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| the house and family in caricature |
Nine months after my fiftieth birthday my husband and I pulled up stakes and moved ourselves along with our beloved five cats and dog to Northumberland County. It was a somewhat unexpected change, we had talked about leaving the city at a time in the future, maybe ten or fifteen years from now but then we found ourselves quite by accident in Cobourg and were charmed by the town...three days later we bought this house!
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| the actual house |
Our transition here has been seamless and surprisingly easy. However, the day we moved the boys out was not seamless and easy it was stressful and difficult. They had been staying safely at my mum's house during the big part of the move. The day we picked them up was extremely hot and humid and the air conditioning in Robert's SUV had just broken that morning. So if you can imagine five tense and overheated cats in carriers all panting, meowing, and (uncharacteristically) growling for an hour, it was without a doubt the most stressful component of the entire move.
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| let us out!!! |
Upon arrival, I took them immediately up to our bedroom, put a litter box in our ensuite (temporarily), opened all the closet doors and released them from their carriers. They bolted or slunk under the bed and into the closets, I stayed for a little while talking calmly to them but eventually left when nobody seemed to be listening to me. I said to my husband "they are shaken, I'm thinking this will be a long transition!" Then about half an hour later I noticed their little faces started appearing at the door. No longer frightened but indignant they had been locked in.
I was amazed and even considered making them stay in the bedroom for a while but once they were no longer hiding and sitting at the door it seemed a silly idea. So I let them out to explore the house as they liked. It took them all of a day to acclimate and as you can see from the photos, they have been relaxed and happy here ever since. The dog of course adapts anywhere but as we all know cats can be a little trickier, it was a huge relief for us that the boys did so well in such a short time!
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| Rio at the beach at the bottom of our street |
