Just We Two - Oh, No!!!

At least I have had a nice nap!

Well, it was as I suspected, we were unceremoniously put into our boxes and put in the car.  Off we rolled and got out in a very noisy place.  We went inside where there were way too many humans, making way too much noise.  Mom talked to someone and gave her the two suitcases she has been packing and then we had to go somewhere else, to a quiet place.  We waited in a narrow hallway for a while, then someone came with a flat stick (Mom called it a scanner), and Mom had to take each of us out of our boxes and hold us tight while a man put the stick inside our boxes, then by us.  We were both glad to go back inside the boxes, as they were not nearly as scary as the hallway and the man with the stick.

After that, Mom said goodbye to us and walked away!  We were terrified!  Where was Mom going?  We were with strangers!  Later on, someone came and took us in our boxes outside, then into a little room.  Mom was nowhere around.  Mina was a little panicky.  A little while later, the little room began to vibrate and there was a lot of noise.  The room continued to vibrate and, since I was very sleepy, I went to sleep.  I think Mina did, too.  We woke up when someone picked up our boxes, took us outside again, and put us into another small room.  This one also vibrated and made a lot of noise.

Finally, after sleeping for a while, the vibrating stopped and someone came and took our boxes outside again and then into a big, noisy place.  Our boxes were on a rolling thing.  All of a sudden, there was Mom.  She appeared to be very happy to see us, almost as happy as we were to see her.  We thought we would never see her again.  She told us that we were in Brussels (Brussels sprouts?).  I don’t know where or what it is, and I sure don’t know how we got there.  Anyway, before long, there was Dad.  We hadn’t seen him for a long time, and it was nice to see him again.  All the suitcases were piled on the rolling thing with us and we rolled outside, to where Dad’s car was.  We were packed into the car with a whole lot of other stuff.  Mom said we had flown here.  What delusions!  I still don’t have any wings.

After rolling for a while, the car stopped and we all got out and went into one of those little houses again.  Mom put down the litter box, although we didn’t know that’s what it was at first, because it smelled funny.  Dad put some dirt in it, but we still weren’t sure, so Mom peed in it a little, and then we knew.  What a relief!  We had some food to eat, and water to drink.  Not much like home, but it was not bad.

In the morning, everything was packed up and off we rolled once again.  We stopped several times, but kept right on rolling through the night and all the next day.  Mom and Dad ate, but we didn’t!  Not that we were all that hungry.  All that rolling just makes us sleepy.  We continued to roll through the next night.  Mom said something about beljum, luxburg, frans, switz . . ., itali.  We stopped at a place and waited for a while, then the car drove onto a boat.  They called it a ferry.  We went upstairs on the boat and there were lots of people, none of whom seem to know how to talk.  It was just gibberish coming out of their mouths, although I could tell that a lot of them liked us.  After dark, we went to a really tiny house.  Mom and Dad slept on tiny, little beds and we just explored the tiny bathroom and that was pretty much it.  At least we had food and litter box.

In the morning, we got into the car again and rolled off.  Where to?  Who knows?  Mom said there were lots of trees and said something about grease.  We could not see the trees or the grease, since we were pretty well packed in.  They finally let us out of the boxes, so we could move around and see stuff, but it was a little scary.  Things were moving by the car so fast!  We sat with Mom for a little while, but it was better just to find a comfortable place and go to sleep.  When the daylight was gone and it had been dark for a while, we stopped again.  We stayed there for some time, while Dad went into places and handled a lot of papers.  Then we went to another place to stop and we there even longer, with more papers.  Finally we were able to roll again, and we found another little house to sleep in.  Mom says we are in the turkey now.  Somehow it's just not what I expected.  I thought there would be a lot of meat and bones.  Maybe Mom is just kidding me.  This just doesn't look like something to eat, since there are trees and houses and stuff in it.

The morning brought more packing up and we rolled off again.  Before too long, we came to a place where we parked.  Mom and Dad went off somewhere and left us in the car.  They came back a long time later (long after dark), opened the back of the car, and showed us to some people.  Finally they got in the car and we rolled off again.  Fortunately, it was not too long before we stopped at a little house again.  Those stops are always nice, though small.  Dad did not stay in the little house with us. 

In the morning, we rolled off again, and then Mom and we stayed at another little house, while Dad went somewhere else.  It was all a little confusing to us, but bearable.  After all that, we rolled away again in the morning, but just a little way.  We went to an actual house, where we were put into a room with our litter box and some food.  The door was shut and we were alone.  We looked around a little, but then slept.  Mom and Dad came back later, but then things were packed up once more and off we went, rolling down the road at night.  All the other stuff was out of the car, just a few suitcases and us, plus four humans.  When we stopped (after a long nap), the air smelled different.  We went into a place they called an apartment.  It had two rooms and a bathroom, with some outdoor places with screens on them.  Sort of like the patio at home, but up off the ground.  It was nice there, even though Mom and Dad, Dad’s brother, and mother came and went a lot.  One day, Mom slept most of the day, because she was so tired from all the rolling we had done.  She was tired?!!!!  What about us?  The next day, they all came back smelling different again.  In fact, they were wet and it smelled like funny-type water.  Mom said they were at the beach and that we were in a place called Alanya.  After two days, we went back to the house and our room.  Mom slept in the next room, and she opened the door between us so we could have a little more room.

All of these memories are making me very tired, so I must go and take a nap.

Yours,

Apache

Just We Two - Will it Ever End?

Thank heavens for restorative naps!

We went to the vet again.  No shots this time.  They looked in our ears, rubbed some stuff on the back of our necks, and made us eat something.  How awful!  I tried so hard to get away, but nothing worked.  They got the towel again, so I couldn’t really use my feet and legs.  Mina usually doesn’t struggle much and lets Mom hold her for those nasty people.  Mom got some papers and then we came home.  This afternoon, she had to go see USDA.  What a strange name!  She got some papers there, too.  She says it is for our trip.  She says now that we are flying to Brussels.  Is that a food, also?  I’ve heard of Brussels sprouts.  Mom says they are delicious.  What’s going on here anyway?  Dad is going to pick us up at the airport in Brussels.  I think I’m very confused.  Mina, too, but she just goes along with everything, as long as she can play with ribbon.  It is her favorite toy.

Mom has been packing all her clothes in suitcases.  She says that she can’t fit everything in the smaller one she has.  Linda brought her a big one, but not everything fits in that one either, so she is packing both of them.  This is looking very serious.  She has been packing stuff for us, too.  I think I’m getting a little scared.  The last time she packed, we spent many days in the car and slept in the little houses at night.  Will this be like that?  She still talks about flying.  I think she is seriously deluded, but what can I say or do?  Mina just plays with ribbon and doesn’t worry about anything else.  Silly thing!

Life goes on here.  Linda works in her garden – she is growing vegetables!  Why not something useful, like meat?  I heard Mom say that meat grows – why not have a meat garden?  I think I would be tempted to help in that kind of garden.  Linda has planted peppers, tomatoes, even potatoes.  What a useless waste of time.  Mom says she wishes she could be here when things get ripe, but she will be in a turkey by that time.  So strange!  It’s as though she really wants to live in a turkey.  I guess we’ll see, I’m afraid!

Not too much else has happened around here.  That’s probably a good thing, since most of the things that have happened have not been good, at least from my viewpoint.  Books have come in the mail, and Mom has packed them.  She says she will need them to read in the turkey.  Turkey, turkey, turkey!  I’m getting really sick of hearing about it.  What kind of human would want to live in a turkey?

Well, I seriously need a nap now, because things are getting very worrisome and I would rather just not think about this stuff.  Hopefully, I will have some good dreams.

Yours,

Apache

Just We Two - Life Goes On

Well, I took a nice, long nap on Mom and Dad’s bed and am feeling ready to go.  Where?  Where can one go except downstairs or upstairs?

Mr. Purr and I have a truce.  I wouldn’t say we actually get along, but we don’t get in big fights anymore.  We hiss and growl at each other sometimes, but no “knock down drag out fights,” as Mom would put it.  A sort of peace has descended upon this house.  There is just one wrong note here.  Dad disappeared.  He and Mom got in the car and rolled away.  Dad had some suitcases, so I suspect that he will be back some time before too long.  Mom came back by herself and seemed sad, but I’m not sure why.  I do miss Dad though.  Mom says that we will go to see Dad soon and be with him.  That does not sound like a good idea, because going somewhere means going into the box again.

It is a lot warmer than it was when we came to this house.  It’s great having the windows open so that we can smell the outdoors and hear the birds.  Linda says that one window is called “Cat TV,” because we can see where the birds come to eat and drink.  What fun!  Also, we can get on the table in the front room and look out another window to see pretty much the same things.  This is not a bad house!  Mina likes it here, because Linda plays with her a lot.  Mr. Purr and Millie are pretty old, and they don’t play too much anymore, so Linda likes to watch the little fool, I mean Mina, jump in the air trying to catch ribbon.

Mom is busy doing something on the dining room table.  There are her computer, a funny kind of box and lots of what she calls records or albums.  Quite often, she sits at the table and puts one of the records in the box, turns it on and has headphones on.  I don’t hear anything or see anything.  Why does she waste her time with a box that doesn’t do anything?  Oh well, who ever said that humans could be understood?  They do strange things all the time.  I mean, really, why would anyone want to stand in a little room and get wet?  Ugh!  It makes me shudder just to think about it.  Mom took me in with her once, because I had some pee on me in places I couldn’t reach.  Suffice it to say that a trip to the vet caused it to be on me.  She made me come out of the box and then she turned on the water.  Oh, how awful it was!  At least she was also getting wet, even though she didn’t seem to mind at all.  Once we were thoroughly wet, she shut off the water and tried to wrap me in a towel.  I didn’t like that very much, and escaped from the bathroom as soon as I could.  She does that every morning, no matter what house we are living in!

Mina says she wants to go outside and get a bird.  I told her that she can only think about it, because they will never let us go outside.  Mr. Purr and Millie are sometimes allowed to go out, but they are old and slow and usually come in when Linda tells them to.  One time, though, Millie hid, and Linda was a little upset with her.  Finally, she came in and all was peaceful again.

Mom has been taking things out of boxes and putting them in different boxes and putting them in the back room.  When Mom and Dad went away one day, with two cars, a lot of boxes disappeared from the house.  I don’t know what they did with them, but they are completely gone and, I think, not coming back.  One of the cars did not come back, either.  We used to look out the window and see the big white car sitting in the driveway, but it is no longer there.  Mom is very busy, though.  She goes places and comes back, sometimes with stuff, sometimes not.  Sometimes she says she has been “downtown,” wherever that is.  She says it costs her a lot of money to go there, so I don’t know why she goes.  There is something called an “apple still” that she has to see and then she goes to a Turkish thing.  I don’t know what it is, but it starts with “con.”

Besides being busy, Mom is a little stressed – actually a lot stressed.  Sometimes she goes places with Linda and/or Richie, but so far she always comes back.  I’m afraid that one day she won’t come back.  What will we do then?  We can’t stay here.  Millie is so upset about our being here, that she sometimes leaves puddles and little presents for Linda.  She says she doesn’t like our being here, and she is protesting.  Of course, with Mina being here and trying to boss her around, she feels that she has no status, because she says we all pick on her.  I don’t think that’s true.  We don’t pick on her all the time, just a lot of the time.  She’s easy to pick on, except sometimes she does growl and hiss back at us.  I think that if we stay here much longer, she will try to get back at us.

Mom keeps saying that soon we will fly away to be with Dad.  With what wings?  Are we birds?  I must take a nap and keep on thinking about this.  It’s very puzzling.

Yours,

Apache

Just We Two - What Next?

I have been sleeping and napping a lot.  Both Mina and I now spend a lot of time on Mom and Dad’s bed.  Mr. Purr and Millie almost never come into that room, so we are pretty safe there.

Mr. Purr keeps playing boss, and he and I get into some big fights.  Mina is terrified of him, so tries to stay out of his way.  She tries to boss Millie around, and so do I.  Things are beginning to calm down a little now, and sometimes Millie even teases us somewhat, so that we will come after her.  Toys are appearing for Mina to play with, and that makes her happy.  She also watches the birds from the windows.  There are a lot of windows here, and they are easy to get to.  Lots of birds and other things to see and hear.

Sometimes I sleep in the tower that we brought from home.  It makes me feel a little safe.  In the evening, sometimes I will lie on the couch beside Mom or Dad.  The others will never bother me there.  Ha!  Both Mom and Dad are bigger than Mr. Purr, so he won’t try to fight with them.  I miss home.

Will we ever see home again?  I am beginning to think that we will never be there again, but maybe we will have a new home.  Are we there now?  Probably not.  Dad keeps talking about going to live in a turkey.  What?  Why does turkey play such a large part in our lives?  We eat turkey at Thanksgiving, and I suspect that humans come from turkeys, as I have mentioned previously, but now we are all going to live in one?  This is very puzzling to me.  I have talked to Mina about it, and she is even more confused than I am.  Dad talks about flying into the turkey, but none of us has wings.  Also, are there different sized turkeys?  The one we eat at Thanksgiving isn’t big enough for even just me to get into.  Now we are all going to live in one?  This is going to take a lot of thought on my part.  Mina, too.  Will it be cold in this turkey?  Will it be hot in this turkey?  Can we eat it if we get hungry?  Very strange!  Life appears to be full of surprises and little lessons to be learned.

In the meantime, we need to survive living with these other cats.  Millie is pretty docile and tries to stay out of our way.  Mina insists on going after Millie, and then Mom has to yell at her.  I guess Mina just wants to be the boss of somebody.  I keep telling her to just forget about it and get along, but she doesn’t listen very well.  Breakfast and supper are getting easier.  They give Mr. Purr some of the wet food and move his dish a little way from ours, and Mina’s is moved away, too.  Millie usually doesn’t partake of meals with the rest of us, preferring to just snack throughout the day, or when no one else is there.  She misses out on the wet food most of the time, but I don’t think she really minds very much.  If she is there when it is served, then she gets some.  If not, she doesn’t get any.

Mom has not been making food for us for a long time.  That’s another thing that makes me think we are not yet in our new home.  I miss that food.  It was very delicious!  Maybe someday she will make it again, and we will all be happy together again.  In a turkey???  Lots to think about!

I guess I will take a nap now so that I can think.  I do my best thinking while I am napping.

Yours,

Apache

Just We Two - Journey into Madness

I’ve been playing with some new toys, and someone named Linda has been helping me to play.

Am I still alive?  Miss Patchy suggested the title for this page, but I don’t really know what it means.  She says that a journey is like a trip.  Well, what is a trip?  Anyway, we had an awful ordeal, Miss Patchy and I.  We were put into our boxes every morning and taken to the car to roll away somewhere.  It was so scary!  Sometimes I tried so hard not to get into the box, but Miss Patchy said that Mom and Dad will always win that fight, and she was absolutely right.  I hated all those little houses where we lived for the night.  They smelled funny and they were small, and I just wanted to be back home, where I felt safe.  I hated rolling in the car, too.  Mostly Miss Patchy and I slept when we were in the car, so I don’t remember a lot of it.

First, there was all the packing away of familiar things, and the loss of our furniture.  Where did it go and why?  Now I understand it a little better, since we seem to be at home in a new place.  It is much bigger than those little places where we stayed the nights.  I feel a little safer now, except for the other cats who also live here.  The one named Mr. Purr is very frightening.  He says he is the boss here and I need to just stay out of his way and do whatever he says.  Miss Patchy says that she knew him a long time ago.  She didn’t like him then and she doesn’t like him now, but she’s not really afraid of him.  She fights with him, although not so much anymore.  She is very brave.  I wish I could be like her.  One reason I don’t like him much is that he yells all the time.  Miss Patchy said that he didn’t used to yell and that maybe he can’t hear too well.  That might be right, since sometimes I come right up to him and he doesn’t notice until he actually sees me and then he is very startled.  Wow!  I would hate it if I couldn’t hear.  Maybe he’s not such a bad guy after all.

The other cat is called Millie and I like to intimidate her.  Miss Patchy said that’s what I do, but I don’t really know that word.  Anyway, when we meet, I hiss at her and she mostly runs away and I chase her, except for sometimes when she hisses back.  It is fun.  Sometimes, Millie even comes right in front of me, teasing me.  It’s a good game.

At first it was very cold in this new house, and Miss Patchy and I spent a lot of time in a wall, refusing to come out, even sometimes we didn’t eat.  That is very unusual for Miss Patchy, but not so much for me.  Finally, things are getting warmer, and the windows are open sometimes.  The windows here are much different from home, and there are a lot more of them.  They look different, and there are a lot of things to see when I look out, plus they are easier to get to.  There are lots of birds to watch.  I wish I could get to them, but again, there are screens, and I can’t get out.  I have to be satisfied just to watch and switch my tail, thinking about what I would do to them if I ever caught them.  When I look out the windows, mostly all I see are many brown stick-like things.  I’m not sure what they are.

What a terrible ordeal we have gone through.  I just can’t stop thinking about being in the box for so long and staying in those horrible little houses.  Some of them were not so terribly bad, but they just weren’t home.  Some of them smelled very bad and some were not very good.  Some were not too bad, but home is best.  Will we ever be home again?  Miss Patchy says that we probably won’t ever be in the Phoenix home again.  She has some experience, and thinks that we are probably in our new home now.

I was very frightened the other day.  Once again, we were put into the boxes, both of us.  We went to the car and rolled away.  I thought for sure we would end up in one of those awful little houses for the night, but instead, we went to see the vet.  Almost as bad, but at least we went home when we were done there.  The vet poked and prodded until I thought I would go crazy.  Then she gave me a shot.  Miss Patchy got the same.  What is happening now?  I think we have to go back again later on.  Mom and Dad are talking about flying somewhere.  Well, we don’t have wings, so I don’t think we will be flying anywhere any time soon.  I talked to Miss Patchy about this, but she says I shouldn’t be so sure about things.  She says that Mom and Dad have talked about flying here and flying there, and they don’t have wings.  Hm-m-m-m!  We will have to think about this for a while to see if we can figure it out.

Maybe if I play with some toys, I can think better.  My mind will be clearer.

Regards,

Mina

Where To, and When?

Well, I have had a good nap, so I can continue with our adventures.

Finally, one day, Dad was in the garage, giving stuff to people who gave him pieces of paper, when Dad brought home something behind the car that he called a trailer.  They started putting the taped up boxes in it, and when it was starting to get dark, Mom made us get into our boxes and put us in the car!  We were getting seriously frightened by then.  Some people came, gave Dad some more pieces of paper and took the rest of the stuff out of the garage.  He closed the garage door and locked up the house.  He and Mom got into the car (which was stuffed to the ceiling with things, including us), and off we rolled.  It was like being in a closet or something.  Mina and I were facing each other, but there was all kinds of stuff covering our boxes.  It had already been dark for a while, so we didn’t roll for very long.  We stopped so Mom and Dad could eat something, and then we rolled on for a little while.  Then we stopped and slept in a little house with just a bedroom and a bathroom.  It was nice to be out of the boxes, but it was a strange place that didn’t smell like home.  We snuggled with Mom and Dad.

In the morning, they put us back into our boxes and we rolled off again!  We continued to roll all day long.  I was not too scared, as I had done this before, when Cherokee and I moved with Mom from Massachusetts to Phoenix.  Mina, however, was quite concerned.  She couldn’t understand being shut up in her box for so long.  I told her to just go to sleep, and she would wake up when it was time to get out of the box.  We both slept, and went into another little house called Texas.  It was quite late in the day already.

The next day was a repeat of the previous day, but this time the house was called Austin.  Mom and Dad left us in the strange place all evening, and went to her nephew’s house, where they ate a wonderful dinner.  We just had dry food!  The house we were in was very old and not in very good condition.  Mom said that the only thing good about it was that it was cheap.  Again, we spent only one night there.

On the following day, Mom said that they had to change their plans.  They wanted to go see her sister in Florida, but she said it was way too hard on Mina and me to keep going for so many days in the car.  Yes!!!  Finally, she was thinking of us!  She said that we would turn north and head straight for Massachusetts.  Massachusetts?  Didn’t we leave that house once, a long time ago?  Anyway, we got into the car again and that night we spent in a little house called Arkansas.  Mom said there had been an accident on the freeway and the traffic was stopped.  They decided not to go on to Memphis, and stayed in the little house right by the freeway.  It was much better than the house called Austin.  I was really going stir crazy, and had to see out the window or die!  Mom helped me to get into the window, behind the curtains, and I stayed there for a long time, just dreaming of freedom and maybe being home again.  Mina was just trying to get attention all night and woke Mom up.  Dad spent some time on the computer, since the house had something called free WI FI.  Neither one of them slept very much.

They said the traffic was much better the next day, and we reluctantly got into the boxes.  Mina fought very hard against it, but I told her it was useless.  Mom and Dad are bigger than we are, and they will always win!  Mom kept saying that a storm was coming and that we needed to keep ahead of it.  She thought maybe it would not come quite as far as we were, but we kept on rolling.  We stayed in a little house in Ohio.

When we went to the car the next morning, it was pretty cold and I was shivering.  Mina complained of the cold, too.  She made a big show of not getting into the box this morning.  She hid behind a piece of furniture and Dad had to pull some drawers out so he could get to her.  She was pretty mad, but after the car warmed up and we were ready to sleep, she calmed down.  What else could she do?  Mom said it snowed a little while we were sleeping, but fortunately, I didn’t see it.  Mina wanted to know what snow is.  I tried to explain it, but she didn’t really understand.  On we rolled and rolled.  Would we never get out of that car and living in the little houses?  Mom said that we got to a house called Niagara Falls.  It was so terribly cold in the bedroom.  I shivered and shivered.  We snuggled a lot.  Mina went under the covers.

In the morning, the room was finally warm, but then we were stuffed into our boxes and taken out to the cold car.  How much longer? I have resigned myself to the morning ritual of getting into the box.  Mina, on the other hand, it getting worse and worse about it.  She hid deep under the covers, but Mom and Dad saw her easily as a big lump in the bed, and picked her up.  She fought and fought getting into the box, but, of course, they won and in she went.  The car stopped a couple of times, but eventually we got somewhere with people who hugged Mom and Dad.  We got out of the warm car into the cold, but then we went right into a house.  It was a pretty big house with just one problem – there were other cats there!  I think I know them.  They are called Mr. Purr and Millie!  I believe that I knew them in the Massachusetts house.  I thought I was rid of them forever, but here we are again.  However, if this house is called Massachusetts, what happened to the other one called Massachusetts?  I am beginning to wonder about this.

The next morning, we did not get up and go into the boxes.  We did not get into the car and roll.  We ate breakfast and hid.  We found a nice, quiet place in the wall in a bedroom where Richie (Mom’s grandson) lived.  I remember him from when he stayed with us in the house called Phoenix.  We were so scared that we would have to move on again, that we hardly ever came out of the wall for days.  Sometimes we didn’t even eat.  Did I say that?

Well remembering all of this stuff has made me very tired.  Nighty night!

Yours,

Apache

Chaos

I’m just up from my nap, and feel the need to get on with this blog.  As I’m sure you’ve noticed, neither of us has written anything for a very long time.  All has been chaos in our house, at least as I understand that word.

Neither Mina nor I have been able to understand much of what has been going on.  Shortly after Mom had her second hip replacement, Mom and Dad decided that we would have to move – again!    Where to this time, I wondered.  In order to move, they decided that they must sell everything, except us and their clothes.  So, once Mom was feeling okay, she began to sort things out.  This was all interrupted by Mom and Dad going away – again!  They left the house one morning and didn’t come back for nearly a week.  The neighbor came in to feed us again, and to clean our litter box.  Did they think of us while they were gone?  Did they go somewhere, or just stay out of the house for that week?

When they got back, they talked about something called a reunion, a cemetery, old friends, old houses, and other things, including a beach, whatever those things are.  They talked about eating some places and driving around.  I’m glad I didn’t go, since I would much rather take a nap.

Of course, the sorting began again, and Mom began to set things up in the garage.  She set up the folding tables and put a lot of stuff on them.  She kept finding more and more stuff to put in the garage, until you could hardly move in the garage.  She got really tired do all of that, but she kept on going, until there was no longer any room for anything.  Finally, the day came when the door to the garage was constantly open, our litter box and food and water dishes were upstairs, and a lot of people came into the house and were looking around.  This went on for two days!  When it was over, things apparently went back to normal.  But not quite!  A lot of things were gone that had been in the house before.  Even some of the furniture was missing.  The curio cabinet and the entertainment center had disappeared some time before, when someone came to take them away.

There were a few more days of that type of activity over the while, but things remained pretty much the same, until one day some people came and took away the couch, the liquor cabinet, the bedroom set, and the wonderful computer desk and one of the office chairs.  That was a shock!  Mom went out one day and came back with a tiny little thing to put the computer on and things were a little difficult for a while.  A while after that, the garage was open most of the time, and people came and took stuff away.  Mom packed away the china and a lot of other things, and taped up the boxes.  It was getting really scary.  Mina and I had no idea what was happening.  We just stayed close to Mom and Dad and tried to keep warm and comfortable on what was left of the furniture.  They moved the mattress and springs from the bed down into the living room so they would have something to sit on, so we often cuddle there.

One day, when it was pretty cold, Mom went away.  She was gone for a few days and then came back.  She said that her sister-in-law had died and she had to go to the funeral.  I’m not sure what that is, but she was sad for a while.  She said it was an expense she hadn’t needed, but she had needed to go; it was important.  She said it was very cold where she had been, but it hadn’t bothered her too much.  She said that was a good thing, considering what they were going to do.

Oh, I’m getting so tired!  I think I need a nap.

Yours,

Apache