t take, even though I think it is a good idea, is to treat the job search like a job and take the weekends off to recuperate. I didn’t do it because I was looking at different industries and different cities and had a lot of research to do. I don’t regret it, pursuing even the long shots as long as they interested me is how I got the job I accepted. But there’s also no question it left me mentally worn out.
And physically worn out as well, the past four months I’ve a hard time getting back to sleep once I wake up in the morning. In the early days it was because the reality of what happened would hit me after being blissfully unaware of it while sleeping, then it was because I started thinking about everything that needed to be done that day while I was searching for a job, and now I think about everything that needs to be done as we prepare for our move. For all that, once I accepted the job my mood became much more upbeat as I’m excited about both the new job and the new place where we’ll be living. This afternoon I even felt a strange sense of euphoria about it, despite so much being unsettled and how much needs to be done before I start. I suppose it’s a mix of being over-tired and legitimately excited about the new adventure we’re about to undertake.
The pup, though, she’s still sleeping like a champ. I prefer when she sleeps in one of her beds as, if she starts running in her sleep, it keeps her leg kicks from getting too violent. In her younger years they were adorable little leg kicks but these days, either from old age or side effects of medicines, she can get into a full-on gallup. Perhaps it led to her injuring herself a couple of weeks ago, but we’ll never know.
Resident architect Boo continues to tweak his design for the Boo Box Condo, literally turning it onto its side and opening up a whole new world of possibilities. Designed with an open front for easy access, its innovative shapes link the inside and outside worlds while providing the necessary privacy when others approach and impinge on your personal freedoms.
Trixie may not love to squeeze into impossibly tight spaces like the Incredible Bendable Boo, but she is a tiny little cat and thus can curl up even in some of Boo’s smaller boxes with relative ease.
“When the shadows rise and the path lies hidden, do not despair! For then shall the light pierce the darkness and fall upon its champion, master of dark and light, for he is dark and light, and he shall guide you.”
So concludes today’s reading from “The Book of Boo”.
Boo is not yet ready to receive visitors to his new Boo Box Condo, he says it’s just a prototype and isn’t ready for public viewing but I don’t know, I think it’s already looking pretty sweet.
Today marks the three year anniversary of the day Emma died. I was driving along the Oregon coast this fall when out of nowhere I had this sudden thought of her and felt a sharp pang of sorrow that instantly brought tears to my eyes but not my cheeks. The thought passed as quickly as it arrived, the pain soon followed and I was back enjoying the beautiful seascapes once more. Those intense moments are rare but I’m surprised they still happen at all, it wasn’t like that with the other cats this far along, perhaps it was because she was so young and slipped so slowly through our fingers.
You are missed my sweet Em, but I’m deeply thankful for the years we spent together. In this picture she was about two years old, sitting at the entrance to my office.
Boolie 