A No Good Very Bad Week…

So where did November go? We spent the majority of it selling and trashing things, then moving over to the other house. There was plenty of hard labor happening. The girls would pitch in when we needed them, or when they needed a break from homeschool. We were able to get out of our storage unit before our contract ended. We created a to-do list and updated it daily to help keep us on track. Thanksgiving was near and there was no way we could accommodate everyone in the other house since family and friends were joining, so we had a final Thanksgiving in our home, on folding tables that were “dressed” for the occasion. I cooked in my kitchen for the last time that day (sniff, sniff). It wasn’t perfect, but it was a great Thanksgiving and one that I will always remember. 

The day after Thanksgiving was our actual move in date and the first night sleeping in our new home. The girls and animals had already moved over about two weeks prior. Somehow, we managed to find space for all of our belongings. We still need to work on repacking and reorganizing a little bit better. There’s always something that is found after you’ve pack up the box of similar items (ughh!). And we still have items in the garage that need to find a home. After 14 years of living in a house, especially one this large, it takes forever to empty. We are finally at that point (with the exception of trash) where the house is ready for my cleaning services so that we can go ahead and start getting estimates for the work that needs to be done to rejuvenate it. However, it is not great to have finished when we did. With Christmas around the corner, we’re at a bit of a stand still. I am not sure if we can get anyone in here before the new year for estimates. We NEED to get the house ready for listing (number 1 priority) to dump the mortgage and not bleed out all of our savings.

The living arrangements are working out, or at least they seemed to be. However, my kitty Eli did not seem to agree. He was used to using a dog door instead of a litter box since he was a kitten, but we weren’t sure how it would go at the new place. We put a litter pan near the dog door just in case, but soon he was in and out just like in the old house. Sunday we were dumped with 15+ inches of snow (also impeding our timeline). The cat had gone out Saturday and has not been back since. We’ve put flyers in mailboxes down the street and called the local shelters. We know Eli is a smart and affectionate kitty and are praying that he has been taken in by someone. I know that sounds crazy, but it happened before when he was a kitten. I miss my orange, forked ear baby.

So if our cat taking off was not bad enough, our beloved pooch, Jersey (aka Poofy) fell very ill Tuesday and passed away at about 10pm that night at his new home. He was almost 10 years old. We did get him to the vet earlier in the day to find out that he had a large mass and his prognosis was no good. We never even had a clue. One day he was fine, the next he was not. Even still, I think everyone else thought he would last a bit longer (except I just knew he wasn’t making it through the night). RIP my furry little guy. 

Sorry this post is not chock full of details. We are extremely saddened to lose two furry family members in one week, and within just a few weeks of moving into our new arrangement. I really wasn’t ready for this and I’m sure the surviving furry babe isn’t happy about it either, but we have to cope, move on and remember the love shared with this sweet boy.