The Parents Come to Lexington, Part 1

My parents visited me this weekend. This first entry is about Sydney's journey with them. I need to buy myself some time to upload photos.

My parents had the unenviable job of driving Sydney 5 hours from Pennsylvania to my new diggs. Dad thought Sydney traveled surprising well, considering her previous longest car ride was 2 hours. She didn't seem too sedated by the time she got here. After the first two hours, she got into her litter box for protection from the big trucks that were passing by.

Sydney isn't sure what to make of the new place. We have mostly hardwood floors, which means she kind of slips across the floor with each step. Our apartment echoes too, so we can hear her walking down the hallway, as if she wears lead shoes. Our floors also creak, so she hears every movement from us or our neighbors. She is on high alert and needs to investigate every sound. She is suspicious of things like the kitchen door's hinge. She acts like it could attack her. She often looks behind her, to check that it's not coming after her.

Our apartment is on a busier street than she's used to. She doesn't like the noisy trucks that pass by. She sits in the office window, which looks out on a small parking lot and a grassy area. Last night, we heard a loud thud as she jumped out of the window. Then, there was another noise, and we saw her, with a huge tail, trying to round the corner and run to the back bedroom, to safety under the bed. We're not sure what happened--or if anything actually happened. Under the bed, Sydney is safe from everything except her imagination.

My parents were probably about ready for her to leave. She can only behave for so long. She caught her first bird and brought it into the house. Somehow, my parents were able to separate her from the bird and the bird was able to fly to freedom. We're not sure how she was able to catch the bird or if the bird could survive its injuries. Mom offered to bring me some of the feathers to put into Sydney's album.