We got back from vacation late Saturday night, after two days in St. Louis with Martha’s Mom, eight days camping and hiking in Yosemite, and then two more days with friends in San Francisco.

We had great weather in Yosemite, if you like it sunny and dry, with a temperature range of 28 to 97 degrees F.

Martha took lots of pix, and you can see that I took at least one.

When we limped into 50K (after 90+ miles of hiking over the previous 10 days), we were relieved to find a functioning house with no pet carnage. Our new housesitter did well, despite having to master the arcane 50K protocols of cat-dog segregation. All our critters seemed happy to see us, though our return means Chase will once again get busted if he tries to sneak his way onto the couch, or pull the other stunts you pull on a substitute teacher.

Naturally, one of our first gestures when we reached San Fran from Yosemite was to check the list of available cats/kittens on our shelter’s website. Martha and I high-fived each other when we found no trace of the Vixens. So Samara, Shilo, Sonet, Sylvia, and Sumner must all have been adopted! There was no listing for Nickel either. Awesome. Our work was done.

Except that when we got home and checked the website again yesterday, “Nicky” was listed as available again. We took that to mean that he’d been in sick bay for some or all of the time we were away. Bummer. He was a healthy and rambunctious, little guy when we returned him to the shelter on Aug 22, with just a little sneezing and a slightly drippy nose… but that’s all it takes, I guess. Let’s hope he didn’t get too depressed in sick bay, and is back to his normal self. We’ll find out later today, when we head down to visit him after work. We’re also hoping for a little more info on the fate of the Vixens.

Oh, and we’re being teed up for another litter, which we may bring home as early as today! The kitten-free days of open doors upstairs and uninterrupted sleep were good while they lasted.

filed by: TS