One of the hardest things that comes with moving is finding a foster home for our Nutmeg. There is a distinct feeling of both dread and concern. I wouldn't hand off my children to someone for an undetermined amount of time. So, why would I do that with Nutmeg? That first move introduced me to the uneasy feeling of having to depend on others...in ways that I really didn't want to have to.
That first move brought the perfect family to the fore front. Nutmeg went to stay with friends who also had a cat and children older than our Angel. With deep feeling of gratitude, we took Nutmeg to their house the night the packers left with all of our stuff. Little did we know that her prankster personality would come out in force. Our fluffy sweet thang would prove to us that she had a bit of a mean streak.
Because Nutmeg was SO big (11lbs), I was, at first, very concerned. That was until I saw Muffin. Muffin was as big, if not bigger, than Nutmeg. Plus, Muffin had her claws! OK!! I thought, Muffin can defend her territory! I must admit, I was relieved. The last thing I wanted was for Muffin to feel like her place was taken over by my interloper. Upon leaving our Nutmeg, I felt a little better about the situation. That was until I talked to Muffin's mom on the phone and heard about what my Nutmeg was up to.
Oh boy, was Nutmeg causing havoc in Muffin's home. It turned out that Muffin was a big scaredy cat! After a couple of ambushes, poor Muffin had sequestered herself to the kitchen chair and was scared half to death to either eat or go to the litter box. At that point, Muffin's mom and I decided it was best for Nutmeg to spend most of her time in the den downstairs, coming out to visit when she wasn't likely to completely freak Muffin out.
Nutmeg is a turkey. I readily admit that. Anytime we have lived where there are stairs, we have had to accept the fact that she would box us every time we walked by. Even though she is now pushing a decade, she will still stalk us through the house and tackle our legs. So, obviously...we knew that she had this "tag...you're it!!" kind of personality. I cannot imagine the glee her little sociopath self must have felt when she discovered that this bigger cat, not only refused to fight back, would run and hide. Like mother like daughter, I would have taken it as an open invitation to take it up a notch too.
By the time we picked Nutmeg up from Muffin's house, Muffin was a nervous wreck! Muffin had finally fought back, leaving signs of a reprimand on Nutmeg's ear...which was much deserved. However, Nutmeg left behind stories of stretching out on the arm of the couch with her belly up in the air, legs splayed over the arms of the couch, looking so ridiculously comfortable it brought a smile to Muffin's dad's face. Nutmeg's time in Muffin's house also gave the family hours of free comedy that they couldn't find anywhere else.
While Muffin was THRILLED to see Nutmeg's backside leave her home, I was also happy to have my girl back. Her slap-stick, prankster self was much missed during the time we had to live in Billeting. Knowing that it was going to be a very long flight to the Orient, I was still thankful, beyond words, to have her back by my side.
(I want to send a special thank you to all the foster families who have taken care of our girl through our various moves. Without you, life would have been much harder...Thank you!)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Packers...again
The one thing that I HATE about being in the military is the physical act of moving. I don't mind moving to a new place...but I seriously wish that I could click my heels and omit the packing stage of it. It is with dread that I invite complete strangers into my home to touch EVERYTHING that we own. That first overseas was memorable.
The hardest part about moving is the waiting stage. When I mention "Waiting Stage," I mean the time between when we are told we are reporting somewhere, but we do not have Orders yet. When it is an overseas tour and I know they are going to either fly our stuff or send it off on a slow boat, the fact that our "stuff" is just sitting there...WAITING...really galls me. I am one of those people who does not wait very well. If my engineer reads this, he would laugh and say, "Ya think?!?!" During the "Waiting" stage I tend to grow horns and a tail because I KNOW that, until Orders are in hand, anything can happen (and sometimes does.) Until we can actually HOLD our Orders, my engineer could be sent to some God Forsaken place for a year...and that kind of suspense if NOT my thing.
The "Waiting" stage is filled with a whole lot of Hurry Up and Wait. After a while, with PCS (Permanent Change of Station) Season, we discovered that HU&W is ALL our lives are made of. There is always this huge Honey Do List from Big Blue that life will end if we didn't get it done yesterday. That very first PCS was a something out of the book of Revelations. The tools that I have now to make it work, I didn't have any of them back then. But Boy, did I learn, and fast.
Every single move, theft and damage is the HUGE issue that you have to deal with concerning military moves. It is completely pounded into your skull to have a complete inventory with pictures, costs, and written descriptions. Luckily, when we made that first hop across the pond, we didn't own very much. When we were preparing for the movers to come and haul everything away, we suddenly had even less. It is AMAZING how much you decide that you don't really need when faced with shlepping it halfway around the world! It was embarrassing how much ended up on the curb, at the airmen's attic, and dropped off at the Thrift Shop. In the end, we moved to The Orient with just under 5 thousand pounds....nothing in storage. That was all we had.
By the time our Orders FINALLY showed up, my head was almost spinning, wanting to get our belongings packed up and shipped. Just as we arrived in the Great White North during the deep winter, we were leaving during that same time as well. I felt that it would be better to live without on the outgoing and have it show up shortly after arriving. Luckily, we received our orders in October and were able to schedule a pack out shortly thereafter. With great anticipation, we continued to prepare for the movers up until the morning they arrived.
Pictures, inventory lists, small child, cat, Great White North Winter Weather....all of these things made for a very LONG 3 days. The only thing that made it a bit better was the fact that we didn't own very much. However, the flip side to that coin is that by not owning much, any loss would feel greater. Intensely feeling this, my engineer and I watched the packers like hawks. I will never forget how the senior packer marked EVERYTHING damaged and dirty. Calling in TMO, they examined everything and had him rewrite the packing list. I couldn't get that liar out of our house fast enough. He was demeaning, rude, and just distasteful. I was so close to losing my top with him that the final day really should have come sooner. Now, I would just swing the video camera up and tell him to say it to the camera. Back then? I wasn't that ballsy yet.
It was with great relief that we drove to our dear friends' house for a couple nights. We were headed out on one last "see the folks" trip before hopping the pond. After dropping our precious Nutmeg off at her foster home, we loaded up the car to spend time with our military family. They were the peace in the midst of the PCS Hurricane. All I wanted, at that moment, was the no-demands companionship of a military sister who knew exactly how we felt...and provided precisely what we needed...
A Smile
Good Food
A comfortable bed....
and a serious dislike for movers!
The hardest part about moving is the waiting stage. When I mention "Waiting Stage," I mean the time between when we are told we are reporting somewhere, but we do not have Orders yet. When it is an overseas tour and I know they are going to either fly our stuff or send it off on a slow boat, the fact that our "stuff" is just sitting there...WAITING...really galls me. I am one of those people who does not wait very well. If my engineer reads this, he would laugh and say, "Ya think?!?!" During the "Waiting" stage I tend to grow horns and a tail because I KNOW that, until Orders are in hand, anything can happen (and sometimes does.) Until we can actually HOLD our Orders, my engineer could be sent to some God Forsaken place for a year...and that kind of suspense if NOT my thing.
The "Waiting" stage is filled with a whole lot of Hurry Up and Wait. After a while, with PCS (Permanent Change of Station) Season, we discovered that HU&W is ALL our lives are made of. There is always this huge Honey Do List from Big Blue that life will end if we didn't get it done yesterday. That very first PCS was a something out of the book of Revelations. The tools that I have now to make it work, I didn't have any of them back then. But Boy, did I learn, and fast.
Every single move, theft and damage is the HUGE issue that you have to deal with concerning military moves. It is completely pounded into your skull to have a complete inventory with pictures, costs, and written descriptions. Luckily, when we made that first hop across the pond, we didn't own very much. When we were preparing for the movers to come and haul everything away, we suddenly had even less. It is AMAZING how much you decide that you don't really need when faced with shlepping it halfway around the world! It was embarrassing how much ended up on the curb, at the airmen's attic, and dropped off at the Thrift Shop. In the end, we moved to The Orient with just under 5 thousand pounds....nothing in storage. That was all we had.
By the time our Orders FINALLY showed up, my head was almost spinning, wanting to get our belongings packed up and shipped. Just as we arrived in the Great White North during the deep winter, we were leaving during that same time as well. I felt that it would be better to live without on the outgoing and have it show up shortly after arriving. Luckily, we received our orders in October and were able to schedule a pack out shortly thereafter. With great anticipation, we continued to prepare for the movers up until the morning they arrived.
Pictures, inventory lists, small child, cat, Great White North Winter Weather....all of these things made for a very LONG 3 days. The only thing that made it a bit better was the fact that we didn't own very much. However, the flip side to that coin is that by not owning much, any loss would feel greater. Intensely feeling this, my engineer and I watched the packers like hawks. I will never forget how the senior packer marked EVERYTHING damaged and dirty. Calling in TMO, they examined everything and had him rewrite the packing list. I couldn't get that liar out of our house fast enough. He was demeaning, rude, and just distasteful. I was so close to losing my top with him that the final day really should have come sooner. Now, I would just swing the video camera up and tell him to say it to the camera. Back then? I wasn't that ballsy yet.
It was with great relief that we drove to our dear friends' house for a couple nights. We were headed out on one last "see the folks" trip before hopping the pond. After dropping our precious Nutmeg off at her foster home, we loaded up the car to spend time with our military family. They were the peace in the midst of the PCS Hurricane. All I wanted, at that moment, was the no-demands companionship of a military sister who knew exactly how we felt...and provided precisely what we needed...
A Smile
Good Food
A comfortable bed....
and a serious dislike for movers!
Nutmeg's Journey Begins - Responsible Military Pet Ownership
Having furry family members while being in the military is an adventure. We do crazy stuff to make sure they make it on the plane and through customs every time we move. Our Nutmeg has to be one of the most traveled furry family members there is. Born on an indian reservation in South Dakota, she started her globe trotting with our very first overseas tour.
The preparation that goes into making sure she could come with us was insane. We had started the process long before we knew where we were going. It can take 6-9 months to have the rabies titer on record and filed with various countries. Knowing that my engineer could be assigned ANYWHERE, we looked at the hardest country to bring an animal into and worked to fulfill its requirements. Yes, that meant extra money. But when faced with not bringing her with us, the money and effort was more than worth it.
I will never forget my first reaction to the financial costs and paperwork we had to incur. Months after we started the process and we received our assignment, we discovered that the country we were heading to only required a health certificate stating she was healthy enough to travel. With a sigh of relief, there was a sense of well being that came with knowing that we could take her ANYWHERE without having the weight of a quarantine. Having that peace during that first overseas move cemented a practice that we would have with every move in the years that followed.
There are so many people who abandon their pets because it was "too hard" to take them with them. What angers me is that these same people pick up new pets at their next location, repeating the process when it is time to move again. I wish, with all my heart, that there was a way that we could stop this process. Any veterinary clinic on base can attest to the number of abandoned pets that find themselves homeless, all because of irresponsible owners who adopt them out of selfish reasons.
Our lives revolve around moving. The pains that we have gone through to guarantee that our Nutmeg can join us are just part of this military life. A pet isn't simply a plaything for children during an assignment. They depend on us to take care of and provide for them. One year out of our "move date," we start the moving process for Nutmeg all over again. Countries' laws change, so I contact the Vet and start whatever needs to be done for the most demanding at the time. By doing so, Nutmeg's health records are clean and up to date. She is ready to go home with us right off of the plane. I do look forward to the day when we will drive to our next assignment. However, until then, we know, without a doubt, that Nutmeg's Journey will be by our side.
The preparation that goes into making sure she could come with us was insane. We had started the process long before we knew where we were going. It can take 6-9 months to have the rabies titer on record and filed with various countries. Knowing that my engineer could be assigned ANYWHERE, we looked at the hardest country to bring an animal into and worked to fulfill its requirements. Yes, that meant extra money. But when faced with not bringing her with us, the money and effort was more than worth it.
I will never forget my first reaction to the financial costs and paperwork we had to incur. Months after we started the process and we received our assignment, we discovered that the country we were heading to only required a health certificate stating she was healthy enough to travel. With a sigh of relief, there was a sense of well being that came with knowing that we could take her ANYWHERE without having the weight of a quarantine. Having that peace during that first overseas move cemented a practice that we would have with every move in the years that followed.
There are so many people who abandon their pets because it was "too hard" to take them with them. What angers me is that these same people pick up new pets at their next location, repeating the process when it is time to move again. I wish, with all my heart, that there was a way that we could stop this process. Any veterinary clinic on base can attest to the number of abandoned pets that find themselves homeless, all because of irresponsible owners who adopt them out of selfish reasons.
Our lives revolve around moving. The pains that we have gone through to guarantee that our Nutmeg can join us are just part of this military life. A pet isn't simply a plaything for children during an assignment. They depend on us to take care of and provide for them. One year out of our "move date," we start the moving process for Nutmeg all over again. Countries' laws change, so I contact the Vet and start whatever needs to be done for the most demanding at the time. By doing so, Nutmeg's health records are clean and up to date. She is ready to go home with us right off of the plane. I do look forward to the day when we will drive to our next assignment. However, until then, we know, without a doubt, that Nutmeg's Journey will be by our side.
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