Saturday, June 12, 2010

A Whirlwind Trip To Alabama and Back!





We pulled out of our driveway Monday morning at 3:13 AM!!! Louis Dean woke me up and I stumbled from the bed to the back seat of our little Ford and went right back to sleep! I woke up at the Louisiana border for a Rest Area break, snapped a pic and went BACK to sleep again! We grabbed a bit to eat and kept on driving til we reached Vicksburg, Mississippi! They have THE most awesome visitor center there complete with gracious southern ladies serving cups of complimentary coffee!

After we 'rested' a bit we were back on the road. The drive from our house to Tuscaloosa, AL is pretty much East on Interstate 20.....not bad driving at all. ESPECIALLY if Louis Dean is the one doing it!

Amber had reserved a room for us and we were surprised to find it was a SUITE! A really SWEET suite!
TWO bedrooms and one had a jacuzzi tub! Louis Dean was excited about that since he was all stiff from driving 12 hours! He immediately started drawing his bath water! I think he forgot something.....
Ah! Yes! The Bubble Bath!


We decided to have a cold sandwich, chilled wine and a HOT bath!


We were up bright and early the next morning to fetch July (the older cat...18 years old) from Sara's. Then we were off WITH mapsco directions to the vet to get Snowball. It should have been a 13 minute drive. NOT! We got so totally LOST and went from one side of Tuscaloosa and beyond to the OTHER side! Can you believe 1 1/2 HOURS and several phone calls later....we arrived at Highway 69 Vet Clinic. NOT the right vet place but the lady was kind enough to draw me a map to Dr. Russel's office. The only thing wrong with THAT is there are TWO Dr. Russels! We finally matched the phone number to the right Russel and a NEW map was drawn and we were on our way! WHEW!


We are so grateful to the good care Dr. Russel and his staff gave Snowball. She had developed diabetes and severe malnutrition....partly because her body was not absorbing any nutrients....and she had pretty much decided to simply die. After 2 weekends at the Emergi Vet clinic and a week at Dr. Russel's clinic she had decided to respond to all the attention and begin the road back to health and LIFE! Amber arranged (all the way from Aberdeen, Scotland!) to have someone transport Snowball back and forth from Dr. Russel  to Emergi Vet since Snowball needed 24 hour care for awhile. By the time we arrived from Texas she was strong enough to travel....and she is a GOOD little traveler...unlike July who bellowed a good bit of the drive home making sure WE knew SHE did NOT like curves and bumpy roads AT ALL!!


We arrived home after another 12 hour drive....leaving Tuscaloosa a littlte after noon. We put our feet up after introducing the cats back to their old room! Amber had arranged for all new kitty stuff from bowls to beds to litter box....and the cats are enjoying all of it!
 


By now we were all tired and ready for bed!!! Louis Dean was a trouper getting us all the way to Alabama and back!

We were at the new vet clinic the next morning at 9 so both July and Snowball could get checked out. Snowball still had her feeding tube in and we were not sure if she might need that. Bless her heart! She has been through a lot!


This is a picture Amber never thought she would see! Louis Dean is crazy about her cats!
I will close this post with the happy news that BOTH cats are expected to make a FULL recovery and will be here to greet their owner when she arrives on August 6th! We are having a BIG party to welcome them home on Sunday, August 8th! The food and fun will start after church that afternoon and last for a long, long time! So if you are in the area...come on over! Hopefully the cats will be back to their FAT and SASSY selves by then!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Someone haas very nice parent to drive all that way to help out. How nice of you to do that. Looks like a pretty drive ir parts of it.

One of my grandson's is at the University of Alabama in his sophmore year. He travels with their Lacrosse team all over the South and loves it . They have relatives in Birmingham so that's handy for him.

How do you like that new feature called "Design" on our dashboards ? Have you used it ?

Linda said...

No....I haven't even NOTICED it!! I need to check that out!