I’m concerned with moving Peet.

Peet was born four houses up the street. I carried him home in my arms when he was just a wee kitty. He hissed the entire way.

That was close to 18 years ago. We didn’t mark the day. I do know I’ve had a Peet cat for a long time. The first one was an Albuquerque kitty and we moved him to Colorado and Oregon. The second never made it out of Oregon and this Peet is Canadian through and through. (Although he has no papers to prove it.)

I know Peet is in for a few rough days. Only because he has never known anything other than this.

We move out of the B. I. T. C. H.  next Tuesday, but we don’t move into the new house until Thursday. Our friends Peter and Tamsin have offered for us to stay with them during our homeless days. We took them up on it. I know Ken and I can be anywhere — but I worry for Peet.

Peet has never been in a car. Peet has never used a litter box. Peet has a cat door and comes and goes as he pleases. Peet is old now, but still ruler of his world. He now spends about 23 and a half hours a day sleeping, but when he’s up, he is yelling at us for food or lap. I think he’s a bit senile these days. Maybe it’s all the packing and box chaos at the house right now, but he seems more demanding in the attention we need to give him.

Out in the yard, we have quite the pet cemetery. Lucy, Annie, and Cricket are all being left here on Bowen. In some ways it is too bad Peet is being disrupted in his old age. But, we love our kitty, so he gets disrupted. I think it is odd that people actually ask us if we are taking Peet! Seriously??!!

Our old kitty Annie is giving me hope with moving Peet though. Annie used to live at the blueberry farm I worked at. When the owners decided to move to town, they asked us to take Annie, because she is a “country cat” and would hate the city. We took her. The first day Annie came to our home we kept her inside to get her used to the new place. It took Annie about 6 months to go outside again. She found the comforts of a sofa, lap, and her own dish pretty wonderful. Certainly it was a lot better than catching mice and living out in “the country.”

I’m hoping Peet will embrace change the same way.

We brought a cat box in to the house for him to get used to a few days ago. We thought it would be good for him to learn to use it before we head to friends house for two days. It took about three minutes for him to figure out he can pee inside!

Come to think of it… Peet hasn’t been outside since that darn box came in.

As long as the Parkers are together and we find time to sit down for Peet to get a little lap time and ear rub each day, I think he will be just fine in the new place.