Well Travelled Dead Kitty

Via was a calico I had for nearly 10 years. She became quite ill, and was put down in April of 2007. She was cremated in Yellowknife, and is the most well-travelled kitty I know, dead or alive. She was born in Newfoundland in 1997 and when she was just 5 days old, I moved to Ontario, and so she travelled with my daughter and I, and her mother, an older Calico named Pretty. Part of that journey was 2 days on Via Rail...hence her name. Her eyes didn't open until a couple of days after we arrived in Ontario. We lost her mother in Ontario, a year later.

After several years in Ontario where I was attending university, Via, my daughter and I moved back east, to Cape Breton. Some years later, Via and I moved to the Yukon, then moved to Fort Resolution in the NWT. It was there that she became ill. The crematory was not in commission for months, however, so they 'stored' her remains on-site until June when it was back up and running. They called to tell me her ashes were ready on the day I was leaving Yellowknife for the east coast. I told them to mail them to my parent’s place by xpresspost. I thought I would throw some of the ashes out there into the ocean. Via was born in Grand Bruit, in 1997. Unfortunately, the ashes came after I had been and gone, so I missed them. I was just expecting a pouch of ashes. It was just a kitty, after all. However Via's ashes had been sealed in a small wooden box, meant for display. I had my mother mail her back up to me in the north. Then I moved last year, and Via's remains travelled with me instead of travelling with Canada Post. I wouldn't want to travel with them either. I see what shape my parcels are in when they arrive.

So Via's remains travelled with me from the north in my, along with Stormy (who was not in a little wooden box) to southern British Columbia. I left Stormy there, but continued to Victoria, then south into the states as far as Tijuana border crossing. Via's remains were tucked into a Rubbermaid container in the back seat. We went through Arizona, Nevada, California, Washington, and Oregon. Then I headed east across the provinces of Canada, with Via's remains in the back seat. Now she is sitting in the bookshelves, just above the travel books.

She was certainly well travelled.