Texas

We've moved yet again. After Matt finished his training in Minnesota we were relocated to Texas where Matt will be working out in the field again. This move was a breeze compared to the past moved because the company paid to have movers come and pack up the whole house. It was so nice to just sit and relax while others did all the hard and tedious work.

I was amazed at how quickly they had our entire house packed up in boxes. I think it only took 4 or 5 hours when it used to take Matt and I days to pack everything up. Then on Monday the movers came and loaded up all the boxes into the truck. We then cleaned the entire house and left that day for our long drive down to Texas. I was fairly amazed at how well the cats did during the drive. Abby was silent and would just sit in her cage, but Bella meowed for the first 45 minutes or so. We decided to open the door of the cage to see if Bella liked it better, which she did and ended up on top of the cage for most of the ride. We took three days to drive down to Texas and all in all it wasn't too bad.

*Side Note: Before leaving on the trip I talked to the vet about all of our options to make the cats the most comfortable for the drive. They recommended acclimating the cats to the car, a pheromone spray, Benadryl (to make them drowsy), and a tranquilizer of sorts. We didn't have time to acclimate the cats to the car, although we did try unsuccessfully. I didn't want to spray pheromones all over the car and who knew if they would even work. So, the vet gave me some pill pockets to try out. Basically it is a treat with a hollowed center to put the pill in. I decided to try the pill pocket without any medicine first. Abby loved it and wanted more, while Bella wouldn't even touch it. So, the pill pockets were out because Bella needed Benadryl more than Abby. So, I talked to the vet again and she said that we could try smashing up the Benadryl and putting some in their wet food. I tried that and it didn't go so well. Each cat ate about 2 bites of the food and then could tell that there was a funny taste and refused to eat any more. I feel badly because now Bella won't eat any wet food - I might have traumatized her. The tranquilizer wasn't an option because it was a pill (which we already discovered was impossible). Needless to say now, we did try to make the ride better for them.

We're now living in a house and loving it! I absolutely love having a garage attached to my house and no noisy neighbors above us, below us, or to the sides! Our house isn't big, but fits our needs perfectly. We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and kitchen with the a dining area. The cats were afraid at first of any noises (especially the garage), but have now adjusted well. The past couple of weeks the cats have been running to the garage whenever it opens because they know that means that Matt is home.

The weather has already gotten hot. It hit the 100's in May, which made me nervous for August. However, the humidity isn't bad at all - especially compared to living in Virginia. I am excited that we have air conditioning, ceiling fans, and a community pool. I use the air conditioning and ceiling fans on a daily basis.

The people here are very nice and we have felt extremely welcomed. We haven't met too many of our neighbors yet, but the ones we have met are friendly. So far we really enjoy Texas and don't have many complaints!