Catching Up: Cats and Competitions

Remember the kid I wrote about a few weeks ago in Your Future’s So Bright You Gotta Wear Shades? Well, the national competition was this past Sunday in Guatemala City.  There were about sixty Latin Bands competing for the title of best Latin Band in the country.  I had really wanted to go to Guatemala City to watch the competition, but wasn’t able to.  I sat by my phone, waiting to hear how he did and where his band placed.

Finally, at about 9 o’clock at night, he texted me a video he took of the judges announcing the winner of the competition.  They won! They are the best Latin Band in the country. The video is hysterical, because as soon as the judges announced that his band won, he started jumping up and down, and all you can see are blurred lights.  Soon after, he sent me this picture of himself holding the trophy they won.  He is still on cloud nine and I am beyond happy and excited for him.

I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes next!

*****

I also realized that I haven’t written an update about Jaguar, my kitten, lately.

She is no longer a starving kitten and has filled out to a whopping 7 pounds! My Guatemala friends tease me that she’s fat. The vet says that she is very healthy and right where she needs to be at 9 months old.  She’s also VERY active and it is virtually impossible to get a good photo of her unless she is sleeping.

Jaguar is definitely the queen of the house…and is spoiled rotten (as all pets should be).  I had a local friend make a scratching post for her.  He had never heard of or seen one, but did an amazing job once I sent him a photo of what I wanted. And, of course, when I was in the States I brought back some toys for her.  Her current favorite toy is a small suede-like mouse. It’s her baby and she carries it everywhere.  The night that it got stuck under the couch was a tough one for her – she meowed and cried until I fished it out for her

She is the sweetest, most loving cat.  She curls up next to me at night and I usually fall asleep to the sound of her purring.  When I wake up in the morning, the small suede-like mouse is near my pillow – a little thank you gift from her to me.  She also has a lot of courage! A month or so ago I opened up my front door to let her out, without looking out the window first (my bad).  About five feet away from the door was a four- to five-foot long snake.  Jaguar took off like a shot after the snake, much to my horror.  I had no idea whether the snake was poisonous or not, and I couldn’t grab her fast enough.  Thankfully the snake wasn’t poisonous and was afraid of Jaguar.  It slithered away as fast as it could, and Jaguar wasn’t able to keep up.  It goes without saying that I look outside the windows before I open the door now!

And she is incredibly smart and seems to understand me.  I had hoped that she would be able to transition to being an indoor-only cat, but that didn’t work out.  She was so obviously miserable being in the house all day.  So we compromised: she can go outside during the day when I’m home, but has to stay where she can see the house.  She also needs to avoid snakes and be alert.  So far, she’s abiding by these rules and will stop by the door every 5 minutes or so to just meow and let me know she’s okay.

I haven’t had a pet in a long time, and I had forgotten how much joy having a pet in the house brings.  She makes me laugh and smile everyday, and I am so grateful that she chose my house.