In our minds, we had plenty of time to pick out the perfect house, plenty of money to buy new furniture, scores of movers to help us – in reality, we applied for almost the first house we saw, had to prioritise our spending because some fool (which would be me) decided the Christmas holidays was the perfect time to move house, and although we had a couple of friends help with our heavy furniture, most of the moving was done by us in our beat-up station wagon.

So it wasn’t exactly the fastest move in the west. Iit’s been exhausting and in future I will definitely hire movers to do the lot in one day… and Jim’s Mowing to do the yards. Doing the yards at the old place was such a chore – although I did get to use a hedge trimmer, and destroy things on purpose. :)

Our new place is on a hill in the very middle of a small cul-de-sac. We’ve met one set of neighbours, nodded a ‘hello’ over the fence to the other side, and spied on the rest through the curtains (spying being something I tend to excel at). The back yard is pretty, and I can’t wait to have parties out there! :)

Our little fur family are settling in well. Our ‘firstborn’, Sherlock, is a 4 yr old medium hair tabby; highly intelligent and independent, and the least affectionate of our brood, but he likes being in the same room as us and gets upset when anything in his environment changes… like getting a new kitten, haha.

Then there’s Benny, a 1.5 yr old short hair tabby with a really sweet nature, who we got as a rescue when he was about 7 months old. He has what RZ and I call an “antenna tail”; he walks around with his tail straight up and when he finds something to investigate, his tail flicks forward quickly like he’s typing out a Morse code message!

George is the latest addition. We rescued him from a shelter last August; he is a short hair white and orange kitty about 4-5 years old, nearly toothless and built short and stocky like a bulldog, and very affectionate (but not very bright!). I do think he thinks he’s a dog, he follows us around and sits down at our feet and even when he goes outside he just sits on the porch watching the street until we let him back in.

George quickly decided everything was fine as long as his humans were there and he was getting fed twice a day, and he was pretty calm from the beginning. Benny hid under the bed for the first day or two, but like George, quickly decided that as long as he’s getting fed and patted and can still sleep on the bed beside me, life was pretty much the same. He is still a bit skittish, but that’s probably just as much to do with the kitten side of him as it is the unfamiliar landscape.

Sherlock spent longer hiding under the bed than Benny, and slinked around the house with his tail down for a few days, but has started to put his tail up more (which means he’s happier) and sit in the windows looking out. He was the Alpha cat in the old place, since he was there first, but now all three have been moved into the new place at the same time it will be interesting to see who ends up “top dog”.  :)