We Didn't Move In

We didn't move in to our new house over the weekend and I am so tired, annoyed, spent, and tired again.

On Friday I stopped in to pick up the key, do a walk-through, and drop off a carload of stuff we'd been collecting from Target and Kohl's throughout the week -- new towels, shower curtains, that sort of stuff. I stopped in the leasing office, got the key, and drove over to our new parking space. I unlocked the door, admired the new flooring, and smelled a familiar, but unwelcome, smell. Cat pee. Pet odor, to put it politely. In the newly renovated condo we were leasing, they failed to rip up the old carpet and replace it with something less smelly. I went back to the leasing office. They said they'd clean the carpet that day and it would still be ready for moving in on Saturday. I wasn't optimistic. But I was tired of living in our hotel so I let myself believe that it would be possible to still move in on Saturday morning. And if it wasn't I'd stay at my dad's for a couple days and/or check into a different hotel if it looked like a long-term necessity, a hotel that was closer and more convenient to where we need to be.

On Saturday morning my mom came to the hotel to help Muffin and I finish packing our things and load them into our cars. Friends and family members gathered at my dad's house to await word from me as to whether they should start loading our stuff from his garage into their pick-up trucks.

We arrived at the condo and it still smelled. Back to the leasing office. There wasn't much they could do about it on a Saturday but they would rip up the carpets and we would be credited the rent for the days we're missing to next month. We drove to my dad's which is about ten minutes away. Muffin was riding with my mom so I took advantage of being alone to cry in my car. Mike was doing training all weekend and was out of touch. I felt horrible that I couldn't keep my promise to Muffin of finally having a real house to move into after about six weeks of transitory living. I imposed on friends and family members who had now wasted a Saturday morning. And I just wanted to unpack my suitcase and not have to pack it again for a long time.

Now, we have a cat, and while she's good about using the litter box, I can sympathize with having a cat who is not. Our cat is staying with my mom, not moving into the condo with us right away, and I refuse to move into a house that smells like someone else's pet. And when given the choice of a newly remodeled unit or a non-remodeled unit, we decided to pay the extra money per month for the remodeled one. I expected the carpet was going to be ripped up and replaced before the condo was deemed acceptable for us to move in to. I should not have found this problem the day before our move-in date. It's so frustrating.

I scrambled with phone calls on Saturday afternoon, rescheduling two deliveries and the cable guy that were due today. Today the leasing office should be calling me to say if they're starting on the carpet today or tomorrow. We should be able to move in within twenty-four hours of them starting; they do the job in one day. I'm hoping for Wednesday night in our new home, even if only our beds make it over there and we pick up the rest of the stuff from my dad's garage piece-meal over the course of the following days.

I wanted to be moved in this week. Muffin starts school next week and I wanted the time for her to adjust to a new home before starting a new school. She's being such a trouper and what makes me feel the worst over this whole experience is how much I'm asking of her to cope with things that most three-year-olds don't have to cope with. On the school questionnaire that asked if there are any issues the school should be aware of, I had a rather lengthy answer explaining our living situation and how she keeps talking about wanting to go home to Hyderabad. And when she's talking to herself she's started lapsing into Hindi. She has dentist and doctor's appointments this week and I still need to do some back-to-school shopping and plan lunches and snacks. This was supposed to be our back-to-school prep week and now I'm cheating Muffin of all that attention because I still have to focus on moving.

Mike will be home for the weekend and I am so looking forward to it.

Blogging Eventually Comes Down to Posting Cat Photos

This is Grendel. He was a twenty-pound Norwegian forest cat. He was the most lovable slug there ever was. He's no longer with us; he passed away in Africa. But I'm posting his photos for  Motivation Monday because I've been feeling like a slug myself lately. I think sluggishness looks better on Grendel than it does on me.

Mike was out of town last week and as I was single-parenting I binged on coffee, carbs, and sugar (see previous post), giving me just enough energy to muddle through the day and then collapse after Muffin went to bed. Starting over again each morning at 5:30. I walked one mile and went to yoga once. And considered myself successful.

As I'm typing this it's Sunday evening and I'm enjoying a glass of wine after a long week. This week has to be different though. I don't feel healthy. I know that all I need is a tweak of my diet, a few miles, and a little more yoga and I'll feel better. It should be so easy, but it's not.

...

I started this post last night. I glanced at the clock and saw it was 9:00. I realized my wine was giving me a headache more than it was making me feel relaxed so I threw the last few sips down the sink and got a glass of water. I shut down the computer and went to bed to read for a bit, thinking a good night's sleep would be a nice way to start the week. I slept terribly though and was crabby when I woke up this morning.

The little decisions that you make every day to stay healthy are difficult when you're tired, but I'm making them this morning. One cup of coffee, yes. Biscotti, no. Cereal with banana slices, yes. Glass of water, yes. Second cup of coffee, no. Banana-pineapple smoothie, yes. One step and one decision at a time.

There's a Color Me Rad race the day before my half marathon. I really want to do it as a relaxing fun run but some people have told me it's a crazy idea. I'm trying to decide soon, before the registration fee raises another five dollars. Any thoughts? 

Mommy Fueled by Coffee

This was Muffin at eight o'clock this morning. She wanted to water plants but we don't have any plants in the house. (I love plants but hate the upkeep, especially with a cat who eats them and a kid who sticks her fingers in dirt at every opportunity.) She found some melon seeds that our housekeeper left out to dry and the stash of empty egg cartons that I keep for just such situations and did some planting. I know I should go the extra step and get her some dirt. But, eight o'clock in the morning. Maybe I'll have the energy for dirt later.

We don't leave for school until close to 8:45. She woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 5:30. By six she was dressed for school and had her spoon and bowl out, ready for cereal. I was sprawled out on her bedroom floor half asleep. We had a terrible thunder storm last night, which thankfully Muffin slept through. I did not. The cat did not sleep, either. At the beginning of the storm she was at my feet, chirping nervously whenever there was a clap of thunder. By the end of the storm she'd inched her way up and was pretty much on top of my head. It was nearly midnight by the time the storm was over and I fell asleep. Then Muffin woke up crying at 1:15. It was a quick pat-on-the-back, kiss-on-the-head, and then back to sleep for her but it took me a while to fall asleep again. And then the Muffin Alarm went off at 5:30.

I planned on being much more productive while she was at school today but I ended up drinking coffee and staring off into space. 

Super Mommy

I'm pretty proud of myself this week. I prioritized my time, I delegated tasks, and I made this:

and I finished making this:

all for Muffin's birthday party on Saturday afternoon.

How to Make a Very Hungry Caterpillar Party in India
I have to thank Pinterest for the cake idea. I pinned it months ago and kept the idea tucked away in my head, thinking about how to make this in India.

First, when the Consulate placed an order with the commissary in Delhi, I ordered "one" food coloring box. Due to the confusing nature of the order form, I ended up with "one case" of food coloring boxes. I also bought one case of real vanilla extract (intentionally -- I use it a lot for baking) because you can't buy real vanilla in Hyderabad and the fake stuff sold here tastes awful.

Next, when we where on vacation in the United States in May, I tried the King Arthur flour gluten-free cake mix and I liked it a lot better than the Betty Crocker gluten-free cake mixes I'd been using. I bought several boxes of chocolate and yellow -- which actually comes out more like angel food cake -- and did a couple test batches once we were back in Hyderabad to see how the cupcakes would work in my oven. I also tested frosting recipes. I'd been using the Pamela's frosting mixes, and while I love the chocolate, the vanilla always tasted funny to me. I ended up using a butter frosting recipe from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

I used Heritage unsalted cooking butter for the cake and the frostings. I've found it in HyperCity and at the Heritage markets. It freezes well, so I buy several boxes whenever I see it.

I did a little bit of work each day. On Tuesday I made a batch of green frosting. On Wednesday I made a batch of red and kept both in the freezer. On Thursday I took a break. On Friday, with our housekeeper helping to keep Muffin entertained, I made one box of chocolate cupcakes (one box yields 24 cupcakes), one box of yellow cupcakes, and another box of chocolate into 12 cupcakes and one nine-inch round cake. I also made another batch of frosting, dividing it into half blue and half yellow. I moved all the frostings into the refrigerator to defrost for Saturday morning. I sealed up all the cupcakes into Tupperware, blasted the air conditioner and kept my fingers crossed for the electricity, and left them on the kitchen counter overnight because there wasn't enough room in the refrigerator for them.

On Saturday morning, while Mike kept Muffin busy, I started frosting everything. I locked up the cat. I kept air conditioners blasting in the kitchen and the dining room. I ate a good breakfast and a good lunch and didn't drink too much coffee so I wouldn't have shaky hands and drop anything. I cut out little feet and antenna from black felt. I placed the cupcakes on a piece of white fabric (an old tablecloth that had a couple stains in it so can't be used for fancy dining anymore, but works well as a cupcake canvas) and the felt stuck to the fabric nicely. I kept the caterpillar's head in the refrigerator until the very last minute to keep his face from melting.

Several weeks ago I'd ordered official Hungry Caterpillar party supplies from the Eric Carle museum and some cheaper plain green supplies from Oriental Trading. I also found some party stuff at HyperCity and the party store next to Qmart.

Mike and I spent Friday night sealing up the goodie bags and I also finished Muffin's dress that night. Each day for the last two weeks I'd been working on the dress in about five-minute increments whenever I could. It's the Oliver + S Seashore Sundress in Michael Miller Lolli Dot from Fabric.com and red "matching fabric" from a sari shop.

All the work culminated in two hours of insanity. Nineteen kids and sixty cupcakes. We bought samosas from a kiosk around the corner for a savory snack and we had plenty of juice, water, soda, and beer for guests of all ages. We just let the kids go crazy with Muffin's toys until cupcake time, then they went crazy with cupcakes. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Muffin was a little subdued but she loved her birthday cake and she didn't cry when everyone sang "Happy Birthday." That's about all you can ask from a two-year-old.

And we had our housekeeper come in for the afternoon to help with cleaning up. That is a key element to throwing a party in India.

It was a pretty good party, but I'm glad birthdays are only once a year. I can't be Super Mommy every week.

Muffin Is One

Muffin turned one last week. She's 31 1/2 inches tall, which is apparently off-the-charts tall and she's about 22 pounds, which is average. She's almost walking; she's crawling and cruising faster than we can keep up with her. She says "mama, dada, cat, dog," and "yum." She knows the signs for "eat" and "more" and she understands the commands "clap," "wave," and "use your spoon please."
She loves the sound of skype firing up on our laptops. She can pick the keys off the keyboards and she can open every drawer in the house. She can reach water bottles off the kitchen counters and dining room table. She has fierce determination and she sticks out her tongue when she's working hard on a project.

She looks at books and she head bangs to classic rock. No matter how many times the cat swipes at her, she continues to try and make friends. She stands on the terrace and makes proclamations to the neighborhood. No matter how hard I try, she will not sit still and zone out with the tv for a few minutes so that I can get a little break.

She likes to go fast in her stroller and her bike seat. She is fearless when it comes to diving head-first off the couch.

She constantly amazes us and wears us out. We call her a snuggle thug, because her love is aggressive. She makes other babies cry with her advances of friendship. She is endlessly optimistic. She's easily the funniest person we've ever met.

One Week and Several Thousand Rupees Later and We Still Have the Same Old Rugs

Our housing came with some rugs. They were decent enough at first, but as we got settled we decided we wanted something a little more personal. They are cheap Oriental-style rugs, not colors that we like, and they weren't cleaned well before we moved in. The best thing we could say about them was that the intricate design hid all of Muffin's spit-up well. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement.

We'd seen plenty of shops around town with basic, solid-color rolls of carpeting so we thought it would be no problem to get a couple pieces. We have two living rooms and wanted a new rug for each. To save time, I sent our driver out to get swatches and prices.

He couldn't get any color samples or swatches. No one believed him that we wanted plain, inexpensive solid colors rather than fancy Oriental rugs. So two Saturdays ago we loaded up Muffin and went to the Begam Bazaar district to look at carpeting ourselves. The first few places we looked at only had outdoor or industrial carpeting, nothing soft enough for Muffin's crawling little knees. We went to a nicer shop that our driver knew of and after we insisted that we did not want an expensive Oriental rug, the shopkeeper relented and showed us some swatches of wall-to-wall carpeting that could be cut and bounded into the 12 x 9 size that we wanted. We chose two colors, put down a payment (we didn't have enough cash on us!), and agreed to pickup the rugs and pay the balance in three days.

Three days passed and a series of cryptic text messages started coming in to Mike's phone. We eventually deciphered that the blue carpet we wanted wasn't available, only the red one, but he could give us "candy" brown (chocolate, I guessed) as a replacement. The blue wouldn't be in for weeks, maybe longer, the shopkeeper said. I said we'd take the red, take the balance of our money back for the blue, and buy the blue in a few weeks when it was back in stock. Within hours of my saying that the blue carpet was back in stock, miraculously.

On Friday our housekeeper rolled up the old rugs and swept and mopped the floors to prepare for the new rugs. Our driver picked them up and he and Mike rolled them out. We vacuumed them and noticed a problem. The red one had a hole in it. Pretty big. Right in the middle. We made arrangements with the shopkeeper to bring it back on Saturday and he could replace it by Monday. On Saturday afternoon I noticed the rugs needed vacuuming again. But the vacuum cleaner didn't pick anything up. We've had our vacuum saga, with this being the third one in six months and just recently being repaired, so I was about ready to throw the vacuum cleaner out the window with frustration. Instead, though, I started taking the pieces out to look for a clog. The entire system was clogged with red and blue carpet fuzz. Just rubbing your hands on the carpets was bringing up fuzz. Fuzz was sticking to Muffin's clothes as she played on the rug. I changed her diaper and there was carpet fuzz in there! That was the last straw. Both of these rugs had to leave our house.

Today I am gearing up for my third trip to the carpet shop. Mike has done most of the dealing; my job as wife (in this male-oriented realm of handling the money in India) has been to pick out the colors. But Mike has to go to work and we don't want to waste another weekend trying to get rugs so it's now my job to close this deal once and for all. It's doubtful we'll get our money back so I'm prepared to choose the equivalent amount in an Oriental rug. I have half a mind to try charging the rug guy for the hour's worth of maintenance Mike and I did on the vacuum cleaner to unclog it. I don't think I'll be able to get that point across effectively though.

Here's where I make a confession: I don't particularly care for Oriental rugs. I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into the really good ones and some day when we have our own house with a room that cats and kids never go into, I wouldn't mind having one if I like the colors, but so far I've never seen one that I love. Nothing else in our decor scheme is Asian-inspired so an Oriental carpet smack dab in the middle of bulky armchairs and sofas (that also came with the house, not chosen by us) just looks ridiculous. The best I'm hoping for today is something a little more geometric and less squiggly-scrolly in colors that I like.

This last week, India has really been trying my patience. By Saturday night I was ready to shut myself in and never leave the house. Between basic tasks and seeking out "India" experiences I feel like everything I try is failing. We couldn't even go for a freakin' walk in the park on Saturday because of the stupid hours all the parks keep!

But I'll put on some India-appropriate clothes today, instead of jeans, and see what I can do about these damned rugs.

Yowling

Every once in a while we hear what we assume to be a cat in heat yowling outside our bedroom window all night long. We don't know what to do about it other than roll over and try to fall back to sleep, annoyed, yet thankful that it's not waking up Muffin. Last night there was yet another cat. Mike and I were both tossing and turning for awhile trying to sleep. At one point it got so frequent and so loud that I thought our cat was yowling back, but she was curled up next to me in bed, also trying to sleep.

Around 4:30 in the morning, at least one tiny little voice joined the chorus of meows.

Great. She had kittens.

We had our share of feral kittens in Bujumbura and any time we tried to help it didn't end well.

Shortly after the sun came up the cats quieted down and we forgot about them. They are still quiet tonight.

I don't want Muffin running up to help every injured or lost animal she sees, because animals are unpredictable and they have diseases. But once she's a little older, I can't see myself teaching her that ignoring crying kittens is an okay thing to do, either. There are just so many of them out in the world beyond the United States, it's exhausting worrying about them all.

Slow Week in the Hills

It's been a slow week here. One of the highlights for me was finding fresh thyme at one of the grocery stores. Four trips out to the quarantine office and Ellie is now here not only in actuality, but legally as well. I bought Muffin some over-priced t-shirts and shorts from the British equivalent of Old Navy here because I was afraid that if I waited for mail-order from the actual Old Navy, she would have outgrown everything I ordered by the time it arrived. We saw the neighborhood Rolls Royce. We saw the hot-pink Mercedes that's owned by someone out in HITEC City. It's been too hot to go outside and have any fun.

Yup, exciting.We're in a summer slump I guess. I hope we can get out to the mountains in a few weeks for a short vacation. We need cooler temperatures and a change of scenery.

Ellie Is Here!

Our cat arrived last night after much stress. From the flakiness of the shipping company in the United States to the bureaucracy of the Indian government, this was the worst pet moving experience we've had so far.

Ellie has been living at my mom's house in Rhode Island. We realized that if she was going to join us, we had a narrow window of opportunity with the weather being neither too cold nor too warm for her to fly out of New England and too hot to land here (as it is, she can only land during nighttime temps here). To help ease the burden on myself and my mom, we used a shipper to make the flight arrangements. We will not be using this shipper again. He was a total flake. We started making inquiries weeks ago. Several times I asked him what documents he needed, no response. We finalized a date for Ellie to leave, but there were two flights on that day. Despite asking several times, he told us on Sunday which flight she was on, for Tuesday. I also asked him several times how to submit payment and he finally got around to telling us on Monday.

Also on the weekend, despite trying to get the ball rolling here in India a couple weeks earlier, we were told that pets can't arrive as unaccompanied cargo. A flurry of phone calls between the expeditor here and various customs officials gave us permission to send her as cargo, confirmed on Monday.

The previous Monday, Ellie was at the vet to get her health certificate. When my mom brought it in to the USDA office personally for the seal (an office is about an hour's drive from her), the USDA vet refused to accept Ellie's Burundian rabies vaccination. She would accept it if the Indian government agreed to accept it. So another flurry of phone calls, emails, scans, and Mike having to make a translation of the document from French got Ellie her USDA certification. (And just in time to be mailed back to my mom before the government shutdown closed the USDA office.)

An import permit was required, but between the shipper in the United States and the expeditor here, the conversation went something like this: "We need the air way bill number in order to process the import permit." "We need the import permit in order to complete the air way bill." "We can't provide the import permit until there's an air way bill." This went on for several nerve-wracking days before each side budged a little and we finally ended up with both, within just a couple hours of each other.

After all that, feeling confident that Ellie would get on the plane in Boston and be delivered here, we found out on Tuesday (the day she's leaving Boston) that the airport here doesn't process cargo on the midnight flights and Ellie would have to wait at the airport until the customs office opened in the morning. What? No one could have told us this weeks ago when we first proposed the flight times? When I specifically said that we'd like to bring her in on the Lufthansa flight that arrives at midnight and I asked if there are any times that the airport doesn't process pets? Really, no one could have mentioned it then?

My mom called early Wednesday our time to say that Ellie was on the plane, Tuesday night her time. At that point we still had no idea if we'd be able to spring her from the airport when her flight arrived Wednesday night, just before midnight. Our plan was that Mike would go out and meet the midnight flight, do his best to get her out, and if he couldn't, leave her with water, food, and a fresh towel in her cage, and I'd go back out Thursday morning to get her.

On Wednesday night, a couple hours before leaving for the airport, Mike received word that he'd be able to bring her home at midnight. All sorts of favors were called in and I'm sure we owe a few ourselves now.

But we have Ellie. She's already shaken off the travel and is settling in. I hope getting her out of the country will be easier. At least we'll have a better idea of what we're in for.

Pet Assistance for Egypt Evacuees

If you live in the D.C. Metro area and can lend a hand with Americans who are trying to evacuate Egypt with their pets, please contact the Foreign Affairs Friends of Animals Network: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=298021694910

From the group's note:

...AFSA and the Foreign Affairs Friends of Animals Network to help with contingency planning on the DC end. We don’t know how the situation will evolve in the coming days, but one scenario may possibly involve flying the pets to the DC area, in which case a network of volunteers would potentially be needed to provide short-term care for some of these cats and dogs.

Are you in the DC area and interested in lending a hand?

- Let us know if you can meet at the AFSA office, 2101 E Street NW in DC this Saturday or Sunday Feb. 5 or 6 at 2 pm.

- If you can’t come to a meeting this weekend, but are potentially available to provide short-term fostering in the DC area for a USG dog or cat, please let us know that too.

Granted, we should consider these possibilities before we head overseas with our pets, but that doesn't make the decisions any easier once the situation arises. You rarely expect something like this to happen in "your" city or country.

The Obligatory Year End Roundup

This year we left Burundi after twenty-two months of tropical fun. Sure there were some civil war remnants, but nothing serious enough to make us put down our fresh pineapple juice or stop us from enjoying beautiful sunsets on the terrace. And as one of my coworkers pointed out before I left, we have the greatest souvenir from our time there (see next paragraph).

This year Sophie Olivia came into our lives. It's sounds so cliche (and so does that), but we can't imagine life without her. She's happy and thriving and I can't believe how much she's changed in the first few months of her life. She started eating some real food this week, and with gusto. I'm so anxious to see how she develops further.

Finally, this year we moved to India. So far we are loving it here aside from a few transition pains. We've spent the New Year holiday unpacking, as the remainder of our household items -- aside from the car and the cat -- arrived on Friday afternoon. The New Year isn't much of a holiday here but Mike had yesterday off from work and even though we were tired, unpacking kept us up late enough to see the neighbors set off some fireworks. We'd already unpacked our case of champagne and had a bottle chilling in the fridge for a midnight toast.

We are looking forward to staying in one place for 2011. Cheers to everyone's hopes and dreams for the upcoming year!

She Ate My Moth

This morning I woke up with a funny feeling. I realized that I'd slept well and it's been several weeks since that happened. It was cool last night, which helped. But mostly I think my peaceful rest came from the fact that I wasn't awakened even once during the night by the cat. That's unusual but it didn't cause me any alarm until I found the mess downstairs. The cat greeted me, sitting on the counter with a very pleased look on her face.

She was too busy with a demolition derby to bother me last night. Something was shredded all over the floor. It was the same color as the carpet, but it wasn't pieces of carpet. I couldn't figure out what it was. It looked sort of like wood chips, but it was light and fragile. Also, a bunch of stuff that had been on the counter was on the floor, too: keys, business cards, change. It's like there was a party all night while I was upstairs asleep.

Another thing missing from the counter: the large, yellow moth I'd picked up on one of my walks a few days ago. It was long dead and dried out and I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it. But it was a moth I'd never seen in this area before and it was beautiful so I thought I'd hold onto it for a few days, maybe take some photos and then see if Mike wanted to take even better photos of it. I'd left it on the porch but when it started raining a few days ago I brought it inside and tucked it into a corner of the counter.

The yellow flakes on the floor were bits of shredded moth wing. I'm disappointed about the moth's demise. But I'm even more annoyed by the fact that I have to drag out the big, unwieldy vacuum cleaner today. I really miss the Dust Buster (which is en route in our air freight from Burundi--Mike packed up the house this week!).

It's been Dullsville around here and I've generally been okay with the quiet, slow pace. If I wanted to break up the monotony, cleaning up moth bits is not how I envisioned doing that. The messes are only going to get weirder when there's a kid around, aren't they?

All that remains of my moth

Short Update on the Long Road Home

It was a long thirty hours and despite delays and frustration along the way, the cat and I both arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, yesterday afternoon right on time. I don't want to dwell on the bad parts (although for my food blog I have a few things I'd like to say about the gluten-free meal services on my flights) so just know that we were both tired and scruffy upon arrival, but after a good dinner, plenty of water, and a few hours of sleep, we're both looking and feeling much better. She's snoozing next to me right now, apparently not affected by jet lag at all. I got several solid hours of sleep, but woke up around 8:00 am Buj time, which is 2:00 am here. I see several naps in my future.

One Week

One week from right now I'll be at the airport getting ready to board my flight, the first, and the longest, in a series that will have me traveling for approximately thirty hours. I have my cat's reservations made. I've requested aisle seats and gluten-free meals for all my flights. I have my Kindle loaded with plenty of reading material. I've packed quite a few things. I've got detailed lists of the things I want Mike to send to the United States and things that can be forwarded on to India from here when he does our packout.

This week, other than get health certificates for both me and the cat, all I have left to do is say good-bye to everyone. I'm sad. I've had so much fun here and met so many great people. I'm not ready to leave it all behind. And I'm especially sad that Mike's going to miss the next few weeks of the pregnancy. Separations we are used to, but separations while pregnant are all new to us.

Step One: Le Vaccination Contra Rabies

We generally procrastinate with our moving preparations until they are absolutely necessary. Checking the calendar over the weekend spurred me to dig out the cat's vet records... We realized it's absolutely necessary for the cat to get her rabies vaccination immediatement if we have any hope of getting her on a plane with me in June. The rabies vaccination has to be given at least 30 days prior to flying, but no more than a year before. Ellie's last vaccination was last April. And there's a slight chance my travel dates will be moved up, so we want her ready for that if it happens. Did you know that it's May already? That sort of surprised me.

On Saturday we called the one vet in town. She was closed that day for a national holiday and she's always closed on Sunday. We had her come by the house while we were home for lunch this afternoon. (J'aime vet house calls! For an additional $5, the vet will come to your house, which we know after some experience that that is much preferable to bringing the cat into the laboritoire.)

The vet prepared the shot, Mike grabbed the cat, and the vet jabbed her before she even knew what happened. It was the easiest vaccination experience we've ever had. And I'm still the good guy. The cat came out of hiding as soon as Mike left to return to work.

But the vet did not bring a rabies certificate with her. She was expecting us to have a vaccination card, which we've never had for the cats. Luckily I had the certificate from last year, in French, with all the cat's pertinent information, and she took that with her and will deliver the two certificates back to the house later this afternoon. She also said that it will be no problem to prepare a certificate de bonne santee in a few weeks when we are ready to voyager. Will that certificate of good health be in English? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I think we can get it translated and notarized for the nice people back at Newark airport (who reportedly tried to turn away an American traveling from Burundi for having a visa from a made-up country).

A tiny bit of my travel anxiety has been alleviated now that the rabies vaccination is taken care of. I always stress out over traveling with the cats. (The fact that we only have one cat now makes me sad, not less stressed out.) And we really, really want her to get on the plane with me as excess baggage. She can't fly in the cabin and by the time Mike flies home we risk it being too warm for her to go in the cargo hold.

P.S. By the time I finished writing this post, the rabies certificates had been delivered. Delivery is one service area that Burundi tends to get right.

Those Camels Must Be a Myth

For about two years now, before we even moved here, we'd been hearing stories about the president's camels. Apparently the president of another African country gave the president of Burundi the gift of two camels. He keeps them in his yard (which is quite large; a presidential compound if you will). But every so often they wander out onto the grass on the street side of the wall or even into the gully across the street, which is an offshoot of the gully behind our house. I've run, walked, and driven by the president's residence dozens of times and I've never seen any camels.

Yesterday morning we received some good intel that the camels were out on the street. We put on our shoes and sunscreen and headed out the door. But by the time we hiked up the hill, the camels were gone. I didn't even want to go but I felt obligated because I've been looking for these damn camels for so long. I can't leave here until I see the camels!

In other news, there's apparently a great debate online between cat owners and vets about whether skinks, a small common lizard, are poisonous or not. Ellie killed one yesterday, but didn't eat it. However, she was unusually quiet and antisocial last night. Since Grendel, I get very concerned in any change in behavior. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering if just licking a skink could poison her. My research was inconclusive except for the fact that Ellie is perfectly fine this morning. And if she had been poisoned, it seems that she would have wandered around crying, based on other people's stories, rather than curled up and fallen asleep. I guess chasing a skink around was just so exciting that it tuckered her out.

Speaking of being tuckered out, I have a really good reason for being too exhausted to blog lately. Really.

Now I know what snakes eat for lunch

Ellie and I had a run-in with a snake this afternoon. I'm telling myself it was a harmless house snake and even though I can't find an exact match for it online, as long as it wasn't a green mamba I'll sleep soundly tonight. (Click on the photo to see it full-size.)

I was settling in with some afternoon studying when I glanced toward the front door and wondered why Ellie was beside herself at the screen, watching a piece of green string out on the patio. Duh, of course that's not green string. I did what anyone would do. Not close the door, but grab my camera and wonder how close I could get before finding out if it was venomous or not.

It was a few feet from the door but because of the screen I couldn't get a good shot. It was green with some blue and it had a white underside (and according to wikipedia, where everything is always correct, that coloration indicates not a mamba). Its "neck" seemed unusually thick. I was ninety percent sure it was a harmless house snake so I opened the door and took a couple steps out (stupidly, I'll admit, in bare feet). My running shoes were just outside the door, but it didn't occur to me to put them on and anyway I might have scared the snake away before I could take a picture. I was able to get around it so I was parallel to it and snap a better photo. 

But then it started moving toward the front door, putting itself between the door and me. There's about an inch of space between the floor and the bottom of the door and I really didn't want the snake going inside, where Ellie was waiting for it not-so-patiently. But I was frozen in place. All I could do was watch it slither over my running shoes, up the screen a few inches, then back down onto the patio. It stopped for a few seconds, then slithered off into the yard. It left behind a present for Ellie and me -- a half-dead, half-digested gecko. So that's why it looked so thick right behind the head. We disturbed its lunch.

As I've been writing this, a third snake species has popped into my head: boomslang. The coloration is similar to the house snakes and they eat chameleons, geckos, and other small reptiles. They are quite venomous. However, they aren't usually terrestrial and even less likely to be out in the open. I'm sticking with house snake.

I'm not afraid of snakes, but I prefer that they stick to their territory and I'll stick to mine. And I really don't want another gecko hunter hanging around. Between Ellie and our woodland kingfisher (he's back; we've had two great sightings this week!), we're on the verge of a gecko shortage.

(I just went back to open the door; it's too stuffy in here with it closed. The half-digested gecko has disappeared.)

Kittens Can't Fly (It Doesn't End Well)

I could have sworn I’d posted about the kittens last December, but a little jog down memory lane / blog archive shows that I did not. I think I probably tried to write about it several times, but it was too painful.

Just before Christmas, Mike burst into my office at the end of the day to pick me up and said, “Grab the camera! It’s raining kittens!”

“Wha?”

I did grab my camera and I ran outside after him. Apparently a Momma cat had stuffed her kittens in the roof of my office building for safe keeping, only one of them fell out and the other two were teetering close to the edge, so they weren’t so safe. The one who fell was fine. Mike found a ladder and pulled the other two out. We decided the best thing to do was put them in a box on the ground below their roof nest. If Momma was coming back for them, she’d be able to find them easily and pull them out of the box.

The next morning we arrived at work with bowls for water and some canned food, just in case the kittens were still there. One kitten was in the box. One kitten, the one who’d fallen off the roof, was wandering around the parking lot a few yards from the box. The third kitten was gone. It was the last day of work before the office closed down for the long Christmas weekend. It was obvious that Momma wasn’t coming back, but these kittens were way too young to be left alone. I couldn’t leave them in the parking lot for three days to be picked up by hawks or attacked by cats that weren’t their Momma. For that last day of work I brought them in to my office. They teetered and squawked and drank some milk and water. Everyone came to visit them, but as much as I talked them up, no one offered to adopt them. I decided to bring them home for the weekend to live on our porch and then on Monday I’d bring them back and raise them as office cats.

We created a nice little home for the kittens on our porch. We found a bigger box for them to sleep in, and they enjoyed napping curled up right on top of each other. They were eating and they were following Mike around whenever he was outside. The one who’d fallen was definitely the stronger, more adventurous one. I wanted to name them Blisters and Crumpet, after David Sedaris’s elf names in “The Santaland Diaries.”

I never should have named them. When we got home from dinner on Christmas Day night… let’s just say they were decidedly ex-kittens. We don’t know what happened, but perhaps there was something wrong we couldn’t see but their mother could and that’s why she left them. I was so sad. They were just stupid little furballs that I’d only known for 3 days but I’d so wanted to do the right thing in bringing them home. Nature is harsh, and Africa nature is especially harsh. I tried to console myself with the circle of life and all that stuff. But it took me awhile to stop being sad because so many people asked about them at work the next Monday morning.

Fast forward to this week. Not a kitten in sight at my office until yesterday morning. The one I found yesterday was a little bit older than the previous kittens. He was walking around the parking lot crying, but scampering away from any person that went near him. He seemed reasonably strong and healthy. A coworker had decided to bring him home at the end of the day. But when I returned to my office after lunch yesterday… another ex-kitten. Even though he seemed strong enough, it appeared he’d fallen off the roof, close to where the original kittens had been stashed. How he got back up onto the roof is beyond any of us.


Today there’s another kitten. It’s stuck in the ceiling above a coworker’s desk. We started hearing it hours ago and haven’t yet figured out how to reach it. There’s no ASPCA or Animal Control officer to call here. We are our own Animal Cops Bujumbura.

Why does this Momma cat keep stuffing her kittens in the roof?

He was a phenomenal cat

After a few days of what seemed like recovery, Grendel started losing weight again. Quickly. We had long days marked by visits to the vet and long nights where I was sure he wasn't going to be with us in the morning. But he kept pulling through, which kept my hope up. 

He passed last Saturday night. We had a sunrise burial on Sunday. 

We are overwhelmed by the love that has been pouring in from around the world. He was an international superstar. Thanks everyone.

Ellie et le petit serpent maison

We get baby snakes in our house. The first time we saw one, one of our first nights here, we were horrified that we had some sort of worm moving in to infest our food.

But we soon learned that they are snakes. They are babies. And they are harmless, even as adults. They are called house snakes, or serpent maison, and they apparently come in both black and green.

The cats love playing with them and they seem to be in endless supply so we let the cats have them. As long as the snakes stay babies and stay on the floor. I'm dreading the day I find an adult curled up in my t-shirt drawer, as nonvenomous as they are.