Sam and Misty: Mom and Dad's first week in Germany

(As you can tell by the date on this blog, it was started sometime last week, but figured I'd post it anyhow. )

Mom and Dad arrived here safely last Friday. They flew into the Frankfurt airport, so Sam and I drove there to pick them up. Frankfurt's just a couple of hours drive from Stuttgart. Being concerned about morning traffic, we left very early only to find out it was a German holiday and we had clear roads the whole way. We got there pretty early and the flight ended up being about an hour late, so we had a bit of a wait. It was so nice to see Mom and Dad again. I was suprised they weren't more tired, but it was only midnight Alaska time, so they still felt pretty good. The jet lag would hit them later though.

I've been looking forward to sharing our lives here in Germany with them. It's been fun seeing their impressions of life in Europe. Alot of what they point out are things that struck me as odd when we first arrived too. I think they like it better than they thought they would. Mom keeps mentioning how green and beautiful the landscape is. It really is gorgeous here. Lots of open fields. The German's do that right. The houses are close together, which allows for lots of open country.

Mom and Dad brought their cat with them. Mom has always called him Papa Kitty, but Sam is convinced he should be called Konishiki, after a famous Hawaiian Sumo wrestler, due to his size. So, at this point we still call him both. Poor thing must be terrible confused. Because of Dad's allergies they couldn't let Konishiki have the run of the house, so we decided to bring him here. I've been concerned about it though because of how Gabby has always been with other cats.

We kept them separated for several days and then Sunday we decided to see how they would do together. Gabby's always been such a little bully, so I was a bit concerned. Any cat she's ever seen she's chased or tried to attack through a window. Bringing these two cats together is the first time I've realized that it's fear on Gabby's part that makes her so agressive. She's never really been around another cat since she was taken from her mama at around one week old.

There's been quite a bit of hissing and growling, but we just need to let them work out their differences. They pretty much keep to themselves and when Konishiki gets too close Gabby tells him to back off. They're so curious about each other though. Even though she's not very welcoming to him, Konishiki still follows Gabby around and she, in turn, follows him around too.

Before we let them out together Gabby was very agressive to me. She kept hissing and slapping at me. I think she smelled Konishiki on me, but didn't know what it was. All she knew was that it was different and didn't belong. She's really settled down alot since we let them out together. I think it's going to take awhile, but I believe they'll work it out.

We've been staying pretty busy. Tomorrow we're heading to Venice for a few days. My Italian friend, Marika, and her family came over this evening to talk to us about what to do there. Marika and I have become really good friends working together at NAF. She took my Venice book over the weekend to write notes in it. She and Jason have two little boys that Sam seems to tramatize every time we're together. They love playing with him, but it seems to always end in tears. Thankfully, Marika and Jason are easy going and don't seem to get upset about it. Tonight the tears started when Sam acted like he was going to put the rolladens down with the boys still outside after they sprayed us with the water hose. They and Sam had been teasing each other back and forth all evening, but that really scared them.

Here are some pictures from Mom and Dad's first week in Germany -