After all the story of #CatsToCalifornia ,here is the happy ending. Brushytail settles in to her new home. A bit down the timeline, all 9 kitties gather for evening wet food

#Caturday

#CatsToCalifornia

Here is the rest of my cross-country moving trip.

Day 3, Shreveport, LA to Norman OK, my home town, I spend the night with my brother Rob and my sister-in-law Anne.

Day 4, Norman to Grants, NM. By the time you reach Texas on I-40, you are at 4,000 feet altitude.

Day 5, Grants NM to Barstow CA. The old Route 66. Certain I pass #RadiatorSprings at some point.

Day 6, Labor Day, 9/2/13. Barstow to Vallejo. 3:19 PM. I am home!

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#CatsToCalifornia

10 years ago:

Wednesday, August 28, 2013, my good friends Frank and WIllie perform the ultimate gift of friendship. They help me load the moving truck. It's like Tetris, every piece fitting next to the other, and the truck is jammed.

That is all that is possible. We roll the door down, my bags go in the cab with me, and it's back to UHaul to get the trailer with my car

Termite guys pull in. Hugs to friends, goodbye house! I drive away for the last time.
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#CatsToCalifornia

I have lived in this house for 12 years, through the end of one relationship and the beginning of a new one. In the photos, you see my history here. From run-down rental house, to a midpoint with landscaping and bright color. Finally, gutted to raise the roof and create a clerestory living space. The pool and tropical plants represent the Florida I am leaving behind.

But a new life in the Bay Area awaits, and that is where home will be. It will be great.

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#CatsToCalifornia

Moving is the fire fueled by the decisions to let go of things you can't bring with you. Now, time pressure forces my hand.

None of the outdoor furniture or the bent bamboo on the screened porch will go, few of the tools and garden stuff. More for the make-ready guy, there is no time for another choice.

It's Tuesday of departure week. Truck and trailer for the car: reserved. I scramble: final boxes, resale donations.

Tick, tick, tick, again.

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AM departure

#CatsToCalifornia

With about 40 hours until I have to have the house packed, everything in the UHaul, and hit the road, husband Craig is still in the bay area at his new job on Market Street in San Francisco.

He moves into our totally empty Vallejo house. Someone has to be with the kitties for emotional support and food while I am moving the household.

With an air mattress and not much else, cats and Craig take care of each other.

I go to work on the packing.

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#CatsToCalifornia

Our Florida house has a new tenant taking possession on 9/1.

Before that, the house has to be tented for termites. It's Monday, August 26, 2013, ten years ago today. I just got off a nonstop from SFO after moving the cats. Now, I have to finish packing, first the house, then the 26-foot UHaul truck I rented.

My 1990 BMW convertible isn't worth much, but I love it, and it will come along, on a trailer behind the UHaul.

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#ClassicCars

#CatsToCalifornia

In earlier posts, I told the story of how we moved our family of 9 cats from Florida to California in August, 2013, 10 years ago.

Now the kitties are in CA in an empty house on Saturday, August 24, 2013. My husband Craig has been visiting our 12-year-old girls in Los Angeles.

Sunday I pick Craig up at SFO and drop off the rental SUV I used to carry all 9 cats from the airport to our new home in Vallejo.

Monday, it's me on the plane back to pack. What happened next?

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For #caturday

10 years ago this week, we were in the process of moving from Fort Lauderdale FL to the San Francisco Bay area. Over the last 4 days, I've told the story of how we moved all 9 of our cats. If you would like to see the whole thread, just click on this hashtag: #CatsToCalifornia

TL;DR In one huge eventful day, all 9 kitties and I flew from MIA to SFO, and the most important part of the move had succeeded. Here are 5 of the cats in their FL life.

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#CatsOfMastodon

#CatsToCalifornia

Whew. All this took place 10 years ago yesterday, August 24, 2013.

But this is only part of the story. Tomorrow, how I honored my Oklahoma heritage by loading up the truck and moving to Beverly (Hills, that is, swimming pools, movie stars)

Not really. But our whole house in a U-Haul from south Florida to Northern CA is quite a hike.

That story tomorrow, as Cats To California concludes.

#CatsToCalifornia

Kitties and I pull up to the (empty) new home. Well, it does have the air mattress we bought, and a cheap throwaway coffee maker. and some plastic cups.

There's no clippers to snip the wire ties holding the carriers closed! I use the edge of one of my keys as a makeshift saw.

Kitties are here, but they crouch and skulk in this place that doesn't smell like them or us, that they've never seen before. Aha! here is a little cedar-lined cupboard upstairs!

#Cats
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#CatsToCalifornia

We made it in one piece! Except for my nerves, which by now are ragged.

Like Dustin Hoffman in his Alfa Romeo spyder crossing the Bay Bridge in "The Grauate", we are all together in the rented SUV, and almost home.

Except it doesn't feel like home yet. Craig (remember he had to pretend we already lived in the bay area and start his new job in early July) has not seen our girls in almost two months.

He's visiting them in LA and will be flying home tomorrow.

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#CatsToCalifornia

Celeste and I will ride in the passenger cabin above everyone else:

Stripey, Maggie, Victoria, Brushytail, Dipstick (aka Tickle), Max, Baby Kitty, and Bucket are in cargo below.

We are all Cats to California now! I settle into my seat on the 777, celeste staying quiet in her carrier on the floor.

I hear the Mary Tyler Moore theme: 🎶 "You might just make it after allllll!" Wheels up at 8:10 AM

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#CatsToCalifornia

I'm in early stages of panic. Emotionally exhausted. I don't know what providence stepped in, but a supervisor came out, said "No, I think he'll be fine."

Breathe, Don! Now to turn in the car, take Celeste in the soft carrier with me, and check in to the flight.

This is what the little rental SUV looked like when full of cats. You can see the ziplocs of kibble. Page after page of forms.

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#CatsToCalifornia

The rental is a compact Jeep SUV. We have to be at AA Cargo at MIA by 5:00 AM to check in for the flight.

4:50 AM, we're on time.

Despite my in person visit the day before to double check requirements, there's another: At least 5 bottles of water have to accompany the carriers! As luck has it, I have $5 in cash, there's a vending machine.

THEN!!! One of the agents decides Stripey is too big for his carrier (despite the fact that he's fine).

If one cant go no one can
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#CatsToCalifornia

Back in Florida, it's the big day. Timing is everything, very little room for error.

I'm up at 2:30 AM. Final check on the carriers: they must have a baggy of food taped outside, little plastic food and water holders clipped inside the door.

All vet certifiactions and the bill of lading for the cats have to be perfect.

Kits need to get their sedation pill and go in carriers. Max fights like a devil and bites me rather than take the pill. He has to go without.

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#CatsToCalifornia

To move a household and a LOT of cats, it's almost a logistical impossibility to empty our Florida house of all our belongings AND all the cats at once and plop them all down together 3,000 miles away in northern California.

First, we rented the house. It's empty, but there is a place to bring our cat family, that will be our new home.

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#CatsToCalifornia

Ten years ago today, on Saturday, August 24, 2013, the kitties and I made the journey together from Fort Lauderdale FL to San Fancisco and to our new home in Valllejo.

The story of that day is coming tomorrow. Thank you for taking the time to share this memory with me.

#CatsToCalifornia

We got permission to have 9 cats in California. But we've been feeding 4 more outside, ferals, some still very wild, some almost house cats. This was hard, and scary.

Marty and Emmy are pictured. Marty is an orange sweetheart, but started feral. #CatsExclusive, our vet, is a no-kill shelter. OMG they are full but make an exception and take Marty in.

Emmy is also almost fully domesticated. On 8/23/13, I surrendered her at the Broward Humane Society.

#cats

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#CatsToCalifornia

(this is a long story, please feel free to mute me if you don't want to follow! I'll be done in a couple of days)

We love the house. It's older, but three small berrooms, hardwood floors, 2 baths. Fenced back yard, rose garden in the side yard.

It's $1600/month. The ad says "no pets." Turns out a settled older gay couple are a perfect match for the young chiropractor who owns the house. I write an impassioned letter in defense of cats...

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