Scoots in Quito

Since there are probably more Scoots fans than Greg-and-Ayelet fans reading our blog, I thought I'd do a quick update for everyone about Scoots settling in to our place. After a long ordeal with the customs, vet inspection and ever-increasing payments to airport offices, I finally was able to get him out of the warehouse where he was stuck for his first night and day in Quito. Importing a pet into Quito is a mess, but thankfully, it's over for us. He's adjusted really well and spends most of the day curled up on the blue alpaca blanket in the living room. Here are a few photos of his first days in Quito.

He's loving his new views

The final product: Scoots' cat tower made by Greg!

Settled in and time for a sit

Scoots doesn't seem as interested in the view as Greg is

Can you spot the cat? Since Aurora, we haven't had a set up
like this where he could look down upon us.

Where's Scoots?

Scoots is still with my parents in Milwaukee and hopefully not overstaying his welcome (you’ll hear different ideas from my mom and my dad). Both have given him totally random nicknames at this point – JoJo from my mom and Louis from my dad. My dad said he responded just as well to that nickname as to his actual name.

We hope to have him with us by mid-September. There was a problem with his paperwork and the Ecuadorian consulate in Chicago, but I think I have it all worked out. Our apartment just doesn’t feel like home yet without our little fluff ball curling up with us at night and running around in the morning. It's surprising how much having Scoots around is a comfort to us both.



Raise the roof - the 'rents are out of town!

Our apartment does allow cats, but our neighbor, who is the landlord’s brother-in-law, said that the first time the cat meows too loudly, he’ll come and knock. But the second time, he said he’ll come with a baseball bat. I’m sure he’s joking. We haven’t heard our neighbors at all yet so either they tiptoe around or the walls are thicker than they look. Hopefully, Scoots will learn to keep his meows at a minimum. We'll let you all know when Scoots has safely landed and snuggled up in our new home here.

Portraits in Orange

Scoots hasn't gotten his own blog post in a while and since writing is not happening tonight, I thought I'd dedicate this one to a couple of cute photos I got of him while snuggled in our IKEA pillow/fold-out blanket that we love.

Holding paws

I'll try to be a better blogger this weekend and actually give you guys some substance!

Cute pictures of Scoots

Sorry everyone, we've been totally holding out on cute photos of Scoots... so here's some for your enjoyment!

Greg's been testing out the macro features on the camera

Scoots assisting with pinning a shirt - for some reason, he thinks pins are his mortal enemy so we have to keep a close eye on him when I'm sewing.

Every morning I either find him like this or lounging on our bed. Ahhh, the life of a cat while we toil away for his kibble!

St. Nikolaus Day

My German teacher explained that today is St. Nikolaus day here. St. Nikolaus however is not the same as Santa Claus, although they look similar with their red clothes and white beards. St. Nikolaus is a religious figure and has on a bishop's hat, carries a curled staff and has a golden book that lists the good and naughty children.

Here he is in the doll version

(thanks to Gertrud K. on Flickr)

The children leave out their shoes and if they're good, they'll receive sweets, lebkuchen cookies, nuts, and mandarins. If they've been bad in the last year, then Krampus--St. Nikolaus's filthy, branch-wielding sidekick--will stick branches in their shoes and in the past, used to beat them.

Here he is next to the Santas.

(Thanks to Denni Schnapp from Flickr)

The only one in our household that has to worry about Krampus is Scoots. I've warned him that if he walks me up at 5 am again, I'm going to call Krampus over to straighten him out. And it won't matter that St. Nikolaus day is over because I'm sure he'll make a special exception for a certain grey-haired cat.

Feeling the good karma

Our good friend in Aurora, Molly, really made us believe in karma-both good and bad. Well, we've definitely had some good karma on this trip so far. Our plane ride started out with some bad karma-we tried to check our cat into the flight at the wrong desk and were told that we'd have to go to the cargo area. Cargo was outside the airport, but not far enough that a taxi would take us (as far as we were told). Having no other alternative but a taxi, Greg and I found one and sat in it resolutely before we even told the driver where we wanted to go. There was no way he was going to tell us "I can't take you there."

After a $10 cab ride (!?!!?), we got to this cargo area only to be told that Scoots's carrier was too small and we'd have to go to a pets store to get a new one, which would make Scoots late for his flight. Thankfully, the guy at the desk took pity on us because of the whole cab incident and managed to find a good-sized, specially made carrier that someone else had left behind (see picture to right). And he didn't even charge us extra for the bigger size! Scoots went off in the new carrier and was much happier.

Since we now had our regular carrier to take on the plane, we had one more item to check in (adding to our two other large suitcases, duffel, and backpacker's backpack). We lucked out again with a great gate agent who didn't charge us extra for the unexpected piece since it was empty.

So, all in all, British Airways saved us $250 on this flight alone.