The daily life of three cats!

Patches, Midnight and Shadow moved from Sacramento, CA on June 6/7 2001 to Xenia, OH.

They are used to being able to go indoors and outside.  They are all spayed and are 28 months old and I have had them since they were 2 months of age.  I acquired them from the Sacramento animal shelter, SPCA.

MOVING DAY FOR THE KITTIES.
Of course when you are planning on catching a plane and you have to be there at a certain time it never fails that something goes wrong!  Like one of my roommates accidently letting out Patches!  On 7-5-2001, Gene headed for the airport with a carrier that held Midnight and Shadow.  I am to leave for the airport on 7-6-09 and I still have to find Patches to get her to the vet for her shots and tranqualizer after dropping Gene off at the airport.

I finally got her to come back into the house and was able to put her in her carrier.  She was NOT pleased one bit.  I got her to the vet, got what shots she needed for the trip to another state and was given a pill to help her sleep during the flight.

In order to take her on the plane with me and without having to put her in cargo, I had to make sure her carrier was of a specific width/height/length to fit under my seat.  I got to the airport a half hour late but was still able to get on my flight in time.  I held her on my lap and talked to her through the carrier mesh to help ease her fear.  The plane takes off and we are in the air about 20 minutes and I hear Patches meowing.  I know she is scared.  I pull her carrier out from under my seat and I realize that she isn't able to use her legs!  The medication the vet gave me to give her wasn't enough to knock her out.  Only to disable her partly.  I felt so sorry for her and didn't know what to do to make her feel better.  Then I realized something else which I REALLY felt bad about.  Patches had a bowel movement in her carrier.  I tried to clean her up a bit in the restroom but the smell still lingered and I felt bad for all the other passengers.  I told the ones that were sitting around me that I was really sorry and my cat couldn't help what she did.

I tried my best to keep Patches as calm as possible.

We finally landed and Gene was waiting for us.

We get to the apartment and we talked about the cats and how they did with the trip.  Midnight and Shadow did just fine.  Slept the whole time.  Gene said he stayed with them in the bathroom till they woke up and were moving about normally.  I told him about Patches' ordeal and we both felt bad for her and swore to not give her any meds again if we ever took her on another flight.

Eventually all the cats were back to their normal rambunctious selves. :)

In 2002 we put an add in the local paper to give the cats away since they were not taking to apartment living at all and we lived on the 3^rd floor.  They were used to coming and going as they pleased and there was no way we could do that living on the 3^rd floor.  We thought about it long and hard because we loved our cats and we wanted them to be with us but we also knew they were not happy being stuck in the apartment.  We had thought about having them declawed, BUT ONLY FOR A FEW SECONDS.  Neither of us would do that to a cat.

Gene's family owns land property and they have always had cats out there.  Mostly ones that came to live there on their own.  We decided that would be the best for them.  The cats love being outside and there is a garage that has a 'house' built for the cats inside the garage.  We knew the cats would be just fine.  Both Midnight and Shadow were great hunters so we knew that they would never go hungry even though there is always dry food out for the cats and his mom always gives the cats a can of wet food every night.

We took the cats out to the farm and stayed with them for several hours in the garage so they could get used to being out there.  Next day we took a trip to see some friends of Gene's in another state.  We were gone a week.  When we came back the cats weren't at the farm.  But don't worry.  We kept seeing them at one of the neighboring farms.  Even today, 8-26-09, we still see them around the other farm.

This makes us very happy knowing they are doing just fine.  Even though I miss them horribly, I don't think they would remember us any more.

After moving to a duplex from the apartments in 2005, we got some other cats.  But that is ANOTHER story. LOL

All 3 cats in the tub. "Mom! A little privacy please?"	All 3 at rest. "What a wonderful day for just lounging about!"	Patches doing what she does best! "Ok, I know I'm gorgeous so I will allow you to take only ONE more picture!"
Midnight & Shadow "Hey sis, do you see what I see?"	Midnight "If I stare long enough, I might be able to see through that wall!"	Midnight "Can't I just get some zzzz's please?"
Midnight & Shadow "That is one very large noisy rat! (Actually, it is a battery operated rat.)"	Patches "Alright, if you must get another pic of my beautiful face!"	Midnight & Shadow "Wonder where that water sound is coming from?"
Shadow "Now this is the life! Stretched out and just kicking back!"	Shadow "What did you say?"	Shadow "You call THAT music?"
Shadow "Ok ball, I gotcha now!"	Shadow "Hmmm, now what do I do with this ball?"