We arrived back in Crested Butte Monday, just in time for the 4th of July holiday madness. The lack of fireworks did not dampen anyone’s exuberance for the Crested Butte 4th of July celebration. After running the Gothic to Crested Butte 1/3 marathon with Alexis (and 2 year old Henry!) on the morning of the 4th, I spent the rest of the day avoiding town.

Colorado is currently on fire. Hence the lack of fireworks. Please send rain.

Back to Monday. Puck and I headed out early in Fraser for a 3-hour run. My goal was to have a very tired dog for the trip. Which I did. I neglected to consider that I would also be very tired. There were several coffee stops on the drive.

After our run, it was time to finish packing up the car.

And then… it was time to pack up the kitties. I had tried to convince the vet to let me try an injectable sedative, but the good injectable sedatives are opioid based. Funny thing: They don’t hand those out freely. The vet suggested children’s Benadryl. What did I have to lose?

My Benadryl flavor choices were various fruits and bubble gum. I chose bubble gum. Honestly, flavor choice was not going to be my biggest problem.

I went for Maya first. The vet had instructed me to jam the syringe down her throat and hope for the best. So that’s what I did. Maya’s reaction was, predictably, violent. I think about half the bubble gum Benadryl made it in. The other half was spread widely across the floor. And on me. Fortunately, the vet had warned me that the cats would most likely froth at the mouth. Maya looked rabid. She was definitely pissed off.

Makoya was next. It went about as well, with less frothing.

If I hadn’t been bleeding at that point, I might have seen the humor in it and taken a picture of my drooling, frothing, angry kitties. I did not.

I cleaned up as much of the sticky bubble gum residue as I could, but I am sure Mark wondered why it smelled like bubble gum when he next walked in the door.

I’m not sure the Benadryl did all that much, but perhaps it helped a little. The trip was mostly uneventful and relatively quiet. It clearly had some sedation effect because when we finally made it to the house, Maya kept falling asleep and tipping over while sitting on an ottoman. If you have ever seen Cat Ballou, think of the scene of a drunk Lee Marvin on his horse.

It is nice to be back. I drive into this valley and I feel like my soul is just a little lighter.

Our run with Alexis this morning

I have my running buddies (Alexis, my human running buddy, and the various dogs). I have my awesome community of CrossFit friends; all the women who got me through my knee injury.

I have started to coach CrossFit. I love it, but I need a lot of practice to become the type of coach I want to be. It is so different from anything I’ve ever done in terms of coaching. Luckily, I have Carrie as a mentor. Not to mention a great group of athletes/friends. At least I have a good attitude; hopefully that will cover for my lack of coaching experience.

The kitties are happy to have their deck back. I devised a hanging screen system that allows them to go in and out as they please. This avoids the constant “meow, I want to go out”, “meow, I want to come in”, repeat, repeat, repeat… Puck can go in and out as he pleases as well, so everyone is happy.

That’s all from Crested Butte for now. But we have lots of adventures on the calendar so stay tuned.

Time for our daily rain dance.