Monday, November 23, 2009

Cat In A Box

The last two months have been very busy for Joanne and me. Every spare moment – outside of work – was filled with looking for our first home! And I mean every spare moment. During this period I couldn’t even find time to pick up a paintbrush.


Our real estate agent was recommended to us by some friends and we made Bud work very hard!!! After we had found our new (old) home Bud told us that our experience with him was one of his most satisfying… we had been through a lot.


We went to view a few houses that had been advertised as ‘needing a little love’ only to find that the kitchen ceiling was on the floor, or the staircase leading to the basement was a hole in the floor. We learned quickly to skip over these kinds of ads.


One evening we went to see a house that was in a good location and the yard seemed to be a nice size, but it had a shared driveway. Joanne thought that the house was nice enough – possibly good enough to warrant a second closer look in the future, so we continued out to the back to see the yard. Then we heard the voice. “Hey! What are you doing back there?” We looked up to see the next door neighbour coming outside waving his pointed finger at us. Bud replied, “We’re here looking at this house that is for sale.” “Well, you’d better move your car… it’s on my driveway!” Bud queried, “We were told that this was a shared driveway for both homes to use.” “Well the ad is wrong. It’s my driveway… but I let the neighbours use it.” Joanne tugged at my jacket and whispered, “I’ve seen more than enough!!!”


After two months we had found our perfect home. We had one more month to wait until it was time to move in. Joanne kept very busy bringing home empty boxes from work and she slowly packed up all of our things. The cats were a great help…


They inspected every box that was brought home, very thoroughly. First they would sniff around the outside of the box and once that had met with approval, they would jump inside to continue with their inspection.


Joanne also brought home some packing paper for our glasses and mugs. The cats loved this.


Elly would hide in the paper while Guido pretended to be a great hunter.


Most times a box would need just one inspection.


Occasionally, however, situations would arise that would make Guido want to give the box a second opinion!


Higher and higher the mountain of boxes rose. I’m sure that the cats felt like great mountaineers as they climbed to the top looking for their beds!


The cats also helped us by inspecting the drawers that we were in the process of emptying. They wanted to make sure that we got everything packed properly!


Near the end there were no more empty boxes left for the cats to inspect, so they spent their time making sure that our piles of boxes were piled in sturdy structures.


Of course, at the end of the day the cats would be tired from all of their inspecting so then it was time to stretch out and relax.


It has been a very busy and exciting time for my family. Yes, we have moved many times in the past, but this new move was to a place or permanence – a place where we could truly say “home”. The reality of this situation started to really sink in when I came home from work to find that my artroom had been reduced to two shelves filled with my peace Stik-ers, a dictionary, a few paintbrushes and a box with something in it!

So… we were packed! Now we just had to wait another day or so until it was time to move…

Jim

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