What about the cats?!?

Still OK with pets no matter what.

Thursday morning, the 12th, I got a message from Rena to the effect of "I'm not sure about this... the cats cried for several hours last night and the neighbors are complaining." We talked on the phone, and strategized. I've never known our cats to do anything like that, but they've never had occasion to with us. When we first adopted them they were much younger, and had feline chlamidya from the shelter. They were too sick to stay up all night doing much of anything. Since then, well, they've just had their routine in the house. No need to fuss. I was worried. If this kept up, and her having the cats proved impossible, we were going to be pretty stuck. I started calling around as best I could, which wasn't much. I'm no cat-rehoming expert.

Meanwhile we were trying to leave Portland and get travel plans sorted for our travel to Klamath, CA for our 2-week stay in the Redwoods. This reservation has been long-held, and has kind of hung over our heads as a key destination. Our first out-of-state, our first big sightseeing location, our first 2-week stay. If we could just get out of Portland...

The next day, Friday, we had plans to stay near Eugene, and on the way there to stop at the Springfield DMV to take care of the title paperwork on Solomon. Evan had the RV in Washington, and Oregon requires an in-person inspection to title an out-of-state vehicle. This is a challenging appointment to begin with for a 40' trailer, but having all the DMVs be booked out for months really turned the screws. Most people could get away with a temporary permit, which the OR DMV says they won't enforce expiries on for several months, but in our case we don't intend to return to Oregon for a year, and those temp tags aren't going to make us very popular 6 months and 2000 miles from now.

So it made sense, regardless of whether the cats adjusted to their new place, for us to make that drive because Springfield was one of the only DMVs in Oregon doing walk-up VIN inspections. We knew it might not work out - maybe the line would be bad, maybe we couldn't even pull into the lot - but it was worth a try, and our plan A was to keep going south anyway. Incredibly, the DMV part was super easy! We parked in the median and walked into the lot to scope it out. I talked to the check-in lady and she said to just pull it around into their ample parking lot and she'd do the inspection. So we did that, and afterwards she asked if I wanted to take care of the title today too. Yes! Didn't even need an appointment! We pulled the rig out of the way, I dug out the title paperwork and in I went. I wasn't in there more than 15 minutes before I walked out with a (very expensive) plate, tags and registration.

In the background: Very Important clearance sign.

Unfortunately, in the process of getting to the DMV we smacked the branches of a street tree, so while there we also discovered that we are missing a porch light lens and an awning motor fairing. Our first road damage! They both look like pretty clean breaks, so as these things go it's pretty minor. More stuff for the checklist. Oh, and my computer monitor fell into the side of the bunkroom slide and got jammed in there when we extended it at the park - it's fine, but was a close call. What wasn't fine was that we broke the screen on one of the chromebooks on our way out of Seattle last week. One to fix later. Things move around a lot more during travel than we realized.

Anyway the success at the DMV was nice, and probably worth the drive on its own, but we were 100% a bundle of raw nerves about the cats. 3 nights in a row with no change was going to be too much, and we couldn't really leave Oregon with them like that. But our options were all bad. We didn't have anyone else to ask, and just surrendering them entirely felt far too drastic this early. We haven't even been on the road 3 weeks. But then say we get them back and drive around, how long is it going to take them not not hate it? Is it going to become a safety issue with them stressing everyone out in the car while we're moving 25,000lbs down the freeway? What if we need to take the RV in for repair and get a hotel, are they going to cry all night? Is this the kind of trip we're ready for?

I wish we didn't have to work this out now. I wish things had been different, that we had found this out earlier so we could find a sitter without hurrying, or tried harder to train them for travel. But we didn't, and here we are.

We went to bed Friday not knowing what would come next. In the morning we would get a call, and we would find out which way we would point our wheels that day. If a miracle occurred and the cats were happy, we would go south to Cave Junction and begin, worried. Otherwise, we would head back north to retrieve our unhappy cats and... figure it out from there. Rain drummed on the thin slideout roof above our bed. Between the noise and the worry, nobody slept well.

Saturday dawned gray. We made ready for a travel day, since at least that was certain. We wondered how long it would be till we heard. And then a miracle occurred. Our dear friends the Burts had caught up with our blog overnight and texted us asking if we still had houseless cats, and if so, they could take them! "The crops are saved!" as my mother would say. The text we expected from Rena arrived not 15 minutes later - the boys stayed up for a third night, and it was not working out. Let the scrambling begin.

We checklisted, we hitched, we pulled out. At the time we departed we knew we would be coming back to Eugene on Sunday to stay the rest of the week. We would need to find someplace closer to Portland to put the rig Saturday night. Kristin and the kids would stay there while I continued north to Rena's place to pick up the cats and their stuff, then further to the Burts in Duvall to drop them off, then over to my parents place a bit west of there to crash for the night. Sunday would see me reverse the process - Seattle, Portland, Eugene. 640 miles in two days, 220 with cats in the back, and 2 84-mile towing legs. It was a bit mad. But I had thought to myself more than once, if someone we or my parents knew in the Seattle area would take them, I would make that drive without hesitation. That's a straightforward detour in the grand scheme of this year if it gets the cats a happy, stable place until we move back.

On the way north we found a place in Woodburn to put the rig and the family, basically a parking lot with hookups. We unhitched, leveled, connected utilities, I packed a suitcase and went to see the cats. Rena had done a great job in a difficult situation. We had two very tired cats. It's a bit mysterious to all involved why they were unhappy there. It seemed like a place they would love. Feels like every time I think I know what's going to happen on this trip, it doesn't. I did my best to give the boys familiar attention. We fed them dinner and loaded up the truck, then cajoled them into the carriers for the last long ride for a while.

It was a steady downpour all the way North. Sheila did great, as she always does, but progress was a bit slow. Kristin was a champ and set me up with substantial snacks. I stopped for fuel, and had a couple bathroom breaks, but otherwise was on the move from about 2:30pm until 8pm when I made it to the Burt's.

They were ecstatic to see the cats. They've seen them on Zoom, and knew their temprament, and had been looking to get some cats of their own for a while. Getting to hang out with ours without the commitment of ownership was a perfect fit for them. They had a big house with a room the cats could retreat to when they needed, or even yowl without keeping people up. Sadly, due to very reasonable covid precautions I had to hand them over in their carriers and not pet them goodbye. But I see in the photos now that they've got high places to stalk from, warm floors and a family offering lots of laps and affection. I think they'll save some lap time for me when we get back.

I crashed at my parents' place that night, which was at once really nice and really wierd. I didn't expect to see that house again for a long time, but here I was again! Mom was in Oregon City with a relative so it was just dad, but he welcomed me warmly and let me decompress over a sandwich dinner. I collapsed into the guest bed, sleeping fitfully after such an overwhelming day.

Sunday was easier. It took a good 45 minutes on the way back south before it started to sink in that the Cat Puzzle was solved. The clouds were breaking up, the roads dry. It's done. We can leave Oregon. Now I just have to get back to it.

Wednesday will mark 3 weeks of RV full-timing. Fully 2.5 of those have been spent completely heads-down on solving one problem after another of actually getting ready to Not Be Home. Whether getting the house, the rig, our stuff, or our cats ready for the long road ahead, it's been all preparation. Revisit, repair, replace, receive. Every time I thought I'd seen the last of our house, storage unit, Seattle, etc, I'd end up there again. Maybe this time it'll work! It sure seems like it will.