A Mammoth Move

It was mammoth, monumental.  A tear-jerker....Frankie hadn't even got in the car yet.

The story really began when Frankie was evicted from the Frankie Cave a couple of days before we departed from home.  The day was nice so Frankie sat up on the hill watching his beloved cave get gutted and cleaned.  

A family of 150 Southern Cockroaches was evicted from inside his cave.  The colony of fat snails gathered from under the cave was fed to the two box turtles.  

Frankie's compost barrel was cleaned out reveling hundreds of red wigglers worms.  Frankie's friend, Little Dude, got worms enough for a couple of weeks.

If I had known Frankie was this good at raising bugs I would have stopped buying insects years ago.  

Frankie was slated to sleep that night in the garage in his dogloo.  It took forever to get Frankie inside because he thought the dogloo was for ramming.  

That same evening Greg departed with Frankie's cave to the new house in Mobile.

The next morning Frankie woke up at 7:00 am.  Not just awake but Frankie insisted on walking around the garage full of boxes and stuff.  Then he demanded entrance into the gecko room.  I had to accompany him as there were boxes of glass enclosures sitting on the floor.  Frankie pushed boxes aside and wandered about.  

At 10:00 am Frankie went back into his dogloo and went to sleep.  Okay.  This is new.  Wake up at seven and asleep by ten.  What is he going to do on Moving day?

....which started at 7:00 am the next day.  Two moving vans, five loaders and the driver.  The first job for the movers was inventory and tagging:  1 lawn mover, 1 washer, 1 dryer, 1 HUGE TORTOISE...WHAT IS THIS!? ...ARE WE MOVING IT!?    No, sir, but when it’s time to load the dogloo would you mind helping me put the tortoise in the car. I would appreciate it.

I am sure this guy has seen a lot of strange things over the years in houses but he looked at me like I had won the Blue Ribbon of strange-things-we've-moved.  I warned the movers a week ago.  When I say “big turtle” they always think big box turtle. "Oh, sure, we'll help you move that turtle. Sure."  I think he was hoping Frankie was an ice cube and would shrink to box turtle size in the next four hours.

As the temperatures increased over the next couple of hours I kept close eye on that dogloo in case Frankie made a daring escapee down the street or decided to pee all over the garage.  You know what he did?

Nothing.  Not a single thing.  He would look to see what was going on then he would go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  At 2:00 pm. When it was time to load the dogloo do you know what Frankie did?  Nothing.  We took him out and put him on the garage floor and he sat there. 

While Frankie sat there doing nothing everyone took pictures with him. 

It has not escaped my attention that Frankie has not pooped or pee-d all day.  I just knew he was saving it for the car.

After the movers departed, Frankie, Newt the cat, and I left about four in the afternoon. 

It was awful.  The smell, the non-stop noise, constant scratching, and then the poop.  Horrifying! 

“Settle Down!  Quit Moving Around!  Oh, my stars!  Did you just poop, AGAIN?”

I will never travel with a cat ever again. 

What was Frankie doing?  Nothing.  Frankie slept the entire way to Mobile.  For a Frankie story it was rather disappointing.

When we got to Mobile we put Frankie right into his warm waiting cave.

We didn't see Frankie for three whole days.  He refused to come out of his cave.  The weather was nice enough for two of those days.  Only one day was rainy. 

On the third day I had to go check to see if Frankie was still alive.  He was alive but he was still in the same position from three days ago:  nose firmly against the back corner so no one could see him.

Maybe he had broken his leg and couldn't move.

So I dragged his huge self out of the cave and into his new yard. 

It was a scene out of Tortoises Gone Wild:  what’s this, can I eat this, what’s this, is this a fence, let’s see if I can push it over, look they brought my girlfriend, is this grass, who is this person, move out of my way, look a tree branch, it could be edible, where is that rabbit I was promised, this post doesn't look so strong so I could probably push it over, is this the wall of the house, need to see if I can push this over, this corner looks like a nice place to start digging, what’s this, is there anything under this bush, I think I will eat the leaves, maybe the house siding is edible, let’s see if I can move this cement mixer, I could crush this rake, let’s try pushing the fence over one more time, dogloo is for ramming…….

Still there are boxes to unpack, a kitchen to set-up, beds to be made, services to set-up, new neighbors to meet.

All that will wait.  Watching Frankie discover his new world is much more rewarding.

(Pictures will follow once I find and unpack the computer with the photo software.)