SANTA FE ARRIVAL, June 18, 2011

Bookie's first look at Santa Fe

Life is good. Great, in fact. We have just spent our first 5 mornings up on the mountaintop in Santa Fe. All of the bad memories of the road trip with The Critter Caravan have faded into amusing. At the time—- not so funny! I should begin by telling you that I am prone to seasickness. My last boat trip in the Cayman Islands several years ago was so unpleasant for me and those around me, that the fishing boat captain actually went back to land and dropped me off. Usually, nothing will get them back to land once they have begun a trip, but apparently he didn’t want any parts of a seasick woman on his boat!  It was such a horrid experience for me, I haven’t set foot on a fishing boat since.

Having said that, I can now begin the tale of the 36 hour ride across country in a rented, 25 foot RV. Don’t get me wrong, the complaints do not lie with the rental company. They were great. However, about 10 minutes into the trip there was that big “Uh-OOOOOOOOOHH” moment you get when you realize you have made a huge mistake. RV’s for me, I suddenly discovered, are incredibly similar in movement to those of a fishing boat at sea. I immediately became ill. REALLY ill. I won’t go into details, but I do recall having thoughts of 35 hours and 50 minutes to go and jumping out a window at the same time. I was convinced that the fall couldn’t possibly be worse than how I felt at that moment.

The next 6 hours were not pretty. I spent them mostly lying down on one of the beds behind the driver trying my hardest to overcome the urge to abandon ship. Make that RV. Mind you, I was not alone on this voyage. There were also 4 doves, 3 cats, a dog, and happily for me, two drivers, fully prepared to drive straight through to Santa Fe with no stops. At least the agony would be limited. You may be thinking it would be better to stop and settle my stomach frequently. But that brings me to the second part of this story….. the 4 doves, 3 cats and the dog.

The dog couldn’t have been better. When she experienced our partial move last July and saw boxes and movers, she became visibly agitated. I didn’t understand it at the time. Bob and I departed for Santa Fe shortly after the movers left, and Shelby the dog got to go stay with Aunt Judy, her baby sitter, which normally she loves. But Judy said she never settled in that time. She paced the entire two weeks we were gone, obviously very upset. I realized when I found this out, and when we saw the over-exuberant even for Shelby greeting we got when we got home that the poor dog was probably having major abandonment issue flashbacks from her first home. The SPCA where we adopted her said her original owners had moved and left her behind. Apparently she thought it had happened again. This time around, when she saw the RV show up and the door open and received the Let’s Go invitation, she couldn’t have been happier. She settled in immediately, and was the best behaved creature on the camper!

The birds were also very well behaved. They didn’t seem to be the least bit traumatized by the trip. Their cage had been wired into the shower, and they moved with the vehicle, almost appearing to be doing coordinated dance routines,  swaying the same directions to the motion like a Pixar cartoon. They actually walked around, ate and drank and cooed like they were home. When we got here, they did, however, spend the first day sleeping. Bob commented that it must have been pretty exhausting spending 36 hours hanging onto a perch for dear life.

As for the cats….hmmmmmmmmmmmm….another story!!!! The first problem was the space, or lack of it. We had two huge crates to accommodate them and their litter boxes which we had to fit into the back sections over a well tarped bed along with boxes of art work I wouldn’t trust with the movers. I could easily get to the first crate with the feral brother and sister, but to get to the second one with the “normal” kitty, I had to climb onto the countertop, hang over the sink from the cabinets above, and reach into the cage to comfort or feed her. Try that on a speedboat!

As soon as the vehicle started, every bump, no matter how slight, caused everything in the camper to rise airborne, then to crash back down (my stomach being among those crashing things). The cats all started howling bloody murder, which of course upset me to no end. As sick as I was, I had to maneuver back to them to try to calm them down, while my entire body was being slammed against every surface in the RV. At the moment, I look like a battered woman, as there isn’t a limb that isn’t bruised from being slapped into a wall or piece of luggage, or box or cat crate.

They finally settled down to silent, which I knew wouldn’t last. When our second driver, Ken, took over so Bob and I could “sleep” during the night, I was awakened by an alley cat fight scream at 4 AM. Yoda had apparently decided she didn’t want to share her room with her brother, and decided to kill him. Mind you, I knew that none of the cats really liked the others, but I had hoped the brother and sister would give each other comfort. The male is particularly shy. Painfully shy. And sweet as they come. He also has a bad heart, which made his anxiety extra stressful for me too. I ended up pulling him out of the crate and having him sit terrified in my lap for about an hour until both of them calmed down. I won’t mention the claw marks I have in my arms from that event. Eventually, when Yoda fell asleep, I slipped him back in and hoped for the best.

I can’t emphasize this enough. A trip from Pennsylvania to New Mexico with a camper full of animals is a VERY long trip!!!!!! In fact, Oklahoma is probably the longest state in the world. And the hottest. But eventually, we did reach Texas, and then it was into to the homestretch from there.

We arrived in our new home at about 2 AM. I put the kitties in a quiet room with everything they needed, locked the door, and crashed. I was up at 5 due to one of the most spectacular sunrises in the world which are now right outside our windows. Dawn called my name, and despite my exhaustion, I answered the call. Sitting on the top landing, I opened the cat room door to see who emerged. First came Squirt, the “normal one.” She walked out, walked a few feet down the hall,  turned and returned to her crate where she stayed  for the next 2 days. To my absolute shock, the most timid of the group followed. Sinatra, AKA Bookie, is a changed man. Errrr…cat. He walked into the room, took one look at the panorama, and had a look in his eye like I have never seen in Bookie’s 10 years with us in Pennsylvania. If he could have beaten his chest and made Tarzan yowls, I believe he would have. He immediately went to the rock which we have in out entrance room (yes, we do have rocks, INSIDE this house), hopped on top and surveyed his new kingdom. Yes, Bookie had become king. I was dumbstruck watching the new, confident leader, who then walked all over the house checking things out. He had arrived.

Bookie on his indoor rock, contemplating his kingdom.

Later in the day his sister came out and checked out the rocks. Obviously, the “feral” had been touched in their souls by the house and the surrounding wilderness. Two once shy cats who had never acted normal in any way shape or form back East, are suddenly as normal as a cat can be. They have become affectionate, bold, curious, energetic, and obviously very happy. Two days later, Squirt emerged, and has been fine since then. Happy cats. It’s very nice to see happy cats! I honestly never expected such a dramatic transformation. To know that the critters we live with have found the tranquility and happiness in Santa Fe that I have found is a joy beyond belief.

So right now, I am enjoying my 5th dawn. Rosy sky followed by turquoise brilliance as the daylight is poured backwards from the distant mountains, drifting to the house like liquid gold being poured on a jewel setting. Dog, cats, and people alike are being entertained by the antics of the 4 chipmunks who live on the rocks and race across our deck. These are the same chipmunks who ate a foot high basil plant down to the pot the first morning I put it outside. But that’s another story. The second basil plant is now inside an old bird cage on the deck, and the chipmunk family got their own private bowl of water, which they seem to be enjoying tremendously. The hummingbirds have just discovered our feeder.

Life is good. No, make that great…..

Shelby and Frisco, AKA Squirt, watching the chipmunk show.