Baxter never ceases to amaze me. He is 18 months old and settling down so well. His latest growth challenge was to meet the orange kittens 3.

I have gotten most of my kittens as tiny babies, often 2-3 weeks old. A few litters were even born at my home. When these young kittens met Baxter, they immediately accepted him, this giant creature, tongue at the ready and eyes ever vigilant. The attention and humongous tongue was welcome and acceptable.. btw our previous dog, Dino, was also a natural nanny —- seems to run in the breed.

The orange kittens 3, however, are older and more worldly then their predecessors. They are more tuned into their environment, much more alert and consequently more apt to freak out at the unexpected.

Yesterday was our first session, It was imperative that Baxter remained still, next to me, watching but not moving …passively teaching the kittens to trust. And so he did!

For his part, Baxter had come a long way. He is learning to be gentle and resist the urge to pounce on the active balls of fur. He is learning self control and patience. It is amazing to witness his self control.

The bravest of the kittens (the all orange one) came over to sniff out and explore the giant canine. Baxter stayed still as the daring kitten navigated his large legs….sniffing briefly and then scampering off without a care.

Meanwhile, I’m freaking out a little bit. Zach sent Hans a WhatsApp video from the airplane this morning.

It’s a close up shot of Zach’s face. He appears very distressed. His eyes are watery He is mutely explaining something, I watch his forehead wrinkle. his eyes glaze. I think I can read his lips for the first sentence or two, and it looks like he’s talking about a delay with takeoff. After that it’s just lips moving… silence

If only I had learned to lip read. Oh, failed life! I never learned and now I can’t find an app to help me translate…(yes I did look)

Neither Hans nor I can decipher Zach’s message. It’s highly disturbing…knowing that something is happening and not being able to do anything at all about it. Oh irony!

I took a little nap and woke to find this text.

Oh weird. A bird flew into our engine on the way to France. Had to turn around and couldn’t get another flight until 3pm (original flight was at 645am). We just landed in Paris now and they are going to get us a flight. We will leave tomorrow at 1015 and be back at 230 tomorrow instead. 24hrs late but all is fine. We’re both just pretty beat

Whew!

Since then we’ve been back in contact. Over the WhatsApp connection I see Zach and Caro are comfortably laying in bed. “It’s been a shit show,” Zach says. But, when we wake up tomorrow we’ll already be closer to the time we get home”.“ and I got some good video footage “.

I told Zach the effect that his muted video had on me. How it stung when I read the emotions in his face. I imitated his motions drawing them out for full effects ..my hand in my hair, eyes forlorn. Then I sent him the sad picture above.

What that? He laughed. That’s not my upset face

And though I question the validity that Zach has only ONE upset face, he is convincing. Especially after sharing the next two pics.