Travels with Lucifer...

Ok... I AM getting senile... you can read THIS post, or go to November 5, 2005 and read it again... or at least part of it. It's morning... what can I say (grin) There is a picture of Lucifer, too...

Since it's been mentioned - this traveling with cats, let me tell you a small story. I'll try to find a picture of him...

In 1976 my 'ex' and I traveled the country for 4 months in a VW campter, trying to find a place where we could get along. Learned one of life's great lessons in the process: If you can't get along where you are... you can't get along where you go.. But I digress.

We had a cat. Lucifer. He was a bold, brave buddy, but totally disliked cars. Imagine our surprise when he started sitting in the camper while Joe worked on it. It was as if he knew and wasn't going to be left behind. So we took him.

We never leashed him, or restrained him in any way. We had a cat box for a couple of nights, but that didn't work space wise, so we put a branch against the side window and let him go out... It was in Zion National Park that we re thought that idea, as big things travel at night that eat kitties, so we locked him in so he could protect us. From then on, as we drove, if he had to go, he got on my lap (Joe drove) and kneaded my leg and we would stop the camper and he would jump out, go, and get back in. When we got to campgrounds, we opened the door. He would go and check things out and either stay outside or, in the case of Yosemite, where there was snow, get back in and head under the sleeping bag that was in the back seat.

He was a better traveler than Joe, that's for certain... At night, he would sleep between us, his back to me, as I never moved, and his paws towards Joe... I watched him, once, as Joe started to turn over in his sleep, and saw him put his little claws out and Joe stopped .

He was the ultimate companion.

He used to sit in my lap like a dog at times when we weren't moving too fast, his head leaning out the window, watching the world go by. He only violated the rules once. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, he saw something as we were driving through town (something we rarely did). We were looking for friends. He jumped out the window and hit the ground running. It took us a minute or two to get him back... phew!

When we finally returned to LosT Angeles, he would sit on the porch as if to say,, "OK, we've been here long enough... let's MOVE!"

One of a kind...