Moving gambles.

There are two major items for this move that needed to be booked: 1) The flight from Newark to Portland, 2) Movers.

I had intended to put off the flights until I had movers; however, upon calling Continental (the only one with morning, non-stop flights from the NYC/NJ area to PDX) I found that the morning flights were nearly booked out. No pets booked yet - but with a maximum of 4 pets in-cabin economy, that could still be a huge potential problems.

However, all of the moving companies have states very clearly that with 3+ weeks lead-time, they could get me any day I wanted.

So, I gambled and changed the order of booking priority; the flight is booked. August 4th, 9am: 2 people, 2 cats in-cabin. The itinerary has been sent to my family, to my friends, and now there is only one item left to book.

By Friday, possibly Monday at the latest - delayed because of the 4th of July - I will have movers booked. My intent is to have them here Friday, the 3rd of August - in the morning to get everything on the truck, then drive down to NY - arriving before Friday rush-hour begins. Chris and I will join my mom and dad for dinner, get some sleep, and dad will drive us down to Newark leaving around 6am.

The plane lands in PDX at noon - gaining 3 hours is lovely, but in reality it is a 6 hour flight. We'll get to my new apartment, do the paperwork and get the keys, then let the cats go into the master bathroom (I have a bathroom off the master bedroom, did I mention?) with some food. Run out to get a litterbox, come back and get that set up with some fresh water, then let the cats settle down. I may try to arrange for some white noise to keep things steady and calm for them; a heartbeat type setup is ideal. I will change my clothing and put the dirty clothing in the closet with them because that is familiar and comforting (they sleep on my dirty laundry here) and spray some Feliway around as well as getting a few plug-in units set up and their carriers.

I will then leave them alone for a few hours to stretch and calm down, and not bother them again until it's dinner time. At that point I will have Mali's favorite food - cold cuts - and cat food for Kayne.

Hopefully this will all go to plan. Mali and Kayne will only have a small bite of food on Friday. If I can get Mali eating again Saturday night then that will be a great indicator. That's the trick - and will be the early warning that she has not handled the stress well.

One month......................

Thank you, Chris. I’ll let you know the brands. 

There is one thing I’m going to *need* you to do.  I can’t bring Mali’s Subcutaneous fluids or needles on the plane. I’m going to locate a vet early next week, get medical records sent and arrange for those to be available for pickup.  But they won’t be available on Saturday and she’s going to need fluids Saturday evening.  So I’m going to really need you to pick up those items for me.  I’ll get you details as soon as I have them - I’ll need to run some vet locations by you so that I locate one nearby.  Not knowing the area makes this so hard. ;)

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But I’m sure there’s something in a shade of grey…
Something in between…