Welcome.

Welcome to our home, you cute polydactyl creature!

Checking in.

This is just a quick check in to let you know things, and us, get better day by day.

I still dream about him every night, and I still catch myself calling out his name or looking for him on his favorite chair. I sometimes think he will stop by, like nothing happened, in spite of the evidence. Yesterday someone called me to say she had found him. Poor woman. I broke out crying. I wanted so bad to believe her, to just drive down to her place to pick him up.

But ever so slightly the sadness visits get farther apart from each other.  

I have been trying to keep occupied, to be distracted.

I am excited because good friends are visiting us today and we will get to explore around.

It should be fun.

Frijol.

Last weekend Frijol, our sweet cat, was eaten by a coyote.

At first, because he was semi-feral, we thought he was just exploring the neighborhood. But after a  couple of days we started to get worried. I spent all Monday making flyers, calling vet offices and visiting animal shelters. That afternoon we found him, or what was left of him, in the vineyard just a few feet away from our home. I know that sounds rough, and it was and still is, but we are relieved to know where he was and what happened to him. The worry that kept us up at night has been replaced by sadness. 

He was a wild cat that loved to roam and be free, and we have realized that he died the way he lived. Like a friend of mine put it: live by the fang, die by the fang. Sad as it is, he had the death we suspected he would one day have. We just didn't know it would happen this soon.

He was an avid hunter, a sweet loving companion and the smartest cat I have ever met. His latest trick was to sit to receive a treat! I wish I had a video of him doing that.

There is a huge sad emptiness where he used to be in our lives.

He and his crazy fangs will be greatly missed.

The (never ending) move.

J and I had this image of our move as just putting "it all" in our car and driving away towards our bright new future while singing happily with the radio turned to the loudest possible volume. It would look something like this (add favorite tunes as loud as they can go and happy purring cats in the back seat):

You can buy this pretty embroidery here.

Well, it turns out the move is actually harder than previously thought.

As of right now it has been almost a month, we are not done moving, and have driven back and forth between our places for what feels like a trillion times. One of those trips involved boxes with cat limbs coming out from every possible corner and me crying because we had uprooted them from a happy place. 

Our old home is little and we assumed we could empty it in a couple of trips, so we just got enough boxes to fit in J's parent's van thinking we could fill them up, drive them to our new place, unpack them and go back a couple of times with the same boxes. Easy! Practical! NOT.

How could so many things fit in a 365 square feet little cabin?

Last time I moved 6 years ago all I brought with me was a backpack with a couple of clothes changes. That was it. And maybe some shampoo and a hair band. Now J and I find ourselves the proud owners of tons of stuff. How did this happen? We have collected some useful artifacts for the kitchen (like the prettiest mugs we got for our wedding). We are both readers, and while we support our public library, somehow we have amassed a fair amount of books. Then there are plants, driftwood, rocks, bones, clothes and the infamous shoes...

I wish this moving option had been a possibility, or that I had found* Jennifer earlier! No, she is not a super efficient muscular mover, but a smart girl who has decided to let go of most of her worldly possessions and drive away without turning back. I know how to shed everything away feels like and it is liberating and refreshing, but for whatever reasons it is not where I am at now, so on and on I go carrying the load of my stuff.

I think this weekend we will finally make our last trip to move and then I will allow myself to sit still and have a cup of tea.

I have to tell you, that first cup of tea at our new place better taste good in those pretty mugs!

PS. The cats are happy and adjusting to our new home quite nicely.

* Jennifer found via Mighty Girl

Creatures.

These two monsters keep me warm and make me happy on a crummy rainy day like today.

Something tells me they have no intentions of going elsewhere anytime soon.