the cat who flew July 28, 2006

I always think it odd that I never cry in public despite being such a sensitive girl.

But I had several dazzling performances of public weeping on Wednesday night.  Here’s the story.

With life moving into high-drive because our Cree Mansion rental suite has been sold off for development, Craig and I had to push all of our plans forward by a month.

That has meant finding a real place up here, getting the house in Vancouver packed up and getting my cat and belongings all the way up to Prince Rupert.

There have been many sticky points in the logistics.  Truly, Prince Rupert is very far away. But so far the most trying bit has been Ciao Ciao.

Ciao Ciao is a tough cat.  An alley cat hailing from the mean streets of Commercial Drive.  He befriended me as a kitten, showing up wet and bedraggled on my porch, and has stuck by me ever since.  That’s despite moving seven times, dragging him to Vancouver Island and back again, and abandoning him for months on end.

One word will describe him: resilient.

But for all of his tomcat ways, he is not a traveller, at least in the human understanding of the word.  When it comes to moving he is, in fact, quite pitiable.  He pants, shivers and meows terribly.  It’s enough to make any surrogate mother wince.

So, I had many a nightmare about the necessity of taking him all the way here. Whether it be by ferry, car or plane.  It would be miserable no matter what.

But since the plane would be 5-6 hours as opposed to 20, I opted to send my kitten into the air.  Besides which, he’s done the ferry and car thing already — why not try something new.

What a horror story.  With all the rules and regulation Ciao Ciao and I almost missed the plane.

Much to my chagrin I had to remove said alley cat from his pet box to carry him through security!  Then I had to stuff him back into the box amidst hundreds of other harried travellers.

Then it was a fast dash with a fat cat down a very long hallway to get to the plane.

Once there they told me I’d have to put my precious cat into the baggage hold!  But they weren’t sure there was room for him!

Now all that’s going through my mind at this point is a recent news story in which a Smithers man took Air Canada to court because his dog died en route in the baggage hold!

As they marched Ciao Ciao away, I cried fat tears right there on the tarmac, with a plane load of bored people peering at me through their tiny windows.

I boarded the plane with as much dignity as I could spare and felt irked by the world.

The two hours passed and Ciao Ciao emerged relatively unscathed from the experience.  Hallelujah, the worst was over.  Now I’d have him by me on the bus that takes us onto the ferry to head across the water to Prince Rupert.

Sadly, my thoughts were misguided.  The bus driver was very rule abiding saying people (all 5 of us) might be allergic to the cat.  He’d have to go into the baggage below the bus!

Take two of crying in front of strangers.  This time I tried to work it to soften the bus driver.  He wasn’t biting.  I pleaded with him to open the baggage compartment on the ferry so my cat wouldn’t perish from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ciao Ciao made it across in the third-world style bus and a groaning ferry.  I almost didn’t.

We got home and I thought I’d cry all night.  Ciao Ciao, on the other hand, stepped gingerly out of his cat carrier, flopped on the ground and began cleaning himself as though the last 5  hours had never happened.

And so I take a lesson from the cat who flew.  Stay mellow and stay fiesty and, one way or another, you’ll be just fine.

motivation hard July 13, 2006

It’s been quite a fast-moving two weeks.

Between a trip to Prince George to visit Craig and his family, a week of enjoying Craig here in Rupert and many a morning of early, early mornings at the ‘ceeb, life is a whiz.

The early mornings are taking their toll. It feels like jet lag. And, just by love of radio two, I’ve been listening to classical music on Toronto time furthering my time confusion.

The 4 am starts are weirdly exciting. Beginning the bed time rituals during the 6 o clock news, lying down to read by 7:30. Heck, I’m usually not even eating dinner by then!

If I didn’t already know I was a morning person prior to this stint of waking with the birds, I know it now. I’m startlingly alert by 5 am…ready to tackle any interview that might fall onto my plate.

There have been many opportunties in the past two years to ruminate whether hosting is for me. That’s because I’d never done it. The closest I’d come was reading the weather, news and sports.

Being thrown into the host’s chair this week really hasn’t been all that terrifying. It’s like my regular job, but with far more glory.

But enough of that. More important was the lovely week and a bit I had with Craig. It has been -well, not so long since we’d seen one another – but long enough that it felt, long!

In Prince George, Craig’s folks spoiled us rotten with yummy food and litres upon litres of wine. Craig and I did a whole lot of lazing about. Some light dog-walking, a touch of shopping, a thorough scrub down of the car post-tree planting.

And then we drove the 8 hours back out to Prince Rupert.

There we also tried to keep activity to a minimum – a real feat for me. We checked out most of the magical places I discovered in the last months. But we found one new, spectacular spot.

There is an island, just off Kaien Island (which is Prince Rupert). It’s called Ridley Island and is better known as the grain and coal terminal. But along one side of the coast is old government property which is generally wild. Outside of some old army barracks which apparently still stand (though we didn’t see those). What we did find was this beautiful little cove of semi-seclusion. A sandy beach (!), the unobstructed ocean and this little finger of land to explore.

Well, someone did something quite wonderful on this finger of land. They constructed a massive hammock out of strong fishing net. The net is tied to 6 trees and kind of hangs over a small cliff. You can kick back in the hammock with all of your friends and feel the ocean breeze push against you while watching big rollers crest and break onto the sandy beach. Eden!

Here’s a picture: