9/17/25
Hello from Roseville, California! My seven-month rail journey began a few days ago, on the 13th, when I departed my SE Portland cat sit with the lovely Sabrina (last kitty pictured) and pedaled down to Union Station to board my overnight train to Sacramento. I’m still settling into my new sit now, so any California adventures I am yet to have will be covered in future posts. I’m nervous but excited to be embarking on this new journey!
But several weeks have passed since my last post, so I wanted to share some of my favorite memories from these last few weeks in Portland. It is so beautiful in the summer.
When I returned from my last Olympia sit for the season, I had one night in Portland that I needed to stay in a hotel. I lucked into the only streamline moderne hotel I’d ever seen, let alone stayed in! The room was unfortunately rather musty, but the architecture—inside and out—was a fun throwback to midcentury times.
Then the marathon of Portland-area sits began. In order of appearance, I cared for Bowie (and his camera-shy brother Max, and outdoor brother Darryl); Tom Tom; Quinny; Zazzi; Rocket; Einstein; and the aforementioned Sabrina.
At Zazzi’s place, I experienced a retreat-like setting, all the way out on Larch Mountain, near the town of Corbett in the Columbia River Gorge. The setting was serene, and the views were spectacular.
Then, at Rocket & Einstein’s place in Happy Valley, I was startled one day to see a guinea pig running through the back garden! I wasn’t sure what to do, but it seemed clear that a guinea pig should not be on its own in a suburban neighborhood with dogs and coyotes nearby. I knocked on five or six doors of neighbors, none of whom said they had a guinea pig. But at the last door—the house on the other side of the fence from the back yard—the woman said she had seen it in her own back yard, a couple days earlier. She had fed it some carrots, but had not been able to capture the piggy to try to take it to a shelter. She had also canvassed the neighborhood—amazingly, knocking only on all the doors I hadn’t—and hadn’t found anyone to claim it. We decided to collaborate, and within the next 24 hours, she had captured the piggy (and named her Charlotte!) and I had identified an adopter from the Portland Vegans Facebook group, after also receiving various helpful advice from my Facebook friends all over. Charlotte is now happily enjoying her new home.
And I enjoyed the Oregon late-summer nature! I got to cross the beautiful Clackamas River on my tried-and-true bike-and-pedestrian bridge, on my way to catch the train in Oregon City to visit Johnny in Salem for the last time in a long while.
Later, I used my generous hosts’ guest passes to visit both the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden and the Portland Japanese Garden.
My sister even came down on the train from Seattle to visit me once more before my travels, and she accompanied me to the Japanese garden, and then to the Hoyt Arboretum, where we stopped to marvel at the magical redwood grove.
Despite the constant undercurrent of endless unimaginable horrors unfolding both domestically and around the world—which I’m sure disturbs all of your minds and hearts as much as it does mine—my last month in Portland was beautiful, and I savored every day. Now, the season is changing, and it’s time for new experiences.
Thanks, as always, for following along with me.
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