After loading my beloved mare Anna on her ride to our new home this past Saturday, I finished loading up my car, stuff I needed whilst waiting in an empty house for a week, a kitty litter box, and our five kitties: Winston, the patriarch, who is 17, Lily (11), Bridget (7), her daughter Siobhan (6), and Katerina (5).
We fueled up in Bath, and were tooling along just fine; kitties seemed pretty calm considering they had either never been on a road or a road trip what would end up being over 16 hours long.
Just around Akron, Ohio, is when it got exciting, and that’s an understatement! I’m driving along I-71 and out of nowhere a deer leaps across the highway and we make contact—BOOM off goes the airbag! Scared me half to death, but what was I most concerned about—our kitties and that we only had the car six months and the front end it completely smashed in and smoke is coming out of the front end.
Thank the good LORD for Good Samaritans, who pulled up, grabbed my kitty carriers and tried to calm me down (which really didn’t happen until the following morning). I’m in tears, and the husband spoke to at the 911 dispatcher telling them where we were. They were kind enough to stay until the world’s most wonderful police officer arrived—Officer Malena, you are one of God’s angels and I love you! She was so kind and reassuring. She loaded up the kitties, the litter box and my luggage in her car and she and her partner carried me to a hotel where we spent a rather harrowing night, as Lily did NOT want to stay in the bathroom with her “siblings.”
Sunday morning my husband and I come to find that most rental car agencies as closed, and the two that are open do not have one-way rentals! ARGHHHH! By noon, he gets me an Uber to Cleveland Airport where I get a minivan, drive to the hotel, take a nap for an hour, then drive to the impound where my car is and proceed to unload the contents of the car and reload it in to the rental. This takes another hour (God bless the poor man who was waiting on me to finish, so he could lock up the gate). Now, off to the hotel to load up the cats and litter box—by now, it’s about 6 pm, and I do NOT want to drive in the dark or even dusk after what happened the day before.
The world’s best husband books me a hotel, where the manager is very sweet to give me a room close to an exit door so I can load the kitties and stuff into the room (and into the minivan the next morning). We spend a relatively peaceful night. Lily, Winston, and Katerina all had to sleep with Mummy to maintain harmony amongst the troops.
Monday morning I get up, clean the litter, load everyone up and get on the road. After numerous potty breaks, one fuel stop, and checking on puddum kitties, we rolled into the driveway of our new home at 7:45 in the evening. All without incident—YAY!
Definitely, NOT the way I planned for our trip to proceed, but God’s Mighty Hand was on us and He sent His angels in human form to be there for me. I praise You LORD, and thank You for everything, even this accident, as a reminder that He will never forget or forsake His children. AMEN!
Blessings be upon you all!
Lorraine