I took my brother to the airport this morning. After five weeks of family visits, I am home alone. I enjoyed the visits — good thing — but I am happy to get back to routine, too.
The cats are less certain, though. When I returned from the airport, Andy and Dougy looked for my brother, seemed a little confused and concerned he wasn’t with me. Need I say my brother is their favorite “uncle”? Of course not! He’s great with animals and kids, and they know he likes them, too!
Dougy was especially concerned, and I had difficulties catching him in frame and in focus. On the other hand, this photo gives you a good sense of how agitated he was…!
I finally did get a decent photo of Dougy. He settled down, but I think he and Andy miss my brother. My brother is lots of fun! Sure, I played with them after I got home to help them decompress, but they were less engaged than they normally can be.
“Where’s Uncle…!?”
Andy wasn’t as agitated as Dougy, but he kept looking back from his perch, toward the kitchen and door area, possibly in hopes of seeing my brother.
“Something’s not right…!”
Both boys seemed to understand something was going on this morning because neither my brother nor I generally wore anything but shorts and short-sleeved shirts while he was here. We had bare feet unless we were headed out or — Andy acted like he thought there was interest in catching him — getting ready to take the cats to the groomer or veterinarian. Today, we even had on shoes! Oh my! The boys like to sniff feet, so they notice these things!
As of this report, things have begun to return to routine. But a nap would be fine. I’m exhausted.
Animals are a heck of a lot smarter than so many people give them credit for. When will your brother be back for another visit?
With luck, he’ll be back around next summer. We are getting older and more beat up, making family get togethers more problematic. One of my sisters has it right, though: We need to get together every chance we can because time’s coming when health or death will end our family visits. That sounds a bit morbid, but the last time the four of us siblings got together before this summer was when our mother died in 2013. Other years, we’d all get together here, if not always at the same time. Once we all were retired, though, that helped.
Your sister is right – it’s now or never – keep making the effort!! (creaking and all)
Will do!
I hope all three of you feel “right” again soon. Perhaps a good night’s sleep will do it. I’m glad you had a nice visit with your brother. 🙂
I did have a nice rest last night! Thanks! I went to bed early, got up a bit later than the cats like (3:00 AM), and still feel like I got the benefit of a good night’s sleep. Yes, I enjoy my brother’s visits. He typically stays around five weeks, which sounds like a long time to have a house guest, but he is a very easy person to live with, lots of fun, an interesting fellow, beloved by my current cats (and my late Louie the ginger cat), and just someone I enjoy having for as much time as he can manage.
Hope you got a good nap an Ali is that way when oldest son is gone. I do not know what she will do if he finds a job out of state and moves.
He has been with us for almost 10 years since he wife divorced him and took him to the cleaners financially.
She snuggles with him when hubby is in the hospital.
Hope you and the boys have a good day.
I’m still working toward taking that nap! It’s time to feed the cats. I’ll put food out for the boys, then take one.
Yeah, our fuzzy family members definitely keep track of us humans, and I regret there is no way to communicate to them what’s happening so they don’t become upset. (Non-pet owners might have difficulty following this thought!)
p.s. Give Ali a nice chin rub and an ear scratch for me, pass on my congratulations to your son for his recent success, and may you and Tim have an uneventful and non-medical week!