The Dash For Ash

Wow what a busy weekend...three States, three helpful people, one Province, a ton of driving (518 miles, or 833kms each way) and the sweetest cat you ever met!

We left Friday afternoon and our first stop was Michigan

Where we stayed the night in beautiful downtown Kalamazoo.  The next day we headed into Indiana

and had some great early Christmas shopping time at the Michigan City (even though its not in Michigan) Outlet Mall before we headed to

Matteson, Illinois to meet wonderful Amy, her man Brad and the star of the show Ash!!!  Amy had already met up with Chrystal who brought Ash from southern Illinois where he was born and you can read about their portions of the journey on House of Cats and Daily Dose of Dogs and Cats.  Not only did Amy bring Ash to me, but she had a cosy cat carrier (which was much better suited to Ash's size than Molly's large carrier which I had packed) two bags of treats and a Da Bird toy (which Ash loves) from her kitties.  Our meeting was brief because we had the better part of a ten hour drive home, but it was so nice to put a face to the blog and meet Amy in person.  Thank you so much Amy!!!

Ash had been on the road for quite a while so before we got going we took a little time for a drink and a nibble and a pee in his portable litter box!

As we set off, Ash told me that he no longer cared to be in his carrier with a series of plaintive meows.  I had packed a fleecy blue blanket for him, so I spread it on my lap and let him out.  Ash rode the entire way home alternating between my lap and Robert's lap or the back shelf of the car where he could look out the window.  I can't even begin to tell you how perfectly behaved he was in the car.  Sometimes he stretched out

and sometimes I swaddled him in his blanket

He was so good the entire trip!  We got to the Canadian/Ontario border around midnight and there was quite a line-up because only two lanes were open.  The person in front of us took so long with the customs agent and then was directed to secondary search with sirens and lights blaring.  Robert and I looked at each other and thought that this was perhaps not a good sign!  The customs agent took one look at Ash and exclaimed what a cute cat he was. 

Ash had his rabies certificate which was all that was needed and we were through in no time!  We arrived home at 2:30 am and all of us were exhausted.  Ash was sleeping like an angel in my arms when I took him upstairs to his room.  He went for a pee in his litter box and then settled in for bed.  A little meowing underneath the door to the boys who were on patrol outside then not a peep out of him until morning!

I really can't believe how good he was considering his ten hour journey was not a roomy, smooth SUV or luxury sedan, but my tiny car.

I would like to mention that even though Saturday was a joyous day for us it was not for everyone.  Amy was driving in memory of her lovely boy Floyd who went to the bridge exactly one year ago

 

and our good friend Skeeter from the Kool Kitty Krew went to the bridge just that morning.

Chrystal was driving for little Winnie and of course if my Molly had not gone to the bridge there would not have been room at my house for Ash.  So I would just like everyone to know that the Dash for Ash was  poignant to us for a lot of reasons besides just bringing Ash to his forever home and that we were thinking about all our CB friends who are here and who have gone before :-)

Please pop by throughout the week if you have a chance because we will be posting more pictures of Ash and updates on how he is settling in.  Thank you to everyone who wished us a safe journey, I think everything went so smoothly for Chrystal, Amy and myself because we had so many people and kitties holding good thoughts for us!  BIG thank you to Chrystal for raising such a lovely boy, I feel lucky to have him!