Oh, Teddy!

Despite our very rough start, Teddy and I made it to Kenya safely!

Of course, our journey continued to be laden with surprises.  As you may remember, I was supposed to catch up to Teddy in Amsterdam, where we would fly together to Nairobi.  Unfortunately, in addition to making me leave half my luggage behind, KLM also put my cat on the wrong flight to Nairobi.  Teddy arrived ~10 hours before I did and had to spend the night in customs.  More like kitty jail.

When I arrived in Nairobi, Igathered what baggage that wasn’t lost by KLM (3 of the 5 pieces), and then I went to find Teddy.  He was LOCKED in an iron cell, in his kitty Cadillac, which was also locked.  No food or water.  He looked so forlorn.  It was straight out of one of those dog shelter commercials – you know the one with the sad Sarah McLachlan song?  He was very dehydrated, but perked up pretty quickly.  Within 12 hours, he seemed to be back to his old self.

On Friday evening, we travelled to our new home in Tenwek, Kenya.  Teddy was very excited to explore his new home.  A little too excited.  I was busy unpacking, etc.. when I noticed that I had not seen Teddy in a little bit.  I began to look through the house.  No Teddy.  All the windows and doors were closed.  I was tired, jet lagged and completely baffled.  How do you lose a 20 lb cat in a secured house?

Suddenly, I heard a commotion in the living room.  And there was Teddy in the fireplace – covered in soot!  He had managed to sneak past the wire grate and climb up into the chimney.  Good grief.  His whiskers had dirt stuck to them and his white paws were black.  I grabbed him with a towel, but not before he made little black paw prints across the tile floor.

One dirty paw - After the cleaning!

If this wasn’t exciting enough….yesterday I lost him again.  I of course checked the chimney first thing.  No Teddy.  Doors and windows closed.  Frustrated, I continued unpacking.  After a few hours, I heard my roommate exclaim,” I found Teddy!”  He was asleep in a kitchen drawer.  He had crawled into an open cabinet and into the drawer.  When she tried to open the door, she heard a hiss and saw black fur.  So, I just emptied out the drawer and left the cabinet open.  Maybe it will keep him away from the fireplace.



Teddy in his drawer - Top View




Teddy in his drawer - Cabinet view




Nap on the Couch



Meanwhile, I am getting unpacked, getting organized and trying to recover from the jetlag.  I will send pictures of the house and surroundings soon…assuming Teddy behaves.

 My new address:   Carrie Huber

c/o Tenwek Hospital

PO Box 39

Bomet, Kenya, East Africa