Guam

I've now lived in Guam for 10 days. I've had good and bad experiences. The first bad experience happened before I made it to Guam. As you all know, Loui died. He was only 4 years old. So as you can imagine, it was very unexpected and devastating. A couple weeks before flying Loui to Guam, I noticed a few blood droplets on the ground. I could also tell there was blood in his urine. It passed after a couple of days, so I thought he got better. When I took him to the vet to get his health certificate to fly to Guam, I asked the vet if cats were able to get better from a UTI without medical intervention. He said they can. He said most of the time UTI's happen because the cat is stressed out. I told the vet about seeing the blood. I also told the vet that Loui was still drinking water and going pee. Now when I look back, I should have requested the vet test Loui to confirm if he still had an infection. So our things got packed up, and he house was empty. Loui was acting weird. He was crying and looking for place to sleep. I thought he was upset because the house was empty and all of his hiding places were gone. Now I know he was crying because he was sick. I had no idea. I should have known because he didn't even purr when I pet him. He was in pain, and I didn't know. I feel so guilty. Then of course the day after my things were packed up, they had to be crated for 14 hours and fly across the ocean. The last time I saw him alive, he was in his crate crying. I was nervous the entire day, waiting to get the phone call from Ryan that they arrived safely. I was relieved when Ryan called. Then the next day came. Ryan said Loui wasn't acting right. He wasn't eating and wasn't using the litter box. I told Ryan to give him some canned food because the vet said it would keep him hydrated. Loui wouldn't even eat the canned food. My baby was suffering, and I couldn't be there to make him better. I told Ryan to take him to the vet. He said if he wasn't better by the next day he would. So the next day came. Ryan thought he was getting better because he took a few sips of milk and meowed a little more. However, his life came to a crashing end. I get a phone call from Ryan saying Loui started shaking, and then he stopped breathing. He didn't know where a vet was. I called my friend Sarah to get numbers of people who lived in Guam so Ryan could call them and ask where a vet was and one that was open on Sundays. By the time Ryan got Loui to the vet, it had been at least 30 minutes that he stopped breathing. The entire time, I'm in Hawaii not knowing what was going on. I had a terrible feeling my cat had died before the vet confirmed it. Ryan said they took Loui to the back. I'm not sure how long they tried to save him before confirming he was dead. Ryan then called me to give me the terrible news. I feel completely to blame. So many things were happening in my life, I failed to notice my cat was sick and in pain. It's so hard to not thing, "What if." I've been told it was no ones fault, but how could it not be my fault? The vet was nice enough to keep Loui for me until I arrived so I could say goodbye. So the day after Thanksgiving, I said my goodbyes. He was kept in the freezer, so he was hard and cold when I saw him. His fur was still so soft. I hate that I wasn't there for him. I hate that I couldn't save him. Ryan also blames himself. He was alone. He had to go through all of that by himself. We weren't together to comfort one another. It sucked. I had him cremated and decided to keep his ashes. Guam was never his home so I didn't want to keep him here. So basically, my first experience with Guam was not great.

The next bad experience that happened was my diamond fell out of my wedding ring. I thought I lost the diamond on the beach. However, my dad found it in my house. I really do feel lucky my dad found it. Looking at the whole situation, I don't think it was that bad that it happened, because after I got it fixed, my ring looks brand new. The jeweler buffed out all the scratches and re-dipped it in the white gold. The diamonds were cleaned. Now my ring sparkles again like it did when I first got it. I didn't realize how dirty it was until they cleaned it.

Other those 2 unfortunate events, things are going pretty good. When my dad was here, we toured the island. We got lost a few times because there are no street signs here. It's pretty frustrating. The beaches here are beautiful. When I first landed, I thought it was humid. I'm getting used to it already. I would say Indiana has more humid summers than Guam. I really like where we live. It's smaller than our house we had in Hawaii, but it's all updated. It's a 3 bedroom and 2 full bath. The counter tops are granite. The drawers are child proof drawers so Abrielle won't get her fingers slammed in the drawers. Love that feature. I'm still waiting for my things to arrive, along with my car. So I'm driving a rental right now. I don't really like it, but it gets me to where I need to go. Right now we have loaner furniture. It's not the most comfortable furniture, but it's better than sitting on the floor or sleeping on an air mattress. The view from our back patio is beautiful. It's a nice view of the mountains. The entire house is tile. One bad thing is the house came with many daddy long leg spiders. I think I'm going to bomb the house before my things arrive so maybe the spiders will die or go away. We have a corner not. Niko has a big area where he can run. He loves playing fetch with his kong. He's obsessed. I will post pictures on facebook once my thing arrive. The traffic here is much better than Hawaii, however, the speed limit is 35. It's really hard to go the speed limit. I really like it here. I think if my family was closer and if they built a Target, I could live here forever.

Ryan is out to sea right now. I'm anxious for his return. I miss him. I've been keeping myself busy with the kids and setting things up here. We have an open invitation for anyone who wants to visit. I'm sure we won't have many visitors since we're so far away and tickets are so expensive. Well, that's my update for now. Hope you enjoyed.