So here's the page where I jot down the latest on Zen and Bambi's progress, taking roughly 3 minutes or less each time. OK OK I really spend more than 3 minutes, but calling that encourages me to try and keep it brief. :-) Maybe each one takes 3 minutes for you to read. :-) If you are at this website for the first time you can read this page first, or start with the Introduction page, then the others, and read this page last. Either way works. For a sense of time, I trapped Zen on September 28th, 2006. I trapped my second cat, Bambi, December 12th, 2006 at 5:15pm.

Week before Our Moving Day May 30, 2007

So it's the week before I'm going to move out of my apartment, my fiance moves out of his studio, and we both move into a new three bedroom apartment. Moving the cats, Zen and Bambi, is naturally something that I've been planning just as carefully as any other part of the move. I bought various cans of healthy wet food to try and see if there's one they really love so I can use it to carrier train them again. Carrier training, as I've said at other times, is to put the cat food only inside the carrier so that they are used to going into their carriers with me present and enjoying good food. Then the day I need to transport them I just close the doors of the carriers while they are in there eating. It not only is a way to get them into carriers for transport but it helps them to bond emotionally to the carriers so they think of them as their turf. This lessens the stress of being transported. The wet food had various levels of approval from the cats, and they seemed relieved when they got their old Science Diet dry food again. So I continued to carrier train with the dry food and they liked that just fine. Zen and Bambi both enjoyed the pre-move debris on the floor, boxes, packing material. It was good for ambushing eachother and exploring.

Moving Day May 30, 2007

On moving day I slept 2 or 3 hours only so I would have enough packing time. I thought I'd be done with packing much earlier, but I wasn't. Zen and Bambi at times were more timid when I was moving stuff around, and I couldn't risk anything messing up getting them into their carriers. Therefore at about 4:30am shortly after I woke up I gave them their feeding in their carriers. I gave it my best shot by using Whole Foods canned tuna, and did it trapping style. I put a teeny bit of tuna at the carrier entrance, and the rest in the back of the carrier. I didn't need the entryway tuna for Zen. She smelled the tuna and charged right to the back to start eating. Bambi was more hesitant so the entrance tuna won her over and she too went to feed at the back of her carrier. I waited until they both rested on their back legs as they ate, then slammed shut both carrier doors the very same instant. Thank God it worked. They started wining and rattling against the doors immediately so it was pretty emotional for all three of us. Not to mention the carrier Bambi was in had a somewhat faulty door spring which made me a little nervous to be sure. I eventually moved both of their carriers into the bathroom and closed the door. No one but me went in there all day. Poor babies! ....Our move lasted hours and hours and we paid the movers then we went to work putting together a hugely complex bedframe. By our next move we'll have given away that frame and bought a simple one. Finally at 9pm we'd gone back, picked up the cats in carriers still, brought them to the new place, and released them into the new bedroom. Of course they ran right under the bed. We felt just awful for them but they are afraid of strangers and strange noises so it was the best we could do for them. I put food and water just under the bed for them and the litterbox at the base of the bed. We closed the bedroom door and left them alone. We knew they hated us.

The Day After the Move Thursday May 31, 2007

In the evening we got proof that the cats wouldn't hate us forever because Zen came out of the bedroom and approached me. That was nice. We hoped they would play with the superballs on all the wood floors at night and decide that the new home was even better.

Two Days after the Move Friday June 1, 2007

My fiance said that they indeed must have loved the superballs the previous night. He said they made a big racket bouncing them all around. Unfortunately he's a light sleeper. We actually have to put away the superballs at night now. :-) They have enough new here to keep them very occupied- new window sills, multiple rooms, closets.

Over Two Weeks after the Move Sunday June 17th, 2007

Well Zen and Bambi get a little closer to us each day. Now they trust us about 60% as much as before the move. Last night Lorenzo and I were hugging and Zen meowed at us, asking us to hug with her like we used to do. I picked her up, held her to my chest, and Lorenzo hugged me from behind. Zen stared up at us. It's nice that she likes the group hug once again. :-) Zen is probably already more friendly with Lorenzo than before the move since she sees him much more. Bambi approaches me only to be pet, but not as much as before yet. She does like to nest in the bedroom closet which is very cute except for her hair on the occasional pair of pants.

Want to read more? The older three minute updates are below:

Three Minute Updates - January - March 2007
Three Minute Updates - December 2006
Three Minute Updates - October - November 2006