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Adjustment

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Our dog no longer trusts us. Prior to our move he was a happy boy who excreted and ran around outside happily. Now he is clingy and doesn’t want to let us out of his sight. We are crating him for the first time since he was a puppy as we don’t want him to chew up the new furniture in his anxiety if we both leave the house. We had to make two short trips to Sioux Falls this weekend to get provisions, and he woofed his displeasure at us when we left and returned.

The cat, on the other hand couldn’t be happier. She is nestling under the bedclothes and exploring every inch of the new house.

Husband’s food anxiety was considerably diminished yesterday as we found a place in Sioux Falls that had exquisite imported cold cuts and cheeses that he eagerly purchased. They had wonderful brats and imported sausages and cheese. He says we need to go there at least once a month.

My anxiety continues to surround getting services set up and paid for. It is truly going well, but I will be so relieved when I can just sit at home and have everything set up.

What has been your hardest adjustment? Are dogs or cats better at adjusting to new environs?

25 thoughts on “Adjustment”

  1. Hardest adjustment for me was probably the move from coastal California to Brooklyn, NY. It felt like NOTHING was familiar, and in retrospect, parts of my self were “submerged” for those two years.

    That is curious about the cat – I had read somewhere that cats would rather change staff (sometimes called owners) than than location, and I remember our cats as hating the “big move”. Hopefully Kyrill will mellow out.

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      2. And who could blame her? Boarding is sometimes necessary but it is difficult for everyone. Our pets have, over time, done the best with petsitters who stay in our home. Then everyone is happy.

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  2. I think our adjustment is going pretty well, although I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic because I didn’t remember in what box we packed Daughter’s violin. I got out of bed to search the house and couldn’t find it. Husband woke up and groggily reminded me that the violin was in Tacoma with Daughter.

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  3. Transitions like moving make me very anxious. This time I had to apply for a mortgage in order to move into my new place before selling my old one. The mortgage was enormously stressful. They have not made the process easier. It is unbelievably complex and it creates mountains of documentation. Reading it all is simply impossible while you’re also trying to arrange for the move, pack, and make important decisions.

    My realtor commented that I would not have survived if I had to sell my old house at the same time as buying my new one. I agree it would have been at least as stressful as getting a mortgage. The timing would have been challenging. My old house sold in one week. If I’d done it that way, I would have been homeless for a week before being able to move into my new house. That would make me even more anxious.

    I have paid the mortgage off in full now, so my entire transaction is complete and my stress level has gone way down.

    My move from Waterville to Northfield was the worst. On closing day I was in the office, signing away my Waterville place, when the buyers’ realtor came in saying that there was no deal, the buyers’ FHA loan had not been approved. The meeting ended. I was out of my Waterville house, but didn’t have the proceeds from the sale to be able to close on the new place. My realtor contacted the other realtor. The owner of the new place wouldn’t let me in, even though she had moved out. All my belongings were in a U-haul truck parked on the street. I had to stay with my friend in Waterville for a week before the buyers finally got their loan approved. I could have gone back in the Waterville house, but it was clean, I was done, and I really didn’t want to go back in. So I stayed with Pam, parked the U-haul truck in the alley behind her house, and made phone calls every day.

    Dogs don’t like having to stay at a kennel, or moving. It really rocks their world. It will take a few days, but Kyrill will recover his faith in you. He’ll remember it in some way, though, and it’s a new understanding for him. Like a young person learning that the world isn’t always what it seems.

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I don’t think adjustment is about cats or dogs as species, but rather about the individual cats or dogs. Like people, some people adjust easily. Others do not. Over the weekend in which we travelled to Iowa we found that Puppy McGee is an easy traveller. He curled up in his kennel and went to sleep and that was it. I suspect his personality is one that allows him to adjust easily. Our poor late Bootsy had a harder time, but she had been quite abused in environments before she lived with us, so every change she interpreted as a threat. After she felt more secure with us it became easier for her.

    I am having a hard time adjusting to my cataract surgery. The surgery changed my vision from near sighted to far-sighted. This is a change my brain does not want to make, and I am pretty unhappy with the results of the surgery. Colors are again brighter and light is brighter, but everything else with my different vision is harder. And the eyeglasses I need for this are exorbitantly expensive. The hip surgery was the change I expected to be difficult, and it has not been that way at all. I just feel better without that pain. Go figure.

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    1. The change in your vision sounds terrible, Jacque. Did your doctor give you a choice between near- and far-sighted before surgery? My doctor did, before I had surgery a few years ago. I’ve been near sighted most of my life so I chose that, and the adjustment was much more pleasant.

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  5. We’ve only boarded a dog once. Humphrey. Our neighbors travel a lot and they talk about how good the kennel is that they use.
    When we picked up Humphrey, he was very sad, his pillow was soaked in urine (meaning clearly they hadn’t let him out enough) and we never took him back. Now we just get house sitters to stay with the dogs.

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  6. For the first time in a very long time, the cat assisted me in every step of bedmaking, and then proceeded to lie down on the newly made bed and take a nap.

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  7. Hardest adjustment is this one at this moment. I know I have lived alone for 4 years but that was very different. Still joyful she died, a week ago today. Working to find places for stuff we moved from her apartment to this one. With broken clavicle I do a little bit at a time. Some I wait for help.
    Met with funeral director this morning. He was very efficient and caring. But my pastor daughter has been through such meetings a few hundred times. I just turned much of it over to her. Biggest question is how many to expect for lunch. No idea at all. Unexpected people pop up telling us they are coming. Only a few but how many aren’t telling us? How many will come from my daughter and s-I-l’s churches? Neither of her two closest friends are likely to attend. One is very sick. The other refuses to enter our church because it welcomes all people. One of our closest friends is sniping about the way we are handling all the details. Sandra would sigh deeply and laugh.
    My daughter drove me through parts of town I have not been in for 4 years. Wow. The changes.
    I expected the county to have all kinds of paperwork for me. Nope. Nothing. Last furniture taken out of her apartment tomorrow and I am done there. By big steps and little ones it is becoming just me. I can start to decide what to do with my time, once clavicle heals in 2-3 months
    Clyde

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    1. Atta way Clyde, you’re handling it the only way you can. I’m glad you’ve got your daughter there to support and help you. Yep, just laugh them off. Not worth another thought.

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  9. My cats have usually been okay with whatever adjustments they were asked to make. Three of my cats were kittens when I brought them home, and they were particularly enchanted with their new surroundings. They always came out of the carrier purring loudly. Isabel especially – I remember how she explored every piece of furniture and every windowsill, greeting each with a rumbly purr. She was even delighted to meet the litterbox.

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  10. I have only moved once since I relocated to the Twin Cities and became a pet owner. I had two dogs at the time and neither of them cared a whit when we moved from one house to the other.

    I only kenneled my first dog, Katie Scarlett, when she was young. She was ok with it. After I became a two-dog owner it was actually cheaper to have someone come stay at the house than it was to board two dogs and then when there were dogs and cats it was seriously cheaper to have someone live in.

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  11. I suppose that going from being a single person one day to a single parent the next day was probably my biggest adjustment in life. It didn’t feel all that difficult at the time however.

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