Jane’s sister passed away unexpectedly. We left the kitties in the capable care of good friends and took out for Chicagoland by car…Jane had always promised her sister that should anything happen to her, she would take care of her two kitties, elderly fellows, both, not the sort who could find other homes, for sure. So we drove it in 3 days—1785 miles. Jane is doing well: the time spent in driving and talking was a benefit; and we were able, in a handful of days, to take care of what had to be taken care of, including legal matters, calm two very upset kitties, and pack up or ship those things that are family stuff, including the two kitties (who had never been further than the vet by car)—and who were troopers on the trip back. Very gentle, very nice kitties, and they are now living in our basement library until we can gradually introduce them to our two far more territorial lads.

It was a very hard couple of weeks, physically. We would work ourselves to exhaustion, reach the hotel, fall asleep when we got there, rise at 6 and go do it all again. We took one additional day to rest up (and locate the kitties: one is an absolute master of escape and hiding.) And then we drove 3 days back, trading off at the wheel. We got home about 2:00 pm yesterday, had lunch at our local pub, went home and made contact with our own kitties, and collapsed about 6 pm and slept until 6 AM.

We are up and functional. Our kitties were glad to see us and only hissed a bit at the ‘other cat’ smell about us. I have a dental appointment Monday—and that’s kind of an important one. The Prius is packed literally to the overhead with boxes and items—we could not fit in so much as a hairbrush, with the job Jane did in packing it, and it managed the trip through a major winter storm we were timing-it trying to Not Get Caught In. We made it first to Oacoma SD, to a hotel we know. We came into our next stop at Livingston MT with snow flying sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, after a dicey afternoon drive through the mountains with a lowered cloud deck and rain, meaning foggy conditions, and made it by 6 (we’d booked a room by phone in Livingston MT, halfway between Billings and Butte, and a good thing we had, because storms fill up hotels.) We made it in with snow going sideways and wind gusts rocking the car, got up to drive on through snow and chain-up for trucks through Bozeman Pass, then had much easier time on toward home. Tired. Definitely. Today we start unpacking the car. I just saw Jane out there starting that job, and have to get at it.