Some of you may know that after almost 14 years of full-timing, I emptied my
motorhome, bought a detached condo in northeast Ohio not too far from
one of my sons, unpacked and got settled, adopted a tiny kitten, then
had a reverse shoulder replacement. My motorhome was in storage, and my
son advertised it for me and showed it to seven potential buyers. All
were scared off by the extremely high mileage I had on the engine, and
though I got a couple of offers, they were very low. So, about a month
ago, I decided that rather than sell it for almost nothing and renting a
condo in Florida for a month or so every year and doing some other
traveling, I would keep it and use it as a sort of hotel. The outside
is losing some of the gel coat, but the original full body paint still
looks good, and all of the appliances work well, many of which were
replaced in the past two years. I also had it checked by a truck repair
place I trust here in Ohio a while back.
So, right now, my plans are to drive it and my new kitten down to Florida in
mid-November, spend about a month down there, put it in storage in
Florida, and either drive a rental car or fly back here with my kitten.
I have four sets of cousins in Florida I am fairly close to, and
already have an invitation for Thanksgiving.
I went out a week ago and relined all the shelves and drawers and did some
cleaning. I have been sorting out a lot of the old stuff I had had and
replaced for my condo, so that stuff also got moved in a few days ago. On
Wednesday, I spent two nights in a full-hookup site in a
nearby state park where I could flush my water tank to get rid of the old winter antifreeze.
One son thinks my plans are good ones, the other son thinks I am too old
at 83, but is not really fighting me. My shoulder is much better after
my reverse shoulder replacement 8 weeks ago, and I feel a lot more
enthusiastic about life having something to do and places to go.
The big issue is going to be the kitten!! When I adopted her, they told
me to kitten-proof my house! Ha!! If any of you have had an 8-week
old kitten, you know that is ridiculous advice. She is now almost 5 months
old and weighs a whopping 5.6 pounds, but she can still get into the
tiniest of places, so besides her carrier, I am going to look for
something bigger to confine her as we drive long days, with a few stops
to give her a break. QUESTION: I am thinking of putting a larger dog
crate or a wire dog cage under my two-person dinette to give her a bit
more room. Any suggestions? She will be 8 months old by mid-November.
I am also going to start on leash training.
My two-day test camping trip went well, and kitten managed to investigate every inch of the inside of my motorhome. She loves to sit and watch out windows or the windshield to watch squirrels. She makes herself really tall when watching sometimes:
She got really scared one night when it rained and thundered because she is not used to hearing those noises in my house. She came into my bed and stood on my, so I grabbed her and cuddled her next to me. I partly covered her up with the comforter and kept a hand on her, so she finally settled down and after the rain stopped, she went back to sleeping elsewhere. The only problem was all the meowing she did in the carrier on the way and back home, so we are going to have to work on that, as well as leash training. I did put the harness on her for about an hour, but she got into the "I'm paralyzed and can't move" act for the first few minutes. At least later as she moved about, she was not able to remove it.
At least she has learned the favorite napping place for camping cats:
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