December 16, 2015. 5:10 pm.
Dark. Black dark. Dropped by my girlfriend’s to help him with his gigantic, 12 year old, tank-sized “Toshiba” TV which has just been replaced by a light-as-air 48 inch “Samsung” “flat-screen” purchased at “London Drugs”. This is product placement on a massive scale.
The Toshiba is the heaviest TV I’ve ever encountered. I mean it weighed a ton. It had made it to the front porch at the house up there in old Point Grey. My girlfriend’s daughter’s boyfriend, somehow, all by himself, got it that far a few days ago. But he’s a mover.
My girlfriend and I struggled to get it down the front stairs. Then he had the brilliant idea of getting the wheelbarrow. We did it. He was taking the TV to the car to take it to London Drugs who recycle old TVs (and old Christmas lights) as well as sell new ones. True. We maneuvered it onto the back deck of the hatchback and pushed it in. It just fit, like it belonged in there.
December 17, 2015. 4:25 pm.
Back up into old Point Grey this morning to the house to organize “Finnegan” for his journey to his new home. It goes well in the cold, slashing rain and sleet.
We’ve perfected the method of getting him into the travel/cat cage carrier.
You’ve got to put the thing up on end, your assistant steadies it and you pick Finnegan up behind his front legs so his massive body is hanging down vertical and lower him into the cage like a big hairy sausage. Then you gently close the cage door and lay the cage back down flat on the living-room carpet.
As he really doesn’t get what’s going on he puts up no resistance. The first time we tried the carrier we couldn’t get him to go in head-first. He wasn’t willing to go in there and he’s a strong Coon Cat. No means no. He never gets aggressive or tries to scratch. He just wasn’t going in that way.
So we fooled him. And it’s worked well on the few trips to the vet recently where Finnegan had a little dental work and got his nails clipped. And now this. A drive to Burnaby ten or so blocks in along Rumble Avenue then south a bit. That area. His new home.
The lady has been in cat re-home and rescue 27 years. It’s hard to say goodbye to a cat you’ve really only gotten to know well the last little while. But not that hard. Finnegan’s gone to a fine, large Burnaby-style home with modern, up-to-date kind of bourgeois furnishings and wall-to-wall. And he’ll have friends.
He quieted right down when we got there, because on the way out he was protesting occasionally. Yeah, he was crying out as traveling cats do. But he was observing from the open door of the travel cage now and he was staying in there for the time being as we were talking things over in the lady’s living room.
His owner has gone to a new home and now so has he. That’s how it works. The best solution is the one you come up with. It’s tough though. Poignancy might not be the right word, but but but…. …. …. some people….
samoyeddogs 