Thoughts from Home

I'm home. As I've said before, that statement has so many aspects to it. I am grateful as always to return home safely. But my homecoming has been dampened by an unavoidable reality. My last entry was before I got the bad news from home that my 16 year old kitty was going downhill quickly and it was a day to day drama about what to do. I was very clear about my instructions to euthanize her immediately when she began to suffer. However everything started happening on the 4th of July weekend, when everyone but the emergency clinics are closed, and her caretakers were changing from the girl who she comes out for to a very sweet girl that she hides from. Unfortunately she hid and no one had any idea how badly she had gotten and when I arrived home she looked like a different cat, so my first responsibility when I arrived was to have her euthanized. A very difficult homecoming. I found out a very dear friend, my "2nd mother" in Houston also died yesterday. And so, now, as well as the end of my trip, other thoughts and decisions took my time and focus.

But the trip never wavered from being extraordinary! And with the desire to focus on that right now rather than my deep sadness, I'm going to write about the final days of my incredible journey. They are well worth noting in print. And so I will go back in time...