15 cats, 2 guinea pigs and 2 dogs move house!

I had a brilliant email from a friend in France this week, and thought the story conjured up such great images that I had to share it (an Kev didn't mind).

For a bit of background Kev and Sue have moved to France and live in a very remote spot in the Massif Central. Their house is at an altitude of around 1200m so they get some fairly good winter weather! The email relates to Kev helping a friend move house! 

This is the main road outside their house last week (winter car tyres are a must!)

"The cat move went well. 3 days before, one went missing but turned up with 24 hours to spare. The day before, we headed down to pick up the van which had not been fitted with winter tyres so it was a bit delicate when we were back up on top as the snow was covering the roads and the drifts were about 2m deep. On moving day, the guy with the tractor who was supposed to clear the road from their house to where the van was parked (which was covered in about 6" of snow and has a gradient of something like 1 in 3) was an hour late. The plan was to get all the stuff for the van  from the house to the van in the land rover but even that would have struggled had the road not been at least partially cleared. 

Cherry had given the cats tranquilisers first thing so they were in various states of collapse, it turned out that one or two of them had been given doses that were too large so they were extra dopey! Two of them could barely walk. They were transported 3 at a time up to the van in cat baskets and installed in a selection of travelling cages. Only one of them, one of the new kittens which had not been tranquilised as it was too small proved a problem to catch but, after a couple of hours, they were all installed in the van, together with the two guinea pigs and we set off. During the journey they were fairly quiet and only really complained when there were tight corners and bumps in the road. It took 8 hours to get to the new house. There were a few pees but no poos - the latter were reserved for releasing 5 minutes after we got them all into the house! Most of them had by that time woken up from the tranquilisers but some were still pretty well spaced out until Sunday morning.

So there you have it ... 15 cats, 2 guinea pigs and 2 dogs moved 600km. The fish have to wait!"

Thanks for a brilliant snapshot from France Kev!