Road Trip and Meeting Lena

Cousins Joan and Libby

Lena

Sometimes things work out in ways you never expect them to.  Connections are made and results are a surprise.  After Immy died I contacted a breeder of Ragdolls who happens to be in Nova Scotia.  I wanted her opinion on whether she thought it was a good idea to bring a new kitten into our household and when was the optimum time.  She told me that what Immy had was not contagious so it was safe to bring a kitten into the family but to check with my vet.  Our wonderful vet, Jessica, agreed.  We had a number of text conversations that went back and forth regarding the possibility of getting one of her raggies, as she calls them.  She had three boys that she was holding back for possible breeding and was mulling that one over.  Could she give one up and if so, which one.  I don’t care whether it is a boy or a girl but my experience has been that the girl kittens are more affectionate than the boys are but that may not be true across the board.  The timing was a huge issue as we are leaving for South Carolina on the 15th of September and for her to get a kitten neutered and then delivered in that time frame was really touch and go.  After a couple of days she sent me a video of a little chocolate mitt female who she said was available now and was already spayed.  Two choices, she could fly the kitten to Montreal where I would go and pick her up or I could drive to Nova Scotia to get her.  The second choice appealed to me.  I had been pining to go to Nova Scotia all summer anyway.  Don’t know why but it kept coming up in conversation and I kept trying to figure out how I could make it happen.  I decided that since John was going to be away on a fishing trip for five days that I would take a trip too.  Nova Scotia here I come.  I texted my cousin Libby and asked her if she wanted a quick trip and being the game person she is she said yes.  From there, all the pieces started to come together.  We have another cousin who lives in Nova Scotia so we decided that if she would have us that we would stop there for a visit.  The trip was coming together beautifully.

Lena (Helena, named by granddaughter Libby) arrived from Lunenburg, NS and we all fell in love with her.  She traveled beautifully 700 miles back to North Hatley and appears to be accepted by her fur-sister Cleo and fur-brother Wyke.  She is a curious kitten and seems to be quite sure of herself.  I think she will fit right in.  Welcome Lena.

Wyke meeting Lena

Cleo and Lena meeting

Coming Down to the Wire 

Katie and I did our last big training walks together over Labor Day weekend.  We managed to get in a 7 1/2 mile walk with some good hills despite the weather looking rather gloomy.  Leftover rain from hurricanes and some pretty good wind conditions for sailors hampered the weekend walking but we still did it.  I am doing my best to get a good long walk in and then to take a day off which is what is recommended.  I still would rather walk every day but sometimes I just need to put my feet up for a day.  Now to learn to not feel guilty if I do take a day off.  We have just about two weeks until the three-day event, Pledge the Pink and I am pretty confident we will do just fine.

When not walking I am packing up this house for the winter.  Since we are lucky enough to have renters coming in this year there is much to do.  I went to Walmart and bought a stack of bright pink bins to use for storage.  Over the past few weeks I have taken a room and cleaned it out of clutter and belongings.  It is the most satisfying feeling to be able to walk out the door and say, that one is done!  This is a big house with six bedrooms, a large living room and dining room combined, a kitchen, family room, covered and open porch not to mention the dock, boat and raft.  All needs to be readied for the winter.  We have been sorting, stacking, throwing, recycling and saving items from each room.  The pink bins are stacking up and the bureaus and closets are empty.  Some rooms are used more than others.  They were the easy ones and the ones I tackled first.  Build on your success I say.  When discouragement raised its ugly head I would walk through a room or two that was already done and I’d be motivated to keep going.  John wasn’t as determined as I was so it took some major coaxing on my part to get him to empty his bureau drawers.  However, we turned it into a bit of a trip down memory lane.  He found a bunch of pictures of himself growing up and catching a fish at age 12.  Big huge smile on his face.  Hope he does it again on his fishing trip this week.

The house is pretty much packed up now and since I will be gone for five of the next ten days it better be almost ready.  The last room to do is the kitchen.  Having moved both of our daughters and ourselves so many times I know that the kitchen is always the worst.  At least I don’t have to pack up everything that is in the kitchen.  The refrigerator must be cleaned out and the cabinets that have any food in them cleaned out.  Drawers will be cleaned and tidied up.  The pantry is downstairs and, halleluja, it has already been cleaned up!  Once John moves all his food for his fishing trip out of the way there will be room for upstairs food to move downstairs.  We are getting there but it sure takes time.  I learned way back that Clutter clearing is a wonderful and cathartic thing to do.  Denise Linn even offers a course in how to become an official Space Cleaner.  It makes room for more good things to come into your life.  She says that clutter can clog our lives and when space is cleared good health, well-being and abundance can skyrocket.  Give it a try.  At the rate I am going who knows where we will end up.  We did this three months ago in our home in South Carolina.  There must be something to this.

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