Late Saturday morning Cdub and I set out with the boys for Virginia.

This was after a call from my uncle telling me we wouldn’t be able to get up his driveway, as it was covered with ice. He informed me that Peg was panicking, because she had ice in her driveway too, and didn’t want me coming in the front door.

I called her, and she was worried that we couldn’t get up the back driveway (True!), so she wanted us to park in the front, but call her first so that she could open the garage to let us in. She also told us to be careful driving on the ice.

Usually I take back roads up, but I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t be icy, so I called TRgirl to find out how things were in Richmond.
Phone rings
TRgirl: Hello?
Watergirl: Hi. Question for you. Do you have ice at your house?
TRgirl: Yes. (pause) What kind of a question is that?
Watergirl: Well, Bobby and Stephanie and Peg have ice, and I am trying to figure out if I can take 15 or not.
TRgirl: Oh, I thought you meant ice cubes.

Cdub has a system for traveling with cats- she sets up a litterbox, food, and water in the back of her van. The cats are leashed in. I put Ri’s harness on before she got to the house, but knew I couldn’t put Jasper’s on without help. Which was very true.

We put the boys in their carriers and started off. We stopped for lunch and let them out. Well, we opened Jasper’s door and attached the leash, but he didn’t come out of the carrier.

Orion spent much of the trip in my lap. Jasper eventually decided to explore, which was going well until he fell off of the seat. (We did laugh, for we are mean.) We made a pit stop and switched drivers. Except that when I opened the driver’s side door, I discovered Ri on the seat sans harness. Unfortunately, I only had one had free, so I just kinda started yelling. Cdub said, “Shut the door,” and came and put his harness back on. At this point, Jasper had crawled into the litterbox, where he stayed for the rest of the trip.

When we got to Peg’s, we left the boys in the van while we waited for Bobby and Stephanie. (One of Peg's cats hates other cats.) However, when they got there, we decided to go to dinner, so we brought the boys in and put them in the guest bedroom. Jasper came out of the carrier, walked around and found the food and water (you could see the thought bubbles. "Food. Water. OK.")

We took them to Bobby's, where Ri was happy because he had a window hammock. Jasper was his usual nosy stuff. They were quarantined for the first night, but have been added to the mix. (Bobby and Stephanie have 4 cats and 2 dogs of their own.) There is still hissing and spitting going on, but that will work itself out.

But I won't see my boys until May.