This year for Thanksgiving, I decided to bring Remy with me down to Jack’s for the week. I figured that it wasn’t worth worry about him for a week – was he eating, was he sick, did he somehow turn the oven on with his paws and then burn down the entire apartment complex? These are things I worry about when I’m at work so imagine what I would worry about for a week’s separation. Luckily, Jack was gracious enough to drive up and fetch us and let Remy stay at his place.
I can’t say that I was excited about being in a car with Remy for 5+ hours. I love my cat, love him more than a sane person is suppose to love a cat but he’s an ass in the car. Of course, he’s only in the car for vet and grooming trips so that’s a huge reason why. I read a bunch of advice online about bringing cats on road trips and got some weird advice like “just put your cat in the trunk!”. Finally, I called the vet – they recommended I get some tranquilizers since Remy can be a handful.
I was nervous about using the tranquilizers on Remy since he can be a little unpredictable when he’s angry or scared (kinda like the Hulk). I focused that nervous energy into planning what to bring for him – his bed, his tube toy, his treats, his scratching post, etc., etc. Then I worked out how Jack would need to kitty-proof his house so no one got lost of hurt. When I rattled off the list of things I planned to Jack, I knew I sounded like a crazy person. I also knew that I’ve heard other people talk the same way when taking their kid on it’s first excursion. So, make of that what you will.
We drove down yesterday afternoon and it was like a lovely dream. The tranquilizers took maybe 5 minutes to kick in and suddenly Remy went from looking normal and vaguely dignified to looking like he had been stuck in a very blustery windstorm. I’ll fully confess to laughing because I am a terrible person. Instead of the whining, crate-attacking Hell beast that he normally is on a car trip, Remy sleep most of the time. Sometimes he’d wake up and look around like “Waiiit, why is the ground moving??”, give an almost imperceptible mew of confusion and then flop back down. On the few mountains we had to traverse, he got a little worried and smashed his face against the front of the crate for some reassuring pets and paw holding.
Cheap & easy kitty TV set
By the time we reached LA, Remy was just about back to normal. We unpacked all of his stuff first and set up a little quiet area at the end of the the hallway with his crate and a litter box. I don’t know if he was confused about being in a new space or still high as a kite but it took him a while to figure out what was going on. He’s not used to a lot of space so he spent a fair amount of time darting from hiding place to hiding place, sniffing everything and rubbing his face on all of the coffee tables. (He now “owns” 3 coffee tables, a chair, the oven, the toilet, the bathtub and the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen).
One thing he didn’t seem interested in at all was Jack’s bed – he hogs mine and sleeps there a lot but he didn’t give a damn about one that’s twice as big and a million times softer. Of course, when I woke up to go to the bathroom at 2am, he was snoozing right next to me, happy as a clam.
Remy surveying his new neighborhood
He must have explored a lot while we were sleeping because today he did a lot of contented flopping around in sunbeams and staring out Jack’s picture window that over looks the top of a tree. He also discovered that if he slept on one of Jack’s amps, he could be around us and keep an eye on the window at the same time.
Sleepin' like a pro
We’ve always talked about how fun it would be to see Remy’s reaction to Jack’s house since it’s so big and the picture window affords a pretty good show of birds and squirrels (Remy’s favorite form of entertainment). So far, it’s been pretty great to see him play and explore in a new space. He’s “gotten lost” a few times and sometime this morning he got a huge back smudge on his nose that he won’t let us wash off. All in all, he’s doing a lot better than I expected (and leaps and bounds better than all of the advice on the Internet said he would). Who knows, now that he’s got a road trip down, he’s ready to do a little globe-trotting?
