I went to the market to buy a pig...
... Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
So I'm home, safe and sound. The trip home was uneventful in itself. Although I'd originally planned to be on Tracy's flight from Sydney to LA, her flights had gotten changed around (to rectify a 7 month layover in LA!) and she was on a 9:45am flight (mine was 10:50am). We'd shared a taxi to the airport anyway, and I ended up shopping in duty-free for a bit as we'd ended up more than 3 hours before my flight and I couldn't check in. Her flight was boarding a bit late, and in the end, I ran into her in LA at the payphones, where she was phoning Carl and I was phoning Frank. Turns out her connection from LA-NY was late, which would mean that she would miss her tight connection from NY-Halifax. So I hope she was able to get a later flight, but maybe ended up staying a night in NY. :-(
Anyway, I arrived home to a bit of a crisis, which I didn't want to post about until either it was resolved or I felt a bit more in control of... Lina was missing. Friday night, sometime around dark, she had slipped out around our screen in the back door (which is not a proper screen door of any kind, just a piece of screen held in place by two tension rods). And she hadn't been seen all day. So she'd been gone for about 24 hours or so when I got home at 8pm on Saturday.
I of course cried and cried, and after a shower to get rid of travel grunge and tears I made up a LOST CAT sign for all the mailboxes in the townhouse community (see- there's a reason to take multiple digital photos of your pet and to own a colour printer!). And of course Frank and I went out looking again and calling her name. I maybe thought I got a meow in reply in one place in the grass at the end of the townhouses' yards, but couldn't be sure- there was a lot of noise of kids playing.
We kept the screen up late, as late as we were up (which I managed to stay up til almost midnight), just in case she came back.
I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and although I was still a bit sleepy, I decided to get up and look. It was light out, thanks to the miracle of summer (I've just spent two weeks in winter in Sydney, where we only had daylight from about 7-5), and quiet- no background noise of kids playing to cover up any meowing I might hear (although way too many birds!!). I didn't have to go far- as I approached the end of our block of units, calling her name, I heard a meow in reply. She was sitting on someone else's patio, the one at the end of our same block of units where the golden retriever lives. She ran up to me as I ecstatically ran up to meet her (and the dog inside the house barked). I picked her up and carried her, struggling a bit, back to the house. Other than having dirty feet, and seeming to be a little thirsty, she was no worse for the wear. Someone had stuck a note on her harness that was a little chewed up but I think originally said "Is this cat homeless? If not, please remove this note." I did remove it, and we will be supervising her much more closely from now on (or keeping her in the basement with the door closed!) when we have the screen up. And we're also thinking up sturdier yet temporary screen-door ideas... any input appreciated!!
So all things are back to normal, and she was only gone a little over a day. As we had suspected/hoped, she was just confused about which patio was hers, although she did realize that she should be going back to a patio. She has been demanding almost constant attention from me since getting back. I did go back to bed (and so did Frank- I'd woken him up at 5:45 quite enthusiastically upon having found Lina), and she woke me up to be petted and to knead my arm and the blankets around 9:30. I fell back asleep again after that and Frank woke me up around 11am. I'm having some real coffee, which is so great (can't remember if I mentioned, but they don't have real brewed coffee in Australia... everything is either espresso based (so I'd get a "long black" which is an espresso shot with extra water, or a "short white" which is something like a latte but with less milk and not much foam) or instant. So weird!).
We'll see how jet lag takes its effect on me, but as I was able to sleep something close to normal time last night (after hardly sleeping on either flight home) so I'm optimistic, but it is supposed to be much harder to adjust coming home than going there. Lina, I suspect, will be at my side all day (although a grocery trip is planned); she's presently on the second computer chair beside me while I type.
So I'm home, safe and sound. The trip home was uneventful in itself. Although I'd originally planned to be on Tracy's flight from Sydney to LA, her flights had gotten changed around (to rectify a 7 month layover in LA!) and she was on a 9:45am flight (mine was 10:50am). We'd shared a taxi to the airport anyway, and I ended up shopping in duty-free for a bit as we'd ended up more than 3 hours before my flight and I couldn't check in. Her flight was boarding a bit late, and in the end, I ran into her in LA at the payphones, where she was phoning Carl and I was phoning Frank. Turns out her connection from LA-NY was late, which would mean that she would miss her tight connection from NY-Halifax. So I hope she was able to get a later flight, but maybe ended up staying a night in NY. :-(
Anyway, I arrived home to a bit of a crisis, which I didn't want to post about until either it was resolved or I felt a bit more in control of... Lina was missing. Friday night, sometime around dark, she had slipped out around our screen in the back door (which is not a proper screen door of any kind, just a piece of screen held in place by two tension rods). And she hadn't been seen all day. So she'd been gone for about 24 hours or so when I got home at 8pm on Saturday.
I of course cried and cried, and after a shower to get rid of travel grunge and tears I made up a LOST CAT sign for all the mailboxes in the townhouse community (see- there's a reason to take multiple digital photos of your pet and to own a colour printer!). And of course Frank and I went out looking again and calling her name. I maybe thought I got a meow in reply in one place in the grass at the end of the townhouses' yards, but couldn't be sure- there was a lot of noise of kids playing.
We kept the screen up late, as late as we were up (which I managed to stay up til almost midnight), just in case she came back.
I woke up at 5:30am this morning, and although I was still a bit sleepy, I decided to get up and look. It was light out, thanks to the miracle of summer (I've just spent two weeks in winter in Sydney, where we only had daylight from about 7-5), and quiet- no background noise of kids playing to cover up any meowing I might hear (although way too many birds!!). I didn't have to go far- as I approached the end of our block of units, calling her name, I heard a meow in reply. She was sitting on someone else's patio, the one at the end of our same block of units where the golden retriever lives. She ran up to me as I ecstatically ran up to meet her (and the dog inside the house barked). I picked her up and carried her, struggling a bit, back to the house. Other than having dirty feet, and seeming to be a little thirsty, she was no worse for the wear. Someone had stuck a note on her harness that was a little chewed up but I think originally said "Is this cat homeless? If not, please remove this note." I did remove it, and we will be supervising her much more closely from now on (or keeping her in the basement with the door closed!) when we have the screen up. And we're also thinking up sturdier yet temporary screen-door ideas... any input appreciated!!
So all things are back to normal, and she was only gone a little over a day. As we had suspected/hoped, she was just confused about which patio was hers, although she did realize that she should be going back to a patio. She has been demanding almost constant attention from me since getting back. I did go back to bed (and so did Frank- I'd woken him up at 5:45 quite enthusiastically upon having found Lina), and she woke me up to be petted and to knead my arm and the blankets around 9:30. I fell back asleep again after that and Frank woke me up around 11am. I'm having some real coffee, which is so great (can't remember if I mentioned, but they don't have real brewed coffee in Australia... everything is either espresso based (so I'd get a "long black" which is an espresso shot with extra water, or a "short white" which is something like a latte but with less milk and not much foam) or instant. So weird!).
We'll see how jet lag takes its effect on me, but as I was able to sleep something close to normal time last night (after hardly sleeping on either flight home) so I'm optimistic, but it is supposed to be much harder to adjust coming home than going there. Lina, I suspect, will be at my side all day (although a grocery trip is planned); she's presently on the second computer chair beside me while I type.