Bobby the guardian cat

Allergies make it impossible for me to take Bobby.  Sam was going to have him in his truck and we'd make arrangements when we got wherever, that was the plan anyway.  When Sam was suddenly taken out of the family mix for hurricane evacuations we did not have any clue what we were going to do.

 

After much racking of the brains, and a super idea from a friend, we came up with the cat hotel. Bobby's hurricane hideaway was somewhat of a spa retreat set up in the kids bathroom upstairs. He can't roam the house or I wouldn't be able to live here when we got back.  The only room in the house that doesn't have carpet or some surface for allergens to adhere to is the upstairs bathroom, except the 1/2 bath on the main floor but there aren't any windows and that felt really cruel to leave him in a dungeon.  

 

So the kids bathroom it was.  I stripped it down of towels, decor, and fabric shower curtain, and we got to work.  We blocked off the cabinet doors with his gigantic self watering water bowl, put almost an entire bag of food in a rectangular container wedged between the toilet and the cabinets, filled the biggest tote you've ever seen with pine litter, and staged various new toys about.  We also set up Addie's old highchair in front of the window with a cozy towel so he could have a window perch and Sam added his touch, a cozy throne cover.  

 

With a rolled up towel a few inches away from the door and the vent fan left on, we felt confident he would be fine and it wouldn't be too much hassle to get it all back to normal once we returned.   Of course we worried about what might happen if something came through the window or the power was out for too long and we couldn't get back to get him fresh air, but it felt good and we knew he'd at least have, ventiliation, food, water, and shelter.   

 

The kids really enjoyed buying him toys and getting everything all set up.  Yet another way we were able to enjoy Gustav more than he might have wanted us to :)