Good News

We're spending one more night in Memphis and driving back to New Orleans in the morning. Our neighborhood is still without power, but my mom's neighborhood has power so we plan to just stay with my parents until power is back in Gentilly. The best news is that our neighborhood didn't flood! It's a huge relief to actually know that the 17th Street canal breech was properly repaired and can stand the force of a category 3 hurricane.

My dad and JP both checked on our house this morning; JP went by when he went to check on his own house, which is just up the street from us and my dad just drove by because he's my dad. Both report that the house has no damage and doesn't appear to have taken on any water, the pool is clear, and we don't even have any broken windows. The only "damage" to our property is that part of our back gate was blown off the hinges and the side door to the one car garage was blown in.

On Giving Up and Going Home

Carl and I went this evening to the Raisins from Heaven ferret rescue, which Marin (the rescue lady) runs out of her home. It was clean, well-organized, and all the ferrets looked healthy, happy, and well cared-for. With Marin's promise that she would not re-home Trixie and Spook unless they could be re-homed together and that she will e-mail me updates, I left two of my stinky babies with her. I feel very sad about it, but I just don't believe I'll be able to give them the time and attention they need after our baby is born. I chose to keep Orbit because he's at an age that makes him an elderly ferret and he is more attached to me than to Trixie or Spook, who are very closely bonded to each other and should never be separated; so far Orbit hardly seems to have noticed that the other two are missing and with a little extra attention I think he'll get over it completely without any depression, which is a legitimate concern for ferrets who have just gone through a big change. If, for any reason, Spook and Trixie cannot be placed in a good home and Marin can no longer care for them, I will be happy to take them back in, but I feel safe placing them with her after seeing her home and her obvious devotion to all the ferrets in her care.

We learned this afternoon that my mom's neighborhood does not have power yet, so instead of driving home tomorrow she and I are going to wait until electricity has been restored. Jefferson Parish has also asked residents to please not flush their toilets, because the water processing stations don't have power and there's a concern that the sewage system might back up and cause flooding, so that's a very good reason not to return until power has been fully restored!

Carl is still going to drive back tomorrow, because work will just not stop calling him and he'd prefer to be back in the city, anyway. Since our neighborhood is still without power he's going to stay with Germaine or in one of the RVs his boss has sent to the city to house some employees. He's going to drop the three outside cats (Musashi, Kira, and Sterling) off at our house with a big bowl of water and stop by to feed them every evening, so I won't have to somehow cram all the pets in to my tiny car when I finally head back.

It'll be a lot easier to make the drive with just one ferret, because I can take Orbit inside with me on bathroom stops, rather than leaving him in the car with the motor running and the A/C on and he's already leash trained, so that's not an issue like it would have been with Trixie or Spook; ferrets can die of heat exhaustion very easily, which is something I learned the hard way, so I was extremely cautious about keeping them cool throughout the evacuation. Sunny and Sayuri will also be riding back with me, but Conrad will ride with my mom and her dog, Cora.

Until power is restored to either my neighborhood or my mom's, it'll just be the five of us in the hotel room, but I can always drive over to my aunt's place to visit my mom and the rest of the family if I get too lonely or too bored. I've got my computer and my knitting, though, so I'm sure I'll be fine!