MY AUTUMN DAYS

CHAPTER 10

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nce again those words ‘we’re moving’ were heard! This time it was near the end of John’s school year, they called it early May. Again there was a flurry of packing, boxes were every where and as I had done before I pulled my bed (the one behind the stove) out into the middle of the floor and once again my humans got a chuckle out of it. Oh I knew they wouldn’t leave me behind but – well – it made them laugh didn’t it? Paddy and Patches were both pretty confused, I tried to let them know, but they couldn’t grasp the idea.

  Finally the day came to haul everything to the wharf but strangely enough we didn’t wait for the boat, just left everything at the wharf and then we drove out to someplace they called ‘airport’.

  A bunch of the neighbors came to visit us there; it was kind of odd, as we didn’t stay to visit. The two cats in their crate and me in mine were loaded into this silver thing and in a little while, there was the thunder of big engines then bumping then the weirdest sensation! My crate was beside a small round window so I took a look. I swear my stomach rolled right over! We were miles (well it seemed like miles) up in the sky! I could make out water and some bits of land; oh I didn’t like that at all! Both cats were putting up a real ruckus so I joined in. No one came to offer any sympathy and eventually I realized we weren’t falling so I decided to have a sleep. The cats settled down as well.

  We landed at another place also called airport and were transported for the night to a house that belonged to people called Aunt and Uncle. I was sort of intrigued by Uncle as I recalled those words of Senior. If I was smart then I guess he had to be too.

  The next day I was put back in my crate, the cats had stayed in theirs, as apparently ‘there was no way in the world they were getting out’. Sort of odd I thought.

  Away we went by car and this time something more familiar happened. We arrived at a large warehouse and were soon loaded onto a boat. Surprisingly we were only on it for a couple hours when we were unloaded once again. I was happy to be let out of my crate and even happier to get onto the front seat of a truck. Our furniture and boxes had arrived on the same boat and as much as could be piled on was put into the back of the truck.  It only took a few minutes to arrive at our new home. Like the Pender Harbour thing it was kind of confusing to me where we really lived, sometimes my people said Ganges and sometimes they said Saltspring. Humans can be strange.

  Our new house wasn’t as big as the one we had been living in but it was newer. To my disappointment we lived in the middle of what seemed like a fairly large town.  In the days that followed my disappointment grew when I found out I was confined to a small yard. It really wasn’t fair as the cats could come and go as they pleased although Patches was quite content to just hang about the house.

  I will say my humans tried to make up for my being confined, we would go for walks (me on a leash), John and Senior and I would often go out in the truck while Senior did something he called work. On those occasions I could run about on my own. That reminds me, John didn’t go back to school until later in the year, so he spent a lot of his time riding about on his bicycle, he either couldn’t or wouldn’t take me so I have no idea what he did or where he went. But I always welcomed him back and we would engage in one of our wrestles.

  Eventually I did find a hole in one corner of the fence, I knew that if I was careful I could probably do a bit of exploring and no one would be the wiser. I got away with it for quite a long time. It wasn’t that much fun wandering around where there were no squirrels or other wildlife so I mainly did just short jaunts and it was nice not to have to go to the bathroom in my own yard.  One day though Senior caught me down by the wharf and brought me home. He thought someone had left the gate open and didn’t look for a hole in the fence.  After that I limited my wandering even more, eventually the urge kind of wore off.

  The second summer we were there was the worst, John went away for the whole summer and I was quite lonely. Senior started taking me out on his boat, we would be gone for a couple of days at a time and I got to go out in the bush in a variety of places so that helped a bit. Actually he and I became quite close. He had this habit of talking to me and would even ask my opinion on things. I never really tried to answer, but I would roll my eyes and waggle my tail, he seemed satisfied with that.

  Eventually two things happened simultaneously. John was graduating (whatever that meant) and afterwards we would be moving again! Wow I wished he had graduated sooner maybe that would have meant we would have moved sooner