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.