The last time we were in West Virginia in 2021, or possibly the time before in 2020, we got a rocking chair at a place called Tamarack. It is a place that sells artisan goods that are made in West Virginia. If memory serves, Rose’s son bought it for her, perhaps as a birthday gift. At $400 it was an expensive rocking chair.
The chair returned with us to Florida at the end of our visit in 2021, when we decided to rent out the house there. We had the movers bring it back when we returned to West Virginia this spring, not expecting to sell the house three months later.
Since the chair was important to Rose, she left it with her manager there with the intention of picking it up during her next business trip. However, she decided she couldn’t wait that long, so she asked her manager to ship the $400 chair back to us for around $650.
It arrived here about eight days ago.
It came with so much cardboard and bubble wrap that I have been putting it in our trash and recycling a little at a time as space allows. I still have bubble wrap to dispose of.
We decided this would be our last summer in our West Virginia home.
While we love the house, we have never spent more than two months here until now. We’ve come to realize that it is great to escape the hustle and bustle of living in a densely populated area in Florida, but only for a little while. The truth is, it’s boring here. It’s usually a 45-minute drive to do anything halfway interesting.
Add the fact that there is so much work to be done on the house this year. It feels like a money pit. We spent $22,000 on a new roof alone. We also spent about $450 to repair our stove and had to purchase a new dishwasher, among other things.
I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Rose was bit on the foot by a brown recluse spider. She developed a terrible, itchy, and painful rash all over her leg and other parts of her body. She went to the doctor three times trying to get relief. It finally subsided after more than two weeks.
What bothers me is the fact that I worry about the cats more here. Today, the neighbor’s dog was again outside desperately trying to break through the fence to get at Frankie.
We listed it last Wednesday. So far, we have had two couples look at it. The second is talking to their bank about it, and the first wants to see it again tomorrow. I put a sign on the door informing people to watch out for Frankie.
Now comes the challenge of getting rid of everything we brought here or bought for the place. We will bring some back to Florida, but our house there is tiny in comparison.
Our stuff finally arrived from the moving company after they held it hostage for 38 days. Rose called them every other day for the last two weeks and got one promise after another. She was convinced we would never see our stuff, and that was a big stress factor for her. For me, there was only one thing on the truck that I would grieve over losing: Chris’s ashes.
His remains are here on my desk now.
My original plan was to spread his ashes in the backyard near the catio here. A place he enjoyed hanging out. Now, I feel I should bring him back to Florida and spread his ashes outside the catio there. Rose thinks that is a bad idea because he has never lived there. My concern is we may not own this house for very much longer and I prefer Chris to be near us.
I know it is not really Chris. I don’t really think his spirit hangs out where his ashes are. It is just symbolic. It would be nice to look out and know Chris is out there, or at least part of him.
There are two reasons why I don’t think we will own this house for a long time. First, we had discussed selling it at some point and using the proceeds to buyto pay down our Florida mortgage.
The second reason is more complicated. We have been working nonstop on this house since we arrived. It’s like a money pit, but it has been rented for over three years, so that’s part of it. We don’t expect it to be as much work next year, but it is an old house.
There was also the stress of our stuff in limbo and then there was the “incident.” A little over two weeks ago on a Saturday, Rose was outside with me helping to do yard work. Foolishly, she was wearing shorts and flipflops like she was in Florida.
Afterward, she noticed two bite marks on her foot, like she was bitten by a snake. Later, there were what appeared to be numerous minor marks on her body, resembling insect bites. She was convinced our house had fleas, but I was not affected, and neither were our cats. She had terrible itching for over a week and a half. During that time, she went to the doctor three times while her symptoms continued to worsen. It was determined she was probably bitten by a brown recluse spider, and her itching caused a bacterial infection to spread. Only during the last couple of days have the symptoms started to diminish.
I know this is a very wordy explanation, but the point is that during those dark days, she kept saying she hated it here and wanted to return to Florida. Now that she is getting better, she is more receptive to staying here, but I still feel that we are far more likely to grow old in Florida, so I think I would like Chris to be there too.
The second half of our trip started well. The cats seemed to be comfortable in the Ikare Pet Carrier I bought for them. With the pullouts on the side, there was plenty of room for two cats and a small litter box. I think three cats would have done well in it. They never used the litter box but we had to deal with cats pooping in their carriers at least twice in the past, so it was worth having.
The second time we stopped I gave them a little food while we were charging the car.
By the time we got to Charleston, West Virginia, we were tired and looking forward to the trip being over. The GPS indicated that we would arrive in forty-five minutes, at 2:37, but then a warning light appeared. The rear passenger tire pressure had dropped to 28 psi. There was an exit ahead, so Rose got in the right lane. I was hoping the tire was just low and I could fill it with my portable tire inflator, but thirty seconds later the pressure dropped to 15 p.s.i.
Fortunately, there was a gas station just off the highway, so we pulled in there. By then, the pressure had dropped to zero.
Rose first called our insurance company, and they put us on hold for a long time as they tried to find someone who could tow a Tesla, which requires a flatbed. While she was doing that, I called Tesla and spoke with a woman who was very nice. Since we were nowhere near a Tesla service center, she tried to help us find a local tire shop that could change a tire. Since Teslas do not come with spare tires, there was no option for changing it on the spot.
After much hemming and hawing, we decided to arrange for a tow truck to bring our car the 41 miles to our house. Tesla would have paid for a tow to a service center, but a tow to our house cost us $370. We did that because there was no room for three people and two cats in the tow truck. If it were just Rose and me, we would have gone straight to a tire shop, if one could have been found that had the right size tires.
Rose called the maintenance supervisor at the property she oversees, which is in the same town as our house. He came to pick up Rose and the cats. Meanwhile, the tow truck arrived a few minutes before he did. The driver was nice enough to wait until he came, then Rose and the cats left while I stayed with the tow truck.
I arrived at the house just before five and spent a fair amount of time bringing all the items from the car to the laundry room, which serves as a buffer zone between the cats and the outside. I couldn’t believe how much stuff that car holds.
I wanted to get a video of the cats exploring the house for the first time in three and a half years, but I was way too late for that. Instead, I got a picture of Frankie finishing his dinner.
Two of the doors on the catio had ripped screens, so we couldn’t let the cats out there, which was a shame because they loved that catio. Frankie discovered the room that used to be my office, but now contained much of the stuff that we left behind.
Unfortunately, our renters moved bedding that they didn’t want into that room. They also moved heavy furniture from downstairs to upstairs and other furniture from upstairs to downstairs, so we had to move them back over the next couple of days.
We found a cat perch that Frankie took to and spent much of the remaining Saturday on. I don’t remember that perch, but I am getting old.
On Sunday, I found a large screen in the garage and slid it in front of the doors. Since my tools and everything else we had in storage won’t be here until sometime this week, that will have to do for the cats to enjoy the catio.
I took Frankie for a walk on Sunday. I wanted him to get used to the area but he just wanted to stay near home for some reason.
We went for a walk yesterday, too. That time we walked down the alley until the end, then came back down the next street. He wants to go out today, but there is a cold drizzle right now.
All the tire shops were closed for Memorial Day weekend, so I made several calls to shops this morning, but none had the right size tires, which are over $500 each, by the way. When did tires get so expensive? One shop in Parkersburg ordered them and will be here sometime tomorrow. I will then have to travel with the tow truck driver for forty minutes. That is the downside of living in a small town.
Tomorrow will be four days without a car at a time when we need supplies. We learned Walmart delivers, so we have been ordering stuff from them. The interesting thing is that there are no Kroger stores near us in Florida, but we can still order Kroger delivery. Here, there is a Kroger in the next town, but we can’t get delivery from them.
Anyway, the good news is we are here and safe. Ultimately, that is what matters.
I picked up Chris’s ashes from the vet today. I wanted to show you, so I took everything out and set it on a cat perch to take pictures.
Frankie jumped onto the perch, so I quickly put everything back in the bag before he knocked it on the floor. He was surprisingly curious about what was in the bag. It was almost as if he could smell Chris or somehow sense it was him. I don’t know.
This is the first time we have ever received the ashes from one of our pets. I plan on bringing him to our house in West Virginia when we go there in the spring. We have a fairly large backyard. I think that would be a good place to spread his ashes.
Chris loves hanging out on the rocking chair we bought in West Virginia and Floki loves hanging out with Chris, especially when he washes those hard-to-reach places.
My wife and I were on the catio yesterday evening with the cats who were out there much of the day. Frankie, in particular, always wants to be out there.
We talked about what Frankie was going to do after we return to Florida in just over two weeks to our house with no catio. It will surely feel like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Even here, Frankie has become quite the pain. As we were getting ready to go upstairs last night to go to bed, Frankie was at the door crying to go out. This morning at 6 a.m., after eating only half his breakfast, he was again at the door crying to go out.
All we can do is let them enjoy it while it lasts. I quess I will have to start taking Frankie for a walk again when we return.
Our cats are finally starting to enjoy our catio after the interruption of our dog visitors. It took Floki until Wednesday but once out, he loved it.
Frankie greets Floki
Frankie goes out more often than Chris or Floki, not because he likes it more but because he is the one most likely to be hanging out near the back door when somebody goes outside.
The weather is starting to cool down here and I expect we will be outside more often which means the cats will be outside more often too. Its a win win.
As a side note, we had people over for dinner yesterday and later that evening we were sitting on the catio and a very cut grey kitten came up on the step and peeked in through the screen door. I believe I saw another cat walk by before I saw that kitten but it was dark. I put my hand against the screen and he smelled me and then walked over to the edge of the catio. I wanted to go get treats for him but considering our limited time here it is not wise to get them dependent on us. Fortunately, our cats were not on the catio at the time.
About five or six weeks ago my wife contacted a contractor here in West Virginia to see if it was possible to screen in our back porch. We wanted it to cut down on the bugs but we mostly just wanted a catio that our cats could enjoy in the nice weather.
Rose told the contractor that it needed to be done before we arrived, which was last Saturday. When we got there he still hadn’t finished. He was actually here until late Tuesday afternoon. I think he said he could do the job before realizing how difficult it was. The way the porch is built it is nearly impossible to keep the bugs out. He couldn’t put screaming all the way to the top because of the rafters so he decided to not screen all the way to the bottom so that the water would have a place to go when we washed down the porch.
The biggest problem was the doors. There is a large opening in the middle and a smaller opening on one side. The opening in the middle has two four by fours that are crooked both left to right and front to back. One of them is also twisted. It took a while to get the doors in so that they would slide back and forth easily without a gap too large for a cat to get through.
Wednesday morning I cleaned the mess left behind. I than fixed the doors a little better. I still needed to put up a panel to close the gap on one side (which I did this morning) but it was ready to test out that afternoon.
Frankie happened to be standing by the back door when Rose and I went out, so we decided to let him out onto the porch to see what he would do.
Of course, Frankie is our little investigator so he spent some time investigating.
I found Chris waiting by the back door to see what was going on so I let him out too.
I called floki but he was nowhere in sight. He was probably upstairs and not interested in what we were doing.
So far it has met with the approval of Chris and Frankie. I don’t trust that one or both of them won’t scratch a hole in the screen and escape so I think we will only let them out there when one of us is out there with them.
Today I pressure washed the catio in addition to closing the gap by the door. Later I may try to get Flokil out there to see if it meets with a unanimous approval.
Saturday night, after arriving at our West Virginia home, we decided to leave our bedroom door open even though we knew that was a bad idea. We did it because we wanted the cats to feel comfortable before locking them out of the bedroom. Of course, Chris disturbed my sleep all night long.
Sunday we decided that we needed our sleep so we closed our bedroom door and went to bed. At about 11:00 we were awakened by Chris making an awful howling sound. It sounded so awful I had to get up to see what was wrong with him.
The sound came from the bedroom across and down the hall that I use for my office. My wife left the light on in the bathroom across the hall from my office and closed the door most of the way. She feels the cats need light even though they can practically see in the dark.
Nevertheless, it provided barely enough light for me to see what was going on. Frankie was on the floor looking at Chris and Chris was on the middle part of the cat perch. I thought the two were fighting but then I realized Chris was looking out the window. I walked into the room to see what Chris was looking at. I was surprised to see a cat on the roof looking back at me. No wonder Chris was howling. I tapped on the window and the cat ran away and I went back to bed.
Frankie lookout the same window earlier today.
At 4:00 a.m. Chris jumped on the bed and lied on top my head. Not above my head, on top of it. I moved him and saw he had somehow figured out how to open the door. Maybe someday I will get a full night’s sleep. Maybe.
Bad Cat Chris 