A Week of Endless Snow

This past week was a vacation at Gio's school.  We have been in Ukraine over 2 years now so we finally qualified for "home leave," so off we went to Italy.

Before we left we were honored with Gio's first ever Valentine's Day card. Priceless.

The day before we left we took Gio to a giant park (reputedly the largest park in all of Europe- need to do some fact-checking on that one!) that even includes an all-season amusement park!  

And then we got to Italy.  A double gelato was on the "must do immediately" list, with some scary creature supervision. Gio is wise and always orders this disgusting "Puffo" flavor to discourage me from trying to share.  I find it discouraging enough that my beloved Smurfs from childhood were renamed "Puffi" by those silly Italians.  Sigh. 

We were serenaded frequently by our budding musician. Unfortunately, he seems to have inherited his mother's musical voice.  Not good.  

Our first few days were sun-filled with "only " about 6 inches of snow on the ground....at first. 

And then storm #1 began.

And storm #2.....

Storm #3 (in 3 days).  By this point our driveway (a very long and steep one!) became impassable. Gio tried his best to shovel us out.  

I could not capture the beauty of this much snow with my phone (I swear I am getting a new camera soon!), but believe me, it was spectacular).  By this point we had had nearly 3 feet of new snow in 4 days.  

Paolo and best friend Angelo (who lives just down at the end of our driveway) did a LOT of shoveling.

On Saturday afternoon the most intense storm of them all began, dumping nearly 2 more feet of snow into Sunday morning.  It was a dicey 6AM departure for us as we had a 10AM flight out of Bologna and had to literally dig our way to our car.  Luckily we had Paolo's dear cousin Willy driving us and he is an expert at mountain snow driving.  With only one incident where we had to stop for a giant tree in the road we actually made it AND our flight was on time!  For once my usual travel troubles never struck.

While waiting in line at the airport Gio somehow got a hold of my iPhone. I did not discover his over 115 self-portraits until I sat down to write this blog.  Do not worry, I only ended up saving 3 of them!

Ciao, bella Italia!  We will see you again when all of that snow melts.  xo.  Clara

Losing A Family Member

It was a rough return for us from the US.  We had gotten messages from our petsitter while we were in DC that our kitten was ill but did not realize how seriously until we got back to Kyiv on Sunday.  It turns out he had been in the hospital for 5 days, diagnosed with an incurable and fatal virus called Feline Infectious Peritonitis.  We brought him home that evening and enjoyed what turned out to be our final night with him.  He was active, purring and affectionate with all, especially Enzo.  Monday morning I took him to our regular vet Dr. Levitsky, a wonderful man who speaks perfect English.  He quickly agreed that the diagnosis was most likely correct but kept Tigre/Figaro overnight to run a few more test to confirm.  As he said, "I never put an animal down unless I am 100% certain of the reason."  This disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose as there is no test for it, but through a process of elimination and finally a sample of the fluid collecting in his abdomen confirmed it.  Our sweet friend was put to sleep on Tuesday night.
Although we have no way of knowing how he contracted the virus, Dr. Levitsky speculates that he caught it during his first month of life living as a street kitten.  He was found by an American family when he was approximately 1 month old without his mother in a park where local boys were abusing him.  The family took him home only to discover they were allergic to him.  And so he ended up with us.  Since that time as an abandoned kitten Bonkers/Tigre/Figaro (yes, Gio had trouble sticking with one name for long) had never been around other cats or even outside, so it is unlikely he contracted the virus once he moved in with us in September.  And no, it is not transferable from or to dogs/humans.
We are deeply saddened by this loss.  We adored him.  Even I, who considered myself 100% on the dog side of things, discovered that I am also a cat person.  He spent many hours curled up in my lap and slept purring away with us most nights.  Enzo is struggling the most with the absence.  They had become very close friends after the first month when Bonkers (his name at the time) hissed and scattered whenever Enzo came within scratching distance.  Seemingly overnight, however, Bonkers/Tigre (the name was slowly evolving) changed his mind about the giant bear in the apartment and suddenly we were discovering them curled up together.  Tigre liked to stand next to Enzo when he was eating, often stealing scraps from Enzo's bowl.  Since we returned from the US Enzo spends a lot of time searching for Figaro (his name since Christmas) and has taken up the brand new habit of howling at the door.  When I brought Figaro's empty crate home from the vet on Tuesday, Enzo stuck his entire head inside of it and then cried.  I burst into tears all over again witnessing that.

Bonkers's first day with us.

Gio was THRILLED with his new kitten right from the first day. 

a picture of bliss: Bugs Bunny on TV, Big Tom close by, Bonkers in his lap and NO PANTS. Boy heaven. 

This is when the Enzo-Tigre love began.

Tigre only drank water when Enzo was eating.
 He would often also sneak over and eat some of his dinner. Enzo never protested. 

We took Figaro camping last month.  He loved the fireplace. 

Our final night with Figaro.  He had just spent 5 nights at the hospital and was thrilled to be home. 

Will we get another cat?  YES. But we cannot for the next few months as the vet warned us that the virus could still be lingering in our apartment.  We are, instead, thinking seriously now of getting a second dog.  Yes, we are crazy.  But sweet Enzo is lonely and we like to add as many complications as we can to our already rather complicated life.  So we are on the list with our breeder for her next litter, expected in April.  Nope, no small dog for us....going for another bear.
If you have a cat at home, hug it extra tight for us today.  We are missing our sweet fellow.
xo.  Clara

Downtime in the USA

We have been in the US for about 10 days now.  Gio and I tagged along on Paolo's work trip to escape some of the nasty Ukrainian winter.  We are enjoying life in a hotel with daily maid service, a full kitchen stocked with all of the goodies we miss and a fabulous location that allows us to walk/scooter to lots of fun destinations like an outdoor skating rink, 5 Guys Burgers and the Apple Store!  We have had some tough days, too, with a rather excruciating battle with the Ukrainian embassy to get new visas and Gio's bout with strep throat.  Even so, it has been a real treat to get to go to a movie (Paolo and I saw "Lincoln"), watch the SuperBowl at a decent hour (the past 6 years we have had to get up at 3AM or so to watch!) and to eat seedless grapes (yes, we miss the little things!).  I have been extremely lazy about photographing things these days (hence the huge gap in posts), but here are a few I did manage to get....

We had a few very warm days (and some Kyiv-like cold ones, too!).

Gio took on a supervisory role at a very cool construction project nearby.

After a very tough battle with strep throat, Gio's normally robust appetite returned with a vengeance.
Boyish figure restored!

We did some damage at the Apple Store.

Gio spent a lot of time and energy scootering all over Georgetown. Only the cupcake shops caught his eye. I spent a lot of time chasing him and very little time getting to do any window shopping. 

Best part of a DC visit?  Getting plenty of Nonno and Nonna time!

We return to Kyiv this weekend.  It is always hard to say goodbye to the US but we do miss our friends and pets, so it is not with too heavy a heart that we depart (what a brilliant rhyme, no??).

xo.  Clara