Wednesday, August 15, 2018
The dear old suitcase just makes it home before the zip opens up completely. I'm so glad for that as I would have hated having to leave it behind somewhere and lose all the lovely stickers.
It is not the house sitter who picks me up from the airport but the same dog walking friend who took me there 8 weeks ago. The house sitter wants to hire a car at the airport and go travelling Tasmania directly from there. Sure, why not. I could have coped with getting into my car on arrival and driving home, but that's not how things are organized.
When I arrive, I find that the house sitter has left only moments before my plane touched down. She obviously didn't want to see me! As the story unfolds, I slowly begin to understand why she couldn't face me.
Apparently, she managed to lock herself out of the house one evening and went for help to the nasty neighbour of all people, the one I had expressly told her not to have anything to do with. He took great delight in forcing my kitchen window open to get her back in. "Please don't get upset", begs my friend as she tells me about it.
However, my biggest worry is Cameo. On several occasions during my travels, I received messages from the house sitter telling me that he was extremely ill and probably wouldn't be alive on my return. Each time, these comments were accompanied by the offer to make the decision to have him put down if he got bad enough.
Each time, I emailed the vet and begged her to keep him alive as I thought he deserved to die in his mother's arms, not surrounded by strangers. Each time, I asked to skype with Cameo which was always met with some resistance, the excuse being that it would probably be to confusing for him.
Luckily, I persisted and the vet did her best. Every time Cameo heard me speaking to him, he perked up and got a little better again.
The last time this happened was while I was in Sri Lanka and then in transit and news couldn't reach me which made my journey a tad traumatic. I was quite resigned to the possibility that I might have to come home, say hello and goodbye to Cameo. That was one reason why I couldn't settle on the flight from Bangkok to Melbourne, too much crying at the prospect of having to take him to the vet to be put down the moment I arrived.
However, at some point, a flight attendant handed me a card for free WiFi connection and since I couldn't sleep, I thought, what the heck and connected the mobile phone and what pops up but yet another photo of Cameo out walking.
After all that, it is no wonder I can't wait to get home and see my babies.
The joy is great when I walk through the door and see Cameo sitting up on the sofa looking for all the world as if he'd known I'd be here any moment now.
There is just a little bit of uncertainty during the afternoon as I am working on unpacking my luggage. Mother is doing something with those dratted suitcases again. Who knows, she might just get spirited away again. Everybody is holding their breath, especially Cameo who makes it his mission to follow me around - every step I take.
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| Cameo keeping an eye on me |
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| Teepee doing some very energetic tail wagging |
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| Lucky following me around |
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| Mitzi being watchful |
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| Lisa, Hanni, Janet and Mary Yes, even the girls are happy to see me. |
When I finally get to sit on the sofa, all four fur babies pile up on me or beside me. I'm being besieged.
At bedtime, I drag a mattress into the bedroom and put it beside the bed for Cameo who can't get up onto the bed. Everybody else piles up on the bed.
And that's exactly where everybody still is when I wake up in the morning.
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