Supposedly, it is normal for a cat owner to be neurotic

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So, I just got finished dropping the kittens off at their little boarding house. By “boarding house” I mean “kennel with little cages.” By “dropping them off” I mean spending 10 minutes on paperwork and physical exams and 50 minutes ensuring they are all settled in while trying not to completely lose it and cry in front of the nice girls at the kennel. I am sure they could sense I was a little choked up over the whole thing, which made it that much more difficult to try to keep my composure. It all welled up when I finally got home, though. The house is completely empty and deathly silent, as Kate is out dropping a schoolmate off at the airport. I just had to sit down on the floor next to one of the discarded toy mice for a little while until I could once again see straight.

I feel really guilty for locking them away like that for three weeks. To me (with my tiny little bit of kitten experience) that seems like an excessive amount of time to leave the kittens with strangers. We kind of wanted to get a sitter to come take care of them and feed them at home–so at least they would have a familiar place with familiar smells and lots of room to run around and cause trouble–but we are so new here, we do not really know anyone well enough to feel comfortable leaving them with our keys. They should be all right, though. They have people to take care of them, and they do get to come of of the cage once or twice a day to run around and play. It is not like we are leaving them completely on their own. The girl at the vet said they will be okay and that kittens adjust to it a lot better than the older cats. She also said that there are people that leave their cats there for the summer while they venture off to their summer house or whatever. They were also good at not letting me feel stupid for bringing the kitty-stockings full of fun toys and hanging them on their cage door. They shared little anecdotes about other cat owners (some send postcards and they get attached to the cage walls, some phone up and talk to the kitties, etc.) and how it’s strange for a cat owner to NOT be a little neurotic. I had to say goodbye to Pants and The Precious on three or four different occasions before I was able to stop adjusting their things and finally build up the willpower to walk out the door.

Tomorrow morning, it’s an early wake up call followed by a trip to the airport. We should be touching down in …ummm…Santa Ana? Ontario? I forget which airport, as Kate has all that stuff… tomorrow in the late morning/early afternoon. This should be the last post until I am somewhere with a network connection. I will conclude with two pictures:

Posted in: Dear Diary

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