The move - Sydney to Bellingen

---

So the move didn't go to plan at all, I'm going to sum it up in point form or I'll write an essay!

*Got up at 6am to pack up the bed and have breakfast (movers due some time between 7am and 10am)

*Cats locked in the bedroom from this time so they can be fasted before going to the vet for sedation

*Finished the last of the packing by 9am

*10am.. no moving truck

*10.30am.. Movers finally answer their phone, not the movers themselves of course but their boss who is located in Port Macquarie. He tells us they are stuck in traffic due to an accident.

*11am.. no moving truck, no phone call from the movers & movers not answering my calls. We call the vet to move our appointment to 2pm.

*12pm.. no moving truck, spoke to movers boss and he says he can't get hold of them

*1pm.. no moving truck. We call the vet to cancel our appointment since there is no way we will get there in time. The poor cats are already freaked enough with being locked in an empty room and not being fed. So we feed the poor buggers but they are too unsettled to eat properly.

*2pm.. movers finally turn up, too embarrassed to look us in the eye

*3pm.. truck is packed and ready to go. The cats are in their boxes, jammed in the back seat facing each other so they don't freak too much.

*3.30pm.. we're finally driving over the harbour bridge and leaving Sydney

*5pm onwards..

we break through the North Sydney traffic and get onto the freeway.. then the car breaks down on the first hill. It only took minutes to get it started again but they were very scary minutes. We got off the freeway and drove up the Old Pacific Highway through to Gosford before we decided to brave the freeway again with the car. We were supposed to drop the cats to the cattery in Coffs Harbour early evening, but since that obviously wouldn't happen we decided to lock them in the bathroom at the parents house for the night.

We drove carefully the rest of the way, never going over 100kph since the car didn't seem to like going fast or up hills. The cats were perfect angels the whole trip, which was surprising to us both since Iggy's various nicknames include Beelzebub and Evil Demon! We expected them to meow the whole way but they barely made a peep. The weather was crap, torrential rain a few times that was horrible to drive through. Each time we stopped for food I had to try and feed the cats in their carry boxes. We only fed them a tiny bit in case they needed toilet, which obviously couldn't happen.

All up the drive took us 9 hours, instead of the usual 6. We got to Bellingen minutes before midnight. By this point we were totally amazed at how good the cats had been. They hadn't even had to go toilet in their carry boxes which of course they wouldn't want to do, but if they got desperate we figured it would have to happen. The road out to the parents place is about 15 minutes of winding bush roads. Not 5 minutes from home Iggy projectile spewed through his carry box and into Teshi's. Then 1 minute after that, Teshi went to the toilet in her carry box!

Anyway, after this harrowing ordeal we managed to sneak the cats into the house without the two dogs seeing them. Quickly set them up in the bathroom with food, bed and toilet and then sat down with a sigh of relief not believing that we had actually made it.

---