Well, I'm all packed and ready to go. The plan was to sleep in as much as possible (or as much as the excitement would allow for) and then hit the road to Phoenix where my friend Donald graciously offered me and the boys a place to stay. Being the type-A personality that I am, I thought that I'd easily have my car packed, the cats drugged and be on my way no later than 10am, putting me into Phoenix around 4pm. Just in time for a nice relaxing dinner. Beautiful!
Unfortunately, my perfect little plan began to unravel before I even opened my eyes this morning. Instead of sleeping in until 8am, my cats decided to wake me up at 5am. "OK, no problem Amy, just go back to sleep, you've done it before". Well, of course my type-A brain started thinking about packing and driving and schedules, so sleep was out of the question. "OK, just get everything done and start the drive earlier", I decided. Fine! I get the car packed, give Cooper (cat #1) his pill and start calling Tank (cat #2) to come in.
An hour goes by and I still haven't seen Tank, meanwhile Cooper is starting to walk like a drunken sailor. On man, this wasn't in my plans. "OK, calm down Amy" I tell myself, "surely Tank will show up soon and you leave at noon at the latest". No dice. Noon comes and goes, as does 2pm, 3pm...you get the idea.
I'm searching the neighborhood to no avail, I have all my neighbors on "Tank Watch 2010" but the little guy is nowhere to be found. Cooper is in la-la land and I'm starting to feel bad that he has been drugged for no good reason. Why couldn't things just go according to my plan!!!!???? I finally accept potential defeat and tell Donald that if he's not back by 5, my journey will have to wait until tomorrow.
Long story short - Tank made his appearance just before 6pm. Not wanting to admit that a cat could throw such a wrench in my plans, I decided it was full steam ahead to Phoenix. With the driver loaded up on Red Bull, Cliff Bars and peanut butter pretzels - and the cats just plain loaded - we made it just after midnight. So much for that relaxing dinner!
Fully rested, tummy full (thanks Donald!) and cats drugged, I repacked the car and hit the road again. Today is my long-haul day. I'm hoping to make it across NM, past El Paso and into either Van Horn or Ft. Stockton, TX for the night. Easy Breezy.
Of course, with my sense of direction I should have known something was bound to go awry. Not even out of Phoenix yet and I found myself on the wrong freeway which ultimately meant about an hour long detour. No worries, all is quiet on the kitty front. The acepromazine has waved it's magic wand and my cats could be sitting in a kennel full of hungry pit bulls for all they care. By the way, I'd like to mention that today I put them both in the same carrier which made a HUGE difference - for those of you planning to travel with multiple cats. They were much more calm, didn't cry as much and look a lot more comfortable cuddling with each other. :) If you're in the market for a carrier, I used a large Pet Taxi for 2 adult male cats. You can find it here
...I highly recommend it! 
Anywhooo...11 hours, 2 Cliff Bars, 1 Red Bull, 1 bag of Cheetos (ugggggg) and 2 gas/cuddle stops (Tank can be quite demanding), we made it out to Van Horn, TX. Most shocking is that I haven't even been listening to any music...how is that possible?
