Year in Review - Meowloween!

Wow, a year ago today I was off to the airport with my heaps of belongings to start my new life. What a wonderful year it has been. For all of my ranting over here, it really is great. Though I haven't even kept up with all of the updates that I intended to make of the highlights of my year. Well, in any case, the most exciting news as of late - CATS!

Hubby and I just fell in love with the two kitties-in-law last time we visited family over in Poland. And it just so happened to work out best for the family if we adopted the dear kitties. So... ok! Don't have to ask us twice! We've been just dying for cats in our lives anyway. We learned that fearful, paranoid UK doesn't actually allow animals to come on airplanes as passengers/carry-on luggage into the country, they have to be checked as cargo, in with the luggage for the journey. After seeing our share of how the monkey oaf baggage handlers handle luggage, plus paranoia of something malfunctioning or going wrong with that part of the plane, it just seemed sad and not fair to shove dear kitties into dark, cold, lonely isolation, under the plane. So, driving seemed like the best choice. 

It just so happened that we were planning to drive to Germany for a concert in Oberhausen (western Germany), on October 26th, anyway. Because we can. Because it's easy and awesome to just drive on through Europe, country after country. (I'm still overdue to post pictures and stories from our first Euro road trip back in June...). So it seemed like a good time and opportunity to drive on through and get these two darling kitties who on the last visit sold themselves very well on the prospects of being adopted by us.

What does it take to bring kitties from the EU into the UK? It's not as bad as it once was (months of quarantine? aww, poor souls). The kitties simply need to be microchipped, given rabies vaccinations 21 days before entering the UK (already taken care of for us), and get pet passports (which vets can issue when you go in for the microchip/vaccination process). Toss them into your car, get them checked out in France by the animal control crew before you drive through the tunnel, and apparently you're good to go. 

Tomorrow we begin our drive back, stopping overnight, after about 9 hours of driving, in Dortmund, Germany. Then Friday we will see how easy imMEOWgration in fact is. And then begin our new fulfilling life with our expanded feline family! Photos of our new lovelies below.

Coca. I look forward to waking up to this in my face all the time. My little buddy, always following me around, hopping in my lap, sleeping on top of me.

Cola. The "cheeky" one - playful, table-thief, and a sucker for a good chin scratching.

Yes, their names are Coca and Cola. No, we did not choose these names, and yes, they very well may end up renamed once we get to know them better and decide on more appropriate and clever names for them.

Also, Hubby and I, and all the black that we both wear on a regular basis, have resigned ourselves to the fact that life will never be the same and we may as well get used to fighting the good cat hair fight, equipped with sticky rollers, tape, vacuums and what have you.