Kitty Trek IV – We Deliver!


These are the adventures of car-ship CRV on a 4-trip journey across the Florida universe to alter the state of 8 feline carbon based life forms. The final chapter of our Kitty Trek has come to and end. All the kitties survived the adventure after going where no cat has gone before (traveling 700 miles to be fixed). All 4 of the little kittens turned out to be boys. At least now their voices won’t change and they can remain in the soprano section of the kitty choir.


This was a multi-tasked journey. Karen’s crib and dresser being finished needed to be delivered. Karen had a sleeper sofa for Christy so we hauled that from Jacksonville to Gainesville. 5 kitties were in Gainesville awaiting the final journey home. Christian has just bought a house in High Springs and this was our first opportunity to see it.


Delivery #1

Delivery #1 Arrives Safely

We once again packed furniture on the trailer – protecting it from bumps and scrapes and inclement Florida weather. Driving to Jacksonville was uneventful. The trailer is easy to haul. I drove about 10-15 mph slower than normal so the journey took about an hour longer. We also used almost double the amount of gas. The furniture survived the trip with no ill effects. We only hit one small stretch of heavy rain on the trip. Nothing got wet. After unwrapping everything Penny and I moved the furniture into the nursery. The crib is a couple of inches wider than the doorway so I had to disassemble it to get it into the nursery. Reassembly went smoothly(fortunately). There is a potential for the assembly process to take a long time if the little threaded dowels fall out. The trip over must have secured them in place and none of them budged - so the reassembly process was as simple as inserting the bolts and tightening them up.


Karen proceeded to set up the room and after Tim and she finally decided on the arrangement of the furniture we all stood back and admired the work. As I told Karen, I don’t get excited about many things but I got excited about delivering the furniture. First of all I was quite relieved that I didn’t screw up the crib. Second, after seeing the final product I again had a rare feeling – pride. I am so pleased with how the crib and dresser came out and then to see it in the nursery with the skirt, mattress and bumper pads in place – it looks so much better than the “bare” furniture. Karen’s baby is now full term and her nursery is ready for business.


Delivery #2 - Day 2


We loaded the sleeper sofa on the trailer and wrapped it in a tarp. Fortunately we hit no rain on this leg of the trip. In Gainesville we delivered the sofa, trading it for a cage containing 5 cats. No, we did not put the cats in the trailer. They went into the back of car-ship CRV.


Delivery #3

Now it was time to return the cats to their home planet. We made a side trip to High Springs to see Christian’s new house. I liked it. It’s a beautiful little house sitting on a good sized lot in a nice section of High Springs. The house is old but it has been kept up well. It felt comfortable and had character. Christy and Christian should enjoy it. It will be such a complete change from where they live now.

The House in High Springs

We arrived back home at about 1AM. It was a long day. I left the cats in the cage until morning and went to bed.

After sleeping in and having breakfast it was time to release the cats. I did this by feeding them and opening the cage door while they ate and letting them discover they were free. Izzy was first out. Unlike the last batch these cats were comfortable on the back patio. They did not dash off. Instead they wandered around noticing what had changed on the patio since they last romped there. The weeds were bigger and things were moved around but they remembered this as home. Some of them went back in the cage to get another bite of food. Meredith, who had lived under the shed did leave the patio.


The 4 kittens stayed on the patio all day. They were so thrilled to be able to run farther than 3 feet that they ran and chased each other all over the patio until all 4 of them were panting.

Velcro Panting

Getting Reaquainted

At 6 PM it is feeding time. I set out 4 cans of soft food and sat to watch them eat. Everybody came to dinner – all 8 cats. There are still some pecking order issues to be worked out but there are no problems between any of the cats. I was able to pet Izzy and Velcro (Christian and Christy named the black cat).

Everyone Came to Dinner

Hopefully our cat population is now stable. Meanwhile our family’s human population is ready to be increased by 1.