King of the Road

King of the Road
(A Tale of Three …e..r..r Four… Kitties)

"Trailers for sale or rent. Rooms to let 50 cents. I'm a cat of means by no means … King of the Road". Moufasa my 17 pound gray tabby sat next to me on the passenger seat looking around contentedly at the ever changing scenery as I sang to him. 6 months previously I had been life flighted to Vanderbilt Trauma Center after an automobile accident with a 50% chance of survival. I did, and now I was pursing a dream. I found a job at a Guest Ranch in southern Arizona that would provide living quarters for me and my 3 cats, and we were on our way.

How in the world would I manage a move from Tennessee to Arizona driving alone with 3 cats? I purchased a camper cover for my Nissan pickup, put a twin mattress on the bed of the truck, rented a small Uhaul trailer and loaded all of my belongings. I put a litter box and a bowl of dry cat food on the mattress, partially opened the screened windows so the boys would get some air and locked the back of the truck. I put a bowl of water on the floorboard of the passenger seat and one at a time I loaded the boys into their carriers, got inside the cab, closed to door to prevent escape, sat the carrier in the extended cab, slid open the window to the camper, held up the carrier, urged a cat into the camper and closed the window.

For the first 2 hours on the road the boys cried. And cried. And cried. I tried letting them in the cab of the truck but that didn't help, and by the time I hit traffic in Nashville I was stressed! By the time we hit the other side of town I had to pee so badly I pulled into a gas station. Parking along the curb so I didn't have to back up (something I could never manage to do), I put the boys through the window and into the camper to prevent escape, closed the window, opened the door, stood on the sidewalk and the floodgates broke!!!

After cleaning myself up, we were off again. I opened the window to the camper and let Moufasa into the cab. He sat on the passenger's seat and Simba, my 17 pound black shorthair, joined him. By that time we had all settled down, and they never cried again the entire trip. Eventually my 9 pound black shorthair Houdini nervously came out and squeezed between me and the steering wheel. The other two wanted to follow suit, but I eventually managed to convince them that it wasn't possible for me to drive with a 17 pound cat on my lap.

I had made reservations for the trip at motels that would allow pets and always advised them I had "a couple of cats". That first day we drove about 8 hours and spent the night in southeastern Arkansas. I dreaded the next day, as that was the day I had to cross the West Texas desert. Miles and miles and miles of nothing. Just nothing. I figured if I made it across that desert to El Paso, alone with 3 cats and a Uhaul, I could do anything! We traveled about 8 hours through miles of desert with sporadic towns and gasoline stops and made it all the way to Van Horn just 2 hours east of El Paso. The next morning we loaded up and made it to El Paso and although we'd be traveling through desert in New Mexico and Arizona, nothing is as isolated as that desert in Texas.

Throughout the trip we managed to get rooms away from the office, and every evening I'd talk with hotel staff about the Uhaul situation. I'd get a room where I could park the truck within view of the room and not have to back up. Then I'd urge Simba and Houdini into the camper, look around to be sure no staff was looking, load Moufasa into a carrier, take him into the room and repeat the process with the other 2. Then I'd take in food, water and the cat litter box. That first night I left only long enough to get some supper and bring it back to the room, but eventually I felt comfortable enough to hang a do not disturb sign on the door and go somewhere nearby to eat. Every morning we'd repeat the loading process, which I refined in time so that I'd load the lightest cat first, then the heavier cats so that I could set their carriers on top of Houdini's and not have to lift them.

Each day entailed one or two gasoline stops and a lunch stop. Every day I managed to find gas stations that I could pull into without having to back up and every day for lunch I'd park the truck in a spot where I could see the boys. Each time we stopped, I'd put the boys in the back of the truck, and every time we started back up I let the boys come back into the cab. After a day or two of this routine, Simba and Moufasa figured it out and just went into the camper on their own whenever we stopped! The boys enjoyed sitting in the motel room windows and looking around outside to see where they were that day. Moufasa loved to sit on the passenger seat. I'd sing "King of the Road" and Simba would often join him there. Houdini would eventually come and sit on my lap, or get inside one of the cat carriers in the extended cab.

We spent the third night in eastern Arizona and arrived at the ranch on the fourth day. The ranch was located on the Mexico border southeast of Tucson and completely surrounded by desert. The owners warned me about owls at the ranch that would eat cats, and if the boys wandered into the desert they would surely get dehydrated and die or be eaten by a coyote. Our small apartment had only one window, and it was in the bathroom, so I put a box and some throws on top of my filing cabinet and set it underneath the window so they could see out. One morning just a few days after we arrived my neighbor called to tell me my cats were outside! I freaked and ran to the apartment, and to my delight all three were sitting on my front porch! They had apparently fallen through the screen and jumped back over the stucco fence surrounding the apartment to get to the porch.

Moufasa loved the outdoors, and I took him out on a leash first. Guests at the ranch marveled at me walking a 17 pound tabby on a leash and steering him like a horse –leash to the right, he'd go right; leash to the left, he'd go left. Next I trained Houdini, and then Simba. Eventually I figured the owls couldn't pick up a 17 pound cat and I let them out occasionally on their own. I put in a cat door with a lever that I could set for them to go in, or out, or in and out. Houdini however proved true to his name and learned how to get out the "in" door by tweaking it constantly with his paws until it opened inward so he could go out. The noise drove our neighbor the cook crazy. Houdini was quite appreciative with him, however, and on more than one occasion delivered a dead lizard to his doormat. "Why's he delivering it to MY door!!!" he'd screech. "Because he wants you to COOK it for him!" I'd retort.

Moufasa loved working at the office. He'd come in and visit the office cats, then go out on the front porch and greet guests when they arrived. Houdini didn't like office work. Every time I tried to bring him there he'd freak and growl. Simba never made it that far and wound up being the cat that stayed the closest to home. Sometimes I'd gather the boys and we'd explore the ranch together. Then once after we'd been there a couple of months Houdini turned up missing. I searched and searched in a panic, but eventually I found him in the desert just a few feet from some of the guest rooms.

We stayed there until the end of the season and then moved a little east where I rented an RV on the landlady's property and worked at another guest ranch. There we met Little Bit, who became the 4th member of our cat family. After a few months the job played out and I got a job at a guest ranch in West Texas. Off we went again. Little Bit was new to travel and would not come to the front of the truck. So every evening when we'd stop, I'd put the other boys in the room, grab a carrier, look to see where he was in the camper, crawl quickly into the camper and shut the back door. Then I'd put him in the carrier and take him inside. Our living quarters were a guest room at the ranch and the owners had large dogs so the boys had to settle for being taken out on leashes again. They adapted amazingly well and enjoyed sitting on the beds looking out the windows at the ranch as well as exploring the ranch with me when I could take them out.

About three months later we returned to Tennessee. Almost a year had passed, and by then we had refined cat travel to a fine art. Simba, Houdini, and Little Bit are still with me. Moufasa, my handsome King of the Road, has since passed on to the Other Side.