I understand the strange quietness of not having your fur babies around. It always feels strange when I drop the cats off at the vet and the dog off at a sitters if I'm going to be gone for several days. But even stranger coming home and not having them there to greet me.

The worst for me was when I took my critters up to my aunt's vet for boarding after Hurricane Katrina. When we saw the levees break, we knew we couldn't go home anytime soon, but I also knew I'd be called back to work within a week or so, doing recovery, therefore I needed to arrange long term care for my cats and dogs. They were boarded for 3 weeks, and when the vet tech was leading the dogs to the waiting room, I could see them looking back to their kennel and not forward to me. Apparently they had a lovely large kennel, and on weekends they'd go home with someone to a ranch for a good romp in the country. I was relieved when they saw me and got all happy. Nala had to have her nose touching me all the way home (6 hr drive).