Mr. Wonderful and I have moved many times. We have never had professional movers help us. Usually we have done the majority of the work ourselves and some times we have had help from friends and family.

Our first move was hard and traumatic. We moved all our furniture from a 4th floor walk-up apartment. We had a piano hook on the side of the building and had decided that it would be easier to lower Mr. Wonderful's books with it. It rained on the day we moved. It rained so hard that by the time we were able to lower a heavy box of books the rain had soaked through the box and it fell apart scattering books every where.

It was late by the time we loaded up the truck and headed to Columbia, South Carolina. It was still raining and at times visiblility was limited. I was driving our loaded pickup truck that had a camper shell . Our cat "Rotten" did not like to travel, did not like closed confined spaces and especially hated rain. He was riding in the back of the truck inside the camper shell.

The rain continued and our poor kitty must have felt like he was riding inside a "snare drum" I could hear him crying an angry mad pitiful cry as if to say...."Let me out of here." Mr. Wonderful and I got separated in traffic and visibility continued to get worse. We finally stopped for the night at a Holiday Inn.

Most motels have access to the rooms from the outside of the building. This particular motel did not. When we checked in, it was very late and no one was in the lobby or the elevator so it was easy to slip our "overly distraught" cat into our room without anyone noticing.

We intended to check out early so as not to run into guests or employees on our way out with our contraband cat. Of course we overslept .....Mr. Wonderful went downstairs and paid for our room and made several trips to the truck to carry our luggage.

To get our cat out, I wrapped "Rotten" in some white sheets (as he was a white cat) that I held next to me tightly when we entered the elevator. I quietly petted him under the sheets hoping he would not freak out in the elevator. Of course the elevator stopped on every floor and on every floor people entered with suitcases. I kept petting him hoping we could get out of the hotel without being discovered.

He was as docile as a lamb. I did notice people giggling as they left the elevator but I figured they were just happy people getting ready to finish their journey. As I got out of the lobby breathing a sigh of relief, I looked down and discovered Rotten's tail swishing back and forth clearly visible from beneath the sheet.

Guess I didn't fool anyone but me.

Labels: Cats, Monday memories