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This Domain is For Sale,
Serious Inquiries please contact Marie Tabsch
By Silvia Abarrategui
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On December 31, 1999, my husband and I-along with our four-month old Shih Tzu, our Rottweiler, two cats, a parrot and five macaws-toasted the new millennium amid boxes, preparing for our move to a new house from the one in which we had lived for nine years. Soon we were to find that moving can be devastating for both humans and pets if measures aren't taken. With the move scheduled for January 3, Federico, my husband, and I could hardly walk around the house-it was so cluttered with boxes. Joy, the Shih Tzu, thought they were giant bones and decided to chew on them before anyone took them away. On the other hand, Jimmy, our Ragdoll and Bacci, the Bengal cat, were sure the boxes were for acrobatics. They spent most of the day chasing each other and bouncing from one box to another paying no heed to the red "FRAGILE" signs I had carefully placed on them. Lola, our yellow-nape amazon, watched her buddies' strange behavior while she scratched her head and sang "Jingle Bells" and "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina." Fortunately, our other pets' domains were outside. By the end of November my nerves were rattled. Putting aside the anxiety of a simultaneous closing scheduled for the end of November, chaos began when I plunged into packing at the beginning of the month. We were almost finished by the third week of November when the closing date of the house we were selling started getting farther and father away. I was psychologically and physically spent before the trucks came to move our belongings. One day I had to take Joy to the vet for her routine check-up. I still hadn't mastered the locking system of my new car and I managed to lock her inside, along with my car keys. The temperature had climbed to nearly 89º and the vehicle was parked in the sun. With her being so small I knew I couldn't leave her there more than 20 minutes. Her rescue, which required breaking a window, replacing it, and repairing and painting the frame, cost me almost $700. On another crazy but cold day in December, my husband had put his macaws in the garage because the temperature in the aviary had dropped below 60º. They were temporarily out playing on top of their cages, so my car was parked in the driveway. In my rush to go to buy take-out food, by mistake I pushed a button to open the garage door instead of the electric gates. While I frantically pressed the button again to close the door, I watched in terror as our blue hyacinth flew away. We had almost given up looking around the neighborhood when the mail carrier rang our bell to tell us that Sapphire was perched on a tree at the end of the block. Fortunately, this incident had a wonderful, happy ending. Finally, the movers arrived early on January 3rd. The move would take two days. Since the new home was nearly an hour away, we decided to move all the pets at one time the second day. Federico decided he would take Chanel, the rottweiler, and the birds in his truck. I would take Jimmy, Bacci and Joy in my car. Once we arrived, we struggled to find a safe place to tie Chanel so that she wouldn't run away or try to bite the movers. My husband finally tied her to a pole in the backyard. Things were going well until suddenly I heard one of the movers shouting, "Dog on the loose!" With my heart in my throat, I dashed to catch Chanel before she sank her teeth into his leg. She had been so excited by the commotion, she had snapped her leash. Thankfully, it was nothing more than a scare. Our next challenge was finding a secure place for Chanel for the night. We knew that the fence in the backyard needed repair. After much debate, we realized that the safest place was the front yard that was surrounded by a six-foot wall. So we placed her kennel in front of our main door, which was protected by a porte cochere. That meant that visitors had to use the garage entrance until we could fix the fence, but at least she was safe. Our pets were our priority. We knew we had to try our hardest to help them adapt to the change. By the second day, Chanel had a large yard all to herself and dominated the main entrance. Since the birds were masters of the garage, our cars slept in the driveway. Our Shih Tzu never noticed the changes. She slept in the master bed and was in my arms or near me most of the day. The cats, poor creatures, were the most distraught and wandered around the house feeling lost. Even Lola, who usually sang her large repertoire every morning and evening, went mute. I worried that the animals wouldn't cope with the new environment because I knew that the worst was yet to come. Renovation of the house started on January 20th. Covering several walls came first. Then the floors, a new kitchen, and painting. Workmen swarmed all over the house day in and day out for months. Fortunately, there are bedrooms and bathrooms on both sides of the house, so as the workmen invaded one territory, we moved to a different part. During this period, one of my many concerns was that someone would open the front door by mistake and encounter a protective rottie. So when the workers started on the floors, I had to look for a secure place for Chanel again. After serious deliberation, my husband and I decided that the best alternative was an interior walled garden just outside the master bathroom. So off I dashed to a pet store to buy Chanel a "day" dog house. As the floor installers advanced through the house, Jimmy and Bacci had to be secured, especially during the day. The darlings sometimes had to spend hours locked in my office or in one of the bathrooms. If they were in the bathroom I would go in every hour to play with them. In the meantime, I had to watch Joy constantly and keep her on a leash because she insisted on eating the grout. The macaws were frantic. Papa, the Catalina, had been inside our other home in a large cage. Now he was cooped up in a smaller one in the garage looking at the other noisy birds instead of watching Wheel of Fortune and football with my husband at night. But there was no place for his cage in the new house; we knew that eventually he would have to go into the aviary with the other macaws. Fortunately, he bonded with Coca, the Scarlet, and found a substitute for Federico. Whereas he used to kiss my husband, nibble his ear and say, "Papa, I love you," now he would try to bite him when he came close. By March, the aviary and the heavy construction were finished. Federico, the pets and I were once again being ourselves...except for Papa. The bird bit my husband every chance he got. After the most chaotic eight months of our lives, the house was finished. Chanel now has run of the front and the backyard. She spends the day in the shade on the deck near my office. Her big kennel sits outside our bedroom's sliding glass door where she watches over us at night. It doesn't look very pretty, but Chanel is happy and that's what counts. Our Joy never realized what we all went through. She loved the workers, and was eager to play with anyone who would give her attention. Now, she sleeps in her special pillow (which used to be my special pillow) between the headboard and my head. My feet hang out over of the bed, but that's okay. During the day, she's free to play throughout the house with her multiple toys, including my husband's favorite stuffed animals...which are now hers. Jimmy and Bacci have settled into their routine, too. Jimmy sleeps most of the day in the spare room we've named the "Cat Room." Bacci has chosen my white sofa in the living room that I don't even like visitors to sit on. As for Lola, she has started singing and talking again. She now prefers "Whatever Lola Wants, Lola Gets" and "I Love Paris." It looks like she'll recover her full repertoire. Papa flirts with Coca while his papa sulks. The rest of the macaws are buddies and play happily in their aviary that is nestled among the oaks, palms and ferns. We don't know whether it's because we're older, but it seems to us that moving home with pets is just a tad more unsettling than with kids. You can try to make children understand, but how can you justify or explain things to animals? I believe that what enabled us and the pets to pull through the ordeal of moving and renovating was the love and attention we gave them. It definitely helped the darlings and it kept my husband and me from wringing each other's neck. -Silvia Abarrategui is a freelance writer and a consultant in the hospitality industry. Silvia and husband Federico reside in Miami Dade County with their menagerie of pets. |
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