“Our house is a very, very, very fine house / With two cats in the yard”
Lyrics from “Our House” by Graham Nash

The dark hardwood floors could barely be seen under all the boxes, which besides cluttering the floor space, scaled the French doors that opened to the back of the cottage. I surveyed the dollhouse of a house I was moving into, all 700 square feet of it. Where was everything going to fit? I still had two last loads to fetch—my cats, Lexington and Bobcat. I hoped they would fit into this new world away from the comforts of the modern and spacious condominium we’d come from. How would they fare living in a space less than half its size?

By the time I returned with Lexington and Bobcat, the movers had unloaded everything from the moving trucks and were organizing the boxes into a tidy maze. Don, the owner of the moving company helped me unload my precious cargo from the car. He put the cat carriers in what little space was left in the living room. I graciously thanked him for his hard work and he was on his way.

After a grueling eleven hours of moving, the cats and I were in our new home, the Laguna Beach cottage that first appeared in my dreams, complete with a porch, a yard, a picket fence and peek-a-boo ocean view. I opened the doors of the carriers containing the cats. They both cautiously stepped onto the area rug that was in my former dining room, now in my new living room. Lexington casually sniffed boxes and investigated all four rooms—bedroom, kitchen, living/dining room and bathroom then reclined on the hardwood floor by the kitchen. He nonchalantly looked up at me with a look of contentment. Meanwhile, a leery Bobcat hid under the sofa. “Hey, Bobcat, come on, it’s okay,” I coaxed. He slowly crept out from under the slipcover and jumped up onto the piano in front of the French windows to get a look outside. Satisfied with the sight of his new yard adorned with king palms and patches of grass, he settled in on the perch of his cat tree as I plopped myself down onto the sofa, exhausted.

It was hard letting go of my condominium. I had cherished so many memories and dreams of a lasting future in the home I’d finally bought. But surrendering to a realization that I initially fought with all my might turned out to be the best course of action. The tears I shed as I downsized and packed-up finally dried, and a quiet excitement stirred my soul as I reclined on the sofa, ready to begin a new chapter in a vintage cottage by the sea.