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Our move to Michigan from Denver had two steps, first from Denver to
Grand Rapids for six months, then onto Detroit where we stayed for
eight full years. Barney drove with us from Denver to Detroit in our
first trip (in the family car) and he stayed with my parents for
about three weeks while we flew back to Denver, closed on the house,
loaded a Rental truck then drove our possessions on the same west to
east route.
Barney did not like going for rides in the car. On trips to the vet,
he would meow constantly while the car was in motion both ways. I had
experimented with taking him for a couple spins around during our
various day trips, but he was always vocal about his disagreement.
As we put him in the car in Denver for our long two day first trip to
Detroit, he began to meow. He meowed in a steady stream, with a short
cry for a second every two or three seconds. Much like the Bart
Simpson routine saying "Hey ... Hey ... Hey ...". If you
cannot relax, it would quickly get on your nerves.
On the way out of the Denver city area, he continued the rhythmic
cry, changing intensity and pitch. Often the meow would be two-toned
some high-low, others low-high, but they were always short followed
by a brief pause. To pass the time, I began to echo his cry in the
pause between them, but this did not slow him down. We asked each
other the rhetorical question "How long can he keep that
up?" Little did we expect.
The vet had provided us a mild tranquilizer for Barney, when we
explained his dislike for travel and the two long days required to
transit the 1300 miles, and we stopped to give him a dose. I should
add that the back seat was empty, except for his home food and water
bowls on one floor, and his familiar litter bin on the other, and his
favorite pillows, blankets and foam cat house on the bench seats.
Anything we needed was in the trunk. The tranquilizer took affect in
that we curled up in a ball and kept his eyes almost closed. The
medication had the affect of relaxing his inner eyelid so it
semi-closed and he peered up groggily at us all the while continuing
his complaining cry.
He cried a pulse every three seconds continuously every second that
the car was in motion across eastern Colorado, all of Nebraska and
western Iowa where we spent the night. We stayed at a motel that
allowed pets and moved him in and went out for a peaceful dinner. The
silence was deafening. We all slept well.
In the morning he immediately began with "meow ... meow ... meow
..." and continued across all of Iowa and Illinois and the small
corner of north west Indiana. As we crossed the Michigan boarder long
after summer sunset had occurred, exhaustion and the second sedative
was taking its toll on poor Barney as his voice actually became raspy
and withered but the pace and cycle never dulled. Every three
seconds, all the way to my parents driveway, "mehow ... mehow
... mehow ...". How long? All the way across America. |
After
six months, we bought a house in Dearborn, and relocated Barney one
last time. I borrowed a small station wagon from work and transported
him in the back, so he seemed ok about it. The new house was
wonderful with a basement and an upstairs. Barneys litter was in the
basement and his blankets were upstairs on the guest bed. If you
could not find him, you need only call at the stairway and we would
come trotting down the gold carpeted stairs.
