Jolie Arrives!

The move is complete. We have the whole family together again. Jolie arrived in Queenstown on the afternoon flight from Auckland. All of us, except kitten Ollie, are thrilled.

Jolie is a veteran world travel now. In September we drove Jolie to the Grandparents' home in Texas. They came to our rescue and agreed to babysit Jolie until she could fly to NZ. She had to wait until six months after her rabies titre in late June before importation. In early January the Grandparents drove her to Houston for her flight to Los Angeles. She had one night in LA and then the overseas flight to Auckland for a thirty-day quarantine at Pethaven Kennels and Cattery. Anyone that needs to quarantine a pet in New Zealand, we loved Pethaven. Robyn and the Pethaven crew took wonderful care of our Jolie. They kept us up to date with Jolie's progress and condition from the moment she arrived in Auckland until she boarded the flight to Queenstown. Jolie looks and acts no worse for the wear after all the travel and quarantine. She seems like our same happy-go-lucky pup with maybe a few extra pounds around the middle. At eighty some pounds she still thinks she’s a lap dog. She flops down in my lap for an all over body rub moaning away they travel aches and pains. When we arrived home, Jolie leaped out the car sniffing her way through the yard and right into the pond.

Ollie was a wee bit surprised with her arrival. As you can see in the pictures he instantly grew a huge bottlebrush tail. Ollie stealthfully follows Jolie around the house, keeping an eye on the big intruder in his home. Jolie basically ignores the kitten. When Jolie tries to sniff Ollie, the kitten makes a deep guttural moan of sorts, hisses and arches his tiny back. They are working out some sort of animal arrangement. Both are lying behind my chair checking out one another. Their noses are about 2 feet apart. I didn’t expect Ollie to be such a tough little kitten. Ollie is staking his territory and literally stands his ground in the face of the big German Shepherd (aka Alsatian down here) intruder.