Lajja

One of the HARDEST  things we as a family had to deal with when Eric's retirement was denied was deciding how to handle our animals once we knew we were coming back to Germany.

Lets just say there were alot of tears, sadness and self sacrifice of knowing what was best for each of the animals.  To make matters worse, we were all still dealing with Cali, our German tortoise shell kitty we had adopted on our last tour, just disappearing from our lives.  We still don't know what happened to her and it breaks my heart because she was the sweetest cat ever.

We ended up finding a home for our two other outside cats, Maddie and Mamma.  Let me tell you, this was one of the hardest days for all of us.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house, and this was hard on Eric seeing the kids so upset because of the Army way, again.

You might be asking yourself how we ended up with 4 cats at one time, and all I can say is that my kids have the biggest hearts and the most compassion for animals without homes.  As a mother, I wanted to say NO, but I couldn't.  This is something I love about Eric, because most guys would not go for it, but he knows and he just accepts our kids for the big ole' hearts they are.

So, that left Champie our dotsie and Sami our cat, who we adopted on Deployment #1.

This decision was phase 2 of the first decision, and probably the hardest for Eric and I.  Champie didn't do to well with the stairwell stairs the last time we were stationed here.  They confused him, he would often go to the wrong door, and being his legs are so low to the ground, it was just hard for him to get up and down the flights of stairs.  He could never run outside, he always had to be on a leash on post.  He also didn't fly well, and was pretty shaken up after the flight.

Maybe it was the stress of the move, or maybe just remembering the past, but something told me we should leave him and even though we didn't want to, we somehow knew we had to?  That was even more confirmed when we could only get a flight with one animal slot.

Needless to say, Champie leaving us still pings at our hearts.  But he is getting soooo spoiled at my parents that I know that God allowed that to happen for us, and I am forever grateful.  Champie couldn't be more happier and the fact that we will always get to see him make it even a sweeter deal.

I am thinking he probably feels like he won the doggie lottery.  It is still hard, and Eric still talks about his popcorn buddy, but no one ever said the RIGHT thing to do would be the EASIEST thing to do.

So, after all that sadness, we have a bright light to share.  All Avery wanted for her birthday was a new kitty, and we just had to keep telling her no.  We couldn't go the new kitten route because Sami is seriously territorial....so she pretty much had realized that we would not be getting another cat.  In the back of my mind, I knew if the right situation presented itself, I would know it would be the right thing to do.

A couple of days before her birthday, an ad popped up on our local yardsales site from a fellow Military spouse, and to make a long story short, she needed a home from a more than loving home.  I had, have and will never forget being in this same situation of having to give your pet away, and was so happy when we found out we could adopt her.

So please meet Lajja.(lashya)...she was born in Japan and is so beautiful, soft and dainty.  Her and Sami are already best of friends and she fits right in, and Avery is IN LOVE.