Love in Germany

If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then the way to a woman's heart is through her cats, or at least the way to my heart.  I'm happy to report that love in Germany is alive and well.  I have two cats, one of which (Samui) has been diagnosed with depression.  As a result of his depression, he refuses to use the litter box, but rather than do his business in just one place, he runs around frantically doing it.  One day, I counted 27 spots.   I love this cat so much but it is becoming unbearable. 

When Samui is not pooping, he is an adorable cat!

 J.P. has been a savior in all of this.  Most mornings we clean up cat poop before we've even had our morning coffee.  While this doesn't sound romantic, I find it incredibly touching that J.P. helps me every single time and does so without me asking and without complaining, even though this is less than an ideal way to start our day.
 Earlier this week, Samui decided to go on the roof after his most recent pooping spree and we couldn't reach him.  I needed to get to German school so suggested we leave him and a window open, confident he would come back in on his own.  J.P. wasn't so confident, but reluctantly agreed to leave him since he also had to get to work.  When he dropped me off at school, he told me he was worried about Samui and was going to go back to check on him, which he did and fortunately found Samui fast asleep on the couch. 

Perhaps Samui is embarrassed?

Today, the same thing happened again.  Samui escaped to the roof and we had to leave for work.  I assumed everything would be fine again and off we went.   J.P. called me in the afternoon and told me he couldn't stop worrying about Samui all morning, so after his meeting he had gone home to check on him.  But this time he wasn’t on the couch but had jumped to the neighbours balcony below, so off J.P. went knocking on the neighbour’s door below us to get our little grey cat.

J.P. with both Samui and Fuego

While none of this may sound very romantic, I find it incredibly romantic that J.P. takes so much interest and such good care of my cats because he knows how important they are to me and Samui can be "challenging" to put it mildly.  He is also on the phone at least once a week with our vet trying to find a solution.  I also find it romantic that we can find humour in something that really isn’t very funny at all.  Our running joke is that Samui just used to be depressed, but now he is fat AND depressed since his anti-depressants make him hungry all the time and the once little grey cat has grown to be quite a sizable little grey cat, that’s not so little.    If this isn't love in Germany, I don't know what it is.  I love you J.P. and thank you! 

See also:  Cats in Germany