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Yesterday I drove a six-hour round trip to my parents’ just to bring my cats back with me to Toronto. (They’d stayed there for two weeks while I prepared for my trip, flew to Seattle, and recovered after my trip.) When I arrived at my parents’, my mother warned me that neither cat had seemed really engaged in much play or social activity and she thought they’d both felt abandoned by me. Sure enough, they both gave me some attitude initially. Oh, and the road trip back to Toronto? Totally not happy. Thank goodness for headphones.

Now we’re home and Sabrina has been clingy and Cleo is still missing her joyful spark. So I have some work to do and some trust to earn back and to restore their sense of security.

However, if I could do backflips, I would be doing them over the fact that I have no trips further than a one-hour drive from Toronto for the foreseeable future. It is sooooo good to be home and to be free of the self-imposed pressure of road trips or running late for flights with transfers or missing luggage. To be at home for a whole day with my books and my cats and to sleep in and to finally attack the clutter in my living room and to maybe have a bubblebath later … well, it’s priceless and delicious. I miss my “Seattle family” (among whom I naturally include Tracy and Monika) sorely, but until I find a way to somehow bring everyone and everything I love into one central geographical location, I will simply enjoy the current moment for all it’s worth.