It took until our last week in Ohio to visit one of my favorite places – Butternut Farm Wildcat Sanctuary! I had volunteered there for several years (time blurs over the years but I think it was around 6 or 7 years that I had been involved there when we left town to start traveling), and still keep in touch with the owner, Rick, fairly often. I LOVE hearing from Rick every few weeks and getting updates on how he is doing and how the animals are doing. Due to his age and recent health problems, he is no longer taking new animals in at the sanctuary but he still cares for three bobcats and several domestic cats. When I originally started there he had 5 bobcats, 2 African servals, 3 mountain lions, a fox, a wolf and around a dozen domestic cats. Over the years that I volunteered there he also took in ducks, opossums, and one very psychotic albino squirrel.
Every week, I would go out at least once to help clean cages and feed the animals. John also spent a good amount of time and energy helping to build and maintain pens and do other general maintenance. It will always hold an extremely special place in my heart. Some of you may be aware of the horrible time we had while we lived in Johnstown- difficulties with neighbors and a HUGE battle with the city to build our tiny house- so Butternut was my island of peace and acceptance in a sea of angry and intolerant jerks who did their best to make our lives miserable.
While we had a LOT of fun during our month in our home state of Ohio, I think my favorite thing was the “Father’s Day Cookout” with John’s family. At least, that’s what I was told it was. I should have been suspicious when John said that he had worked out all of the details with the family ahead of time and that I didn’t need to make any food to take because everyone agreed to just pitch in money and have it catered from a local BBQ place. I should have been more suspicious when John suddenly “had to go in to work for a system update” on that Sunday morning and asked me to just meet him at the park at the time of the picnic – oh, and could I just stop and pick up a few bags of ice on the way? Yes, it would make me a few minutes late but that was okay, no one would mind.
I still didn’t suspect anything when I pulled up (although I did notice a Ford Bronco in the parking lot and thought to myself, hmm….I had just ridden in Megan’s Bronco the week before and this one looked just like hers!).
John met me at the car and helped me carry the ice to the shelter. That’s when I noticed a big “Happy Birthday” Banner and a large crowd that included not only his entire family but parents, my grandma, my aunt Penny and cousin Penelope, and SO MANY FRIENDS.
Full disclosure- it wasn’t actually my birthday yet which made the surprise even more surprising. But John knew that I was sad about turning 40 later this summer and not being near any friends or family to celebrate with so he sneaked and snooked and snorked around and had been working with my friends Liz and Marge to coordinate this thing for MONTHS.
And those two ladies (who I never suspected of lying to me or hiding anything) did SUCH an amazing job of keeping me off the scent – they both deserve freaking Oscars for their performances. Marge casually consoled me when I said that I was sad that I wasn’t going to see too many of my “zoo family” while I was in town over breakfast the previous week and Liz had given me my birthday gifts and given me a teary hug goodbye at dinner the previous night all the while knowing that she was coming to my party the very next day. Damn sneaky liars, ha!
John really did think of everything, too. We had two giant BBQ trays and several sides from Hank’s BBQ in Columbus, SO MANY DESSERTS, sodas and water, balloons and so many people that I love with all of my heart. And, because he knows me so well he made sure that I was completely comfortable- I don’t even know if anyone attending the party realized what he had done so I will share it here and let you all know about my weird, neurotic insecurities. You see, I HATE to open gifts in front of people. I almost always love any gift that I receive and I am ALWAYS extremely grateful that anyone would think enough of me to get me any kind of gift – but I always feel awkward opening gifts and expressing my emotions about said gifts if people are around. So John just corralled gifts on a table then carried them to the car after the party without ever mentioning opening them and redirecting anyone that wanted me to open them during the actual event. I also don’t like to be the center of attention, contrary to what some people may think. That means that I really don’t enjoy the moment that everyone gathers around to sing “Happy Birthday” to me so John just cut the cake and started passing it out before anyone realized what was happening. Not having to stress about the awkward social parts really let me relax and talk to people without that anxiety hanging over me and I honestly think everyone had a great time. I know I really did.
When we got home after the party, John and I sat quietly and opened gifts and cards. As I opened everything, he took photos and kept track of the gifts so I could make sure to thank everyone. I ended up with some gift cards and cash, a few Lego sets, a beach bag, lots of candy, a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and tons of amazing memories.
On our last night in town, we had dinner with my parents and two of my favorite humans on earth – my cousins Marley and Joey. They hadn’t been able to come to my birthday party so Joey had baked me a cake and they got me the cutest card. We had pizza and just hung out all evening.
When we decided to head to Ohio a week earlier than planned, that gave us 4 weeks to spend with friends and family. I thought that would be enough time but somehow it all flew by so quickly. We managed to squeeze in so much stuff and we were exhausted but our emotional batteries were definitely recharged after receiving so much love and sharing so many smiles with the people that matter most to us! It was sad to leave everyone again but it was time to head off to our next stop (and our 26th state)- Lexington, Michigan.
Oh, and don’t think the humans were the only ones who were showered with love and affection. Harley received SO MANY new toys from John’s mom and sister and my parents. She also got to visit my Grandma’s house and get lots of love and attention there (which is hilarious because my Grandma pretends to not like animals but she had Harley snuggled up to her on the couch and certainly wasn’t complaining). My mom and dad also got Miss Harley a brand new bed for outdoors. Usually she sits in a lawn chair but as she is getting older and having more trouble with her hip, it’s getting harder for her to jump up on furniture as easily so this new bed is absolutely perfect for her. The cats received several bags of treats as well, so don’t think they were left out either. EVERYONE was appropriately spoiled.
