Ikimashou Yo

Did Eric and I just start packing and get ready to live on a boat after Mexico, no. Living on a sailboat or moving was not exactly on our minds. It was a pipe dream. Something you talk about, but you feel you could never achieve. We talked about the idea of moving and the different ways to live, but in our minds it was years away. In short, we had not taken any action. It was just conversation that made us happy for the moment.

We did not think to change our lives until the loss of a dear kitty of ours, Dre. Dre had a hard life in the beginning. He was picked on and called mean, but Eric was his safety net. There was an unspoken bond that only a pet and owner can really feel. I remember at the start Dre did not warm up to me too well. He was happy with my husband and his attention.

In a short time, Dre started to warm up to me. He would sit near me if Eric was not around. I could pet him and he would purr. You have no idea the honor and love you feel the moment a kitty purrs for you when they have not let you into their bubble. I got to feel the instant bond that Eric had with him all these years.

A few years back Dre became diabetic. It happens to cats as they get older, especially male cats. Eric and I got him to the vet and the medication he needed. It was hard giving him shots twice a day. You knew he did not like it, but we had to do what we could for him. Sadly in July 2013 the diabetes and dementia set in on our 18 year old kitty, Dre. He was growing skinnier, and less active. He called to us one night. It was his time to go. He wanted to say good bye to us. Eric held him most of the night comforting him. We had expected to wake up the next morning and find him gone for good. But he was still struggling and we had to make a very difficult decision. We finalized on the need to put him down, one of our friends and children.

In our time of grieving, Eric and I started to talk again about travel and dreams for our lives. With Dre's condition we could not think of a large move. The stress would be too much, and we would never leave him behind. Now we have Dre's sprit with us, always. Our process of finding a new direction for us started with just searching.

We had many thoughts and ideas of where to go and what we would do. We spent days talking about the situation. We hammered every detail possible. We started to make things simple. We needed to sell some of our belongings. Moving is hard in general, with years of collected items there was no way we wanted to move it all. Our start was garage sales, online sales, and word of mouth. We wanted it all gone. Not for the sake of funding, but we started to realize that much of what we had was not used in the years we had it. It is a great feeling to let items go that just took up space. Warning this action can be addicting, so make sure you find a way to control the action. Things started to get separated, things to sell and things to keep. Our travel was about to begin. Our words started to become our action.