An-American-in-Malta

                         My Cat in Malta

 

 

My cat Egypt seems very happy in this huge townhouse on Manuel Dimech Street in Sliema.  She's running up and down three flights of stairs and chasing flies.  She has staked out the laundry room on the third floor as her hideout.  Being a Persian, she makes a great mop, also, to clean the tile floors.

 

She ventures out into the yard, and we're trying to rig it up so she can't jump over the stone wall into Sliema oblivion.

 

There are only two problems with Egypt so far.  The first is that her face smells like a drainpipe. I don't know why.  I usually love to smell her, like women like to smell babies.  But now--that drainpipe smell.  I can't figure out why she smells like this. It's only her face. 

 

The second problem is that there is no real clumping cat litter here in Malta. We're tried two brands so far and they both fail the clumping test.  The Maltese litter produces a fake clump.  It's very superficial. It looks like a clump, but when you go to pick it up, it crumbles into about fifty little clumps.  I prefer one big cat clump.   So I have to say that clumping litter is superior in America. 

 

Actually, I was getting worried; I'm glad I don't like something about Malta. 

 

Now, there's a reason I don't have a photo of Egypt in Malta. That's because I'm too scared to take photos with my new, very costly combination cell phone/camera.  By the way, I bought it from a man named Joe. Joe the phone man.

 

Someone emailed me and asked how much it cost me to get Egypt to Malta.  Soon I am going to add it up. But my guess would be about $1000.  This would include:

1. vet visits and rabies vaccinations, microchip--$350

2. rabies titre test--$100

3. USDA stamp--$76

4. Lufthansa flight--$200

5. Travel forms--$25

6. Supplies, such as cat-carrying case, ID collar and tag, harness and leash--$250  (tip: Get a harness that will fit when your cat is no longer a kitten.  Three adults, including the limousine driver-- dressed in a tuxedo--who drove me to the airport, were struggling on the day of departure to get the harness on that cat.

7. Federal Express delivery of forms to be signed by the USDA--$50.

 

Was it worth it?  Yes. An absolute yes.  And now if I could just figure out why her face smells worse than her non-clumping Maltese clumping litter.

       

                                 Made it to Malta!

 

Something tells me this isn't Dover, New Hampshire. 

 

See that photo above?  That's Tower Road in Sliema.  I live here now (as of five days) with my cat Egypt and Mr. S.  But we don't live in this beautiful part of Sliema.  We live on maybe the ugliest street in Sliema--with abandoned shops and houses.  In fact, we're right next to one.  But that's OK; in fact, it's normal in Malta.  As for our place, I love it.  I LOVE it.

 

The place we rented is an old-style Maltese townhouse about 90 years old.  It was the first place we saw and we loved it--the tiles, the walled in-stone yard, the ceiling beams, the heavy wooden doors and windows and marble staircases.     And the whole flat roof is ours!  The broker, of course, told us not to wait too long to make a decision.  I never believe that kind of stuff; all brokers say that.  So we waited a while before calling back to make the landlord and the broker sweat it out a bit.  But you know me...five minutes later, the place was ours.

            My Last Meal Before Malta

 

 

Thank God for this stuff. 

 

I'm moving to Malta today, folks.  I've given up trying to not go over the weight requirements for my luggage.  If I have to pay more, I'll have to.  Or I'll just open the damn luggage up and start tossing things on the floor.

 

My cat had her last visit with the vet to get ready for Malta.  The treatment for ticks and tapeworms took two minutes.  The other 45 involved the poor vet filling out papers for the pet requirements.

 

The shipping company (more on them later) ripped me off for more than $600 over their estimate.  They underestimated my stuff by 1000 pounds.  Right.

 

My landlord came by last night to try to evict me the day before I leave.  Why are the negative things the things that stick with us?

 

I'm trying to concentrate on all the wonderful people who have said farewell to me with dinners, gifts and cards--and lots of tight hugs.  And even some tears.

 

I'm thinking of my friend Barb who literally became my personal assistant these past weeks, helping me with everything from selling my car to getting ready to smash my landlord's face in my defense.

 

I'm thinking of all the people who met me solely through this blog who have given me tons of words of encouragement to keep going.

 

I'm thinking of my girls who showed me a great time last week in NY.  And my brother--I'm thinking of him, too--who sends me funny cat videos to calm me down. 

 

And I'm thinking of the boyfriend waiting for me in Frankfurt who will accompany me--after seven long years--to Malta.

 

So I'm going to be positive now, and just hope the plane doesn't you-know-what.  Sorry.  Old habits are hard to break.

 

See you in Malta, jell Alla jrid.

 

        Leaving for Malta on a Good Note

 

 

 

This is a P.S. from yesterday's post on my rotten landlord.  There was a poor rat that died on my side of my landlord's house.  Right on the lawn.  There was no way that I was going to commit some kind of sacrilege and just put it in my garbage in my apartment.  And I'm in no position to start a pet cemetery here.   So I had no choice but to put it to rest in a Styrofoam sandwich box and leave it to the side of the front steps (on my side) with an epitaph on the box that read, "Dead rat in here. Died Tuesday, October 7, 2008."

 

Maybe that landlord will realize he's got more to worry about than trying to cheat me out of my security deposit.

 

Happy Jewish New Year to all those who celebrate it.  It's Yom Kippur tomorrow and I hope I didn't do anything really terrible.

 

 

                   Moving to Malta

     They came, they saw, they shipped....

 

 

It's over and it went well.   My cat is still here and not on the way to Malta early via an enclosed crate.  I hope the moving guys in  Malta are as good as Charlie and Jay were.

 

I have a little domestic problem that has developed.   I can tell my cheap bastard landlord is not going to return my security deposit.  That's because he doesn't have it to return; he failed to deposit it in an interest-bearing account.  He can't produce the paperwork, showing me the account (which he was supposed to do within 30 days of me moving in four years ago).

 

So I've told him that I'm using the security deposit in lieu of the rent. And so... he's evicting me.

                   Scared to Go to Malta

 

 

       

 

This is what I'm getting, waiting to go to Malta.

 

It's less than three weeks to go now--October 22--and I'm getting waves of anxiety. 

 

I'm scared I'll wake up that day with a detached retina or something--or like a lump somewhere.  And then I'll have to go to the hospital. miss the plane and have nowhere to live (and this is with medicine, folks).

 

I just remembered that the shipping guys are coming on Tuesday, not Wednesday.  So that's one day less I have to pack.

 

Well, packing is not quite the word.  It's more like throwing out and sorting.

 

One good thing about moving internationally--the shipping guys do all the packing for you.  And I mean all of it. They have to do that by law for security and insurance purposes.  You can virtually leave everything as it is--pictures on the walls, clothes in drawers, dishes in cabinets.  You do have to leave signs around as to what goes and what stays.

 

In my case, my cat stays.  That's about it plus the clothes and Egyptian charms I will take with me.

 

But just the clothing is the hard part.  I have to pick out the outfits, cosmetics, handbags, shoes and jackets I figure I will need for the next six weeks--two more weeks after the shipping day in the US--and then four more weeks after I arrive in Malta.  (One thing for sure--I'm taking all my psycho meds with me on the plane in my carry-on case.  And everyone always recommends you do this, just in case your check-in luggage is lost. ) 

 

If you're a woman reading this, then you can imagine how difficult this is, considering I'll be in two different climates. 

 

If you're a man reading this, forget it and move on to the next complaint.