Saturday, August 02, 2008

home again, home again


These urban, San Francisco-born children have driven ATVs (wearing safety helmets and being chauffeured by either their cousin Ashley or Aunt Robin), driven a tractor with their Uncle Dick, ridden horses with a neighbor of my cousin's(who didn't ask my permission before putting my children up onto the horses), gathered eggs, petted cows, raked blueberries, dug for new potatoes, and done no end of rural things. They are fully prepared to move to rural Maine at this point, and the Sober Husband (who loved lobsters and fresh blueberries) is feeling the charms of New England as well. "You don't know what it's like in the winter," I observed acerbically. "It's not this much fun in the winter."

We came home to a message that our cat, Rachel, had been reported as being a stray, and the Sober Husband retrieved her while the children and I were at our "Family Clay Day" sculpture class. The rescuer pointed out that Rachel had been at her house for a full week and we "didn't notice", and that Rachel was lacking a collar. The Sober Husband argued that we'd been gone for two weeks, our teenaged petsitters couldn't be expected to be on top of everything, and that she had a collar when we left. While he was having this discussion, Rachel wandered out of the self-styled rescuer's house and towards a neighbor's house. When the Sober Husband went to retrieve her, this neighbor protested, "That's MY cat!" Evidently while we were gone, Rachel acquired not one but two new homes. Clearly she doesn't need us at all (whereas all the other cats were hanging about the premises and appeared excited to see us again). The Sober Husband thanked this second person for feeding our cat. Incidentally one of these kindly braintrusts had taken Rachel to a vet out of concern that she was pregnant and had learned that no, she's long-neutered and just fat, and I note that maybe if all these people STOPPED FEEDING HER CANNED FOOD she'd reach a more reasonable weight for her petite stature. Now returned to her home, Rachel is reclining on the floor, bloated, and refusing to eat any dry kibble, screeching emphatically whenever anyone walks towards the canned food. (Rachel is a middle-aged cat we got off of Craigslist five years ago who was homeless at one point and who has clearly mastered the art of scoring canned cat food).

We've already picked up four foster kittens, as one of the other fosterers has a wife in the hospital and some kind of crisis at work and was accordingly thrilled to drive over and drop off his four charges. "They have trouble using the litterbox" was his parting shot.

Broke, tired, a wee bit on the cranky side, but rich in cats: we're home.

13 comments:

Missy said...

What a great picture! (love the beautiful children!) Hey, I think you'd totally rock in a rural home.

Missy
PS. Mr. Texzmissy wants to know how many miles you drove in a day to make this trip.

thi said...

*snort*

Reminds me of "A Walk on the Moon", the guys want to know stats on the drive.

Uh, how many miles y'all go?

Great pics. Visiting Yankee country in the summer (as a South Carolinian in my youth and Texan in my aged youth (aka adulthood)) makes you all appreciative of comfy evenings ... and DH, you're sure right about winters.

- Texas T'Roy

hughman said...

DH -

wow you are so gorgeous! truly a Betty Paige. plus all the tattoos! great pic!

i think you are bordering on "Crazy Cat Woman" territory but that just might be me.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Silliyak said...

Nice pic.

Anonymous said...

Welcome home - you all look amazingly happy and relaxed considering the last few weeks!

May you have many better days ahead.

2amsomewhere said...

I'll cast another vote for "beautiful" on the picture.

The hint of body art juxtaposed against a product of Deere & Co. is truly an ever-so-subtle statement of subversion. :-)

Given the stresses and strains of your voyage, I hope you get some time to recover and recharge.

--
2amsomewhere

Dread Pirate Davi said...

What a lovely family. =)

Speaking of stray cats, I think you'll find this interesting:

www.saveagato.org

Carol Ann said...

That's a great picture. I'm glad you all made it home safe and sound.

Anonymous said...

Either you've posted a few pics of your girls that I can't recall seeing......or I have an uncanny ability to guess what they look like based on your postings. They are lovely (as are their parents!).

Captain Steve said...

Every time I fear that I might be a crazy cat lady, I come here. Because I could not imagine taking in 4 kittens. Welcome home!

hokgardner said...

Welcome home.

The one and only time I managed to drag my husband, a Texan born and bred, to upstate New York, where I'm from, he conceded that it was actually pretty there. I hoped I could talk him into moving back, but no such luck.

Freewheel said...

Good lookin' folks.

nicoletta76 said...

Your family is so cute! Great photo!