Writing from Key West...
It is so pretty here. I seriously just love the aesthetics of this town. There are all these old-style homes here, white picket fences, front porches... Everyone has a swing or rocking chairs. Everyone has lush tropicals abounding in their yards. I took Maggie for a walk tonight for about 45 minutes and the whole time I just was in awe of how pretty everything is. (Maggie agrees. Apparently she doesn't want to soil this prettiness; she has only peed one time and we've been here for 26 hours now.)
The kittens have completely destroyed the hotel bathroom. It's the fault of their wet food, really, but DAMN. We gotta sparkle the place up before we leave or they won't let us come back.
I was letting them have the run of the entire place last night, but they promptly wedged themselves in the sofabed apparatus and it took entirely too much time and frustration to extract them... And when I found them, they were all sleeping so soundly, so content, oblivious to the fact I had been grumbling on my knees for the past 20 minutes. So now they have to stick to the bathroom and bedroom, which have no hazards for tiny kittens.
Speaking of cats, this town has SO MANY STRAYS. I brought food across the street (where we stayed last time) for my little Key West cat, but she wasn't there. I ended up giving it to two cats I saw down the street on my walk. Thankfully, it seems that people take care of the cats pretty well here; I saw two houses with dishes out for water and food as I was walking. And every stray I saw was well-fed. One as a chub, even...
But then right here next door, I saw one little cat with over really watery eyes. I felt bad, so I went back inside and got some of the kittens' Science Diet. I went back out with the bag and, as I was pouring the food onto the ground, more cats started to come out from the shadows. Soon, I was pouring food for EIGHT CATS. A couple were thinner than I would like, but they thankfully looked pretty good for street cats. I'll buy them some food tomorrow anyhow... I love helping the street cats, but giving them the $16-for-a-tiny-bag-of-food Science Diet is pretty painful.
Anyway, I mostly stayed in today besides some walks with Maggie, on account of crappy homework. Maggie loves it here. Every time I move in the hotel room, she runs over to the door, optimistic that we're going for another walk. Everyone on the street likes her, too, and everyone smiles and says hi. Well, the people who don't look terrified anyhow.
Oh, and I had two "well, duh"s on my idea that she has some pit in her, when people asked what she was. I am guessing the shelter knew very well that she had pitbull in her, but decided to not advertise that fact. I read something that only like 1/1000 pitbulls gets adopted from shelters. You can imagine what happens to the rest... And she may have been a little bloodthirsty shit when we first got her, but she's ridiculously sweet. She's still so awkward and skittish though. Last night when we were leaving, I had to go pick her up from the couch THREE TIMES to get her to come outside. At some point, I would put her down so I could carry something else and then she would run over to the couch and curl up into a little ball. I couldn't figure it out, then Chris reminded me that USUALLY she has to go into the bedroom to stay while we're out for the day. She thought I was going to make her go nigh-nights. (As if being in a king bed with the fan on and lots of chewies and access to the outside through a doggy door is REALLY all that bad.) I'm sure he was right, which made me feel bad. As if she curls into small enough of a ball, I won't make her go in the bedroom. Dork.
Tomorrow I hope to balance the work with the fun a little, since Chris won't be at the office here. Check out some of the touristy spots we haven't seen. Sunday I want to get up really early and take some pictures, like at sunrise. Looks like we'll be coming back in November or so, so that's something to look forward to.
OK, time for bed!
