He made the right decision!

Flavius (the cat) did that is...

We really didn't know how he was going to do when Maximo was born since he had been our baby for three years, being doted on by us and Rosmery almost twenty-four hours a day. (One day I came home from work to find Rosmery sweeping with Flavius zipped up in her fleece jacket that she was wearing!) We found him in a park, about three months after we moved to Peru, covered in fleas and smelling of car exhaust, but cute nonetheless. We thought he was about four or five months old, but the vet claimed he was a malnourished two year old.

Flavius has been super sweet with Maximo and constantly wants to be around him. He'll cry outside the door if we close him out of the living room when Maximo is romping around. After constant tail-pulling, head-butting, and a twenty-five pound body being laid across him, he'll still walk over to Max. He will often plop right down beside him and he has on a few occasions woken him up by going into his room and meowing. He's had to tell Max who's boss a few times, but with nothing more than a gentle nibble on Max's hand, even when Max is relentlessly causing harm.

The bond that these two have (and of course we have with Flavius) is giving me the motivation to go through all the steps to get him out of Peru and into Japan. Today I started this 8 (I hope) month process by getting a microchip implanted in his neck and a rabies vaccine. In 31 days, we go for round two, and then, and then, and then. If you really have time to spare, check out the process (I love the pictorial to help you understand the process).

What cracks me up as I flip through the twenty pieces of paper I printed off this morning is this (it's the header to one of the forms):
I really want to know who is bringing a fox, raccoon or skunk into Japan. It must be at least semi-common for them to put it on an official document.

There's a 180 waiting period after Flavius gets his last vaccination and we get his blood drawn and sent to a lab in the states to test for the antibodies. We're really cutting it close with when we'd like to get him to Japan around the second week of August. We haven't hashed out all the details. He will not be able to come to the States with us when we visit in July (because he can't re-enter another country during the 180-day "at home quarantine") and we'll be totally moved out of our house here with new people moving in, so hopefully Rosmery will be able to help us out or one of our dear colleagues. It stresses me out a bit, but I'm sure it'll all work out... I hope!