Happy Birthday to Tita

Tita when we got her

All of our fur kids are rescues so we have no real way to know their birthdays.   Tita (who we called Tito at first thinking she was a he) was brought to a vet clinic Mimi was working in the Akumal pueblo by some kids.  They said they found her alone in some bushes, no mom and no siblings.  The vets estimated that she was about 2 weeks old, we fed her from a tiny bottle for weeks.  That was on the 19th of May in 2008, you can read about it here.   Our tradition is that we get the best guesstimate from the vet and then give them the closest holiday as a birthday.  So, Tita got Cinco de Mayo, the 3 dogs all got St Patrick’s day and Raui got Mexican Independence Day, the 16th of Sept.

She was an independent and fearless kitten, even as small as she was. She’s still that way, not very social with strangers and likely to scratch anyone that tries to pet her. She’s much better with us but she’s not what I’d call affectionate, unless she is hungry or scared. That’s why she was so sweet to me after the pee episode, she was freaked out and her normal cantankerous self was in remission. She’s almost cuddly at night, she sleeps on one of us and even purrs a bit. Most of the time she wants to be very close by but not touched. We love her a lot, shoot we’re building this huge wall addition to keep her from harm out running the rooftops.

Speaking of the big pee soaked drive, that truck did not smell very good the next day when I went down to go to the airport for Mimi. Hoo boy! It was bad enough that I hiked back up 3 flights just to get the bottle of Odo Ban. Sitting out front all morning, closed up and in the sun didn’t help.

iPhone pic from my table at CUN arrivals

Mimi’s flight was over an hour late due to high winds in Denver. As it turned out I ran into all kinds of Akumal folks waiting for the same flight and we sat around at the outside cafe and chatted. It was fun and I was kind of amazed that I’d run into people I know even at the Cancun airport. Waiting at the new terminal is much better than either of the old ones. It’s not all that new, several years at least, but I haven’t spent that much time there and I remember the uncomfortable waits first at terminal 1 and the old charter terminal and then slightly better at terminal 2, now #3 is great. It’s still a rip off though, that will never change, I paid $45 pesos for a plain lemonade so I could have a nice shady outside table with water features and a view of the arrivals.

both cats watching a grackle on the deck

Before going to pick Mimi up, I stopped in Playa to pay the insurance on our truck.  I mentioned that they had the make wrong on the registration although the VIN is correct.  I had a bad feeling about this but I’ve ignored it for several years, I’m good at that.  As I feared, the insurance lady said it was not good and that I need to go to Hacienda and try and get it corrected.   She sighed when she said it, she knows what a nightmare that could be.  I sighed too and kind of waited a bit.  She said she would see if she could do anything and she made a few phone calls.  Eventually, she said she had a number for my policy so I was covered but that I did have to go to Hacienda.  She printed out the official info in the computer from Hacienda and it has both makes of car on it, basically it says it is a Toyota on one line and a Nissan/Datsun on another line.  It’s a Toyota.  I really don’t want to spend one of my beach days sitting at Hacienda but I guess I will.  Rodrigo offered to go with me and help me if they see a gringa as a chance for a little extra money.  I haven’t had any problems there before and I’m not sure I would this time but I’ve never had this kind of problem.  No doubt to fix it will take a lot of <gasp> work, perhaps permissions and investigations and more papers signed and stamped than selling a house.   I’d keep ignoring it but, as I feared, it could give the insurance company an out if I ever needed them.  I was kind of hoping to just ignore it until I felt like selling the truck and then pass the problem on to someone else.  Sometimes I get stuck between doing things the Mexican way or the US way, it’s a cultural morass.

Tita today as a 2 year old