Animal House

It's amazing how quickly life can change and even more amazing how quickly people can adapt and fall into routines. Just a few weeks ago the heat and the noise of Wailuku were our major gripes (and early morning wake-up calls). Now, a whole host of hungry and curious animals demand our attention from dawn to dusk. A little over two weeks since we arrived in Haiku with our new life and new responsibilities, we are hesitant to say it but, we now act like full-fledged pet owners: our conversations revolve around the daily pranks and pitfalls of our seven animals. And now, we'll share a sample of these conversations with you all.

As any pet owner can tell you, each animal has individual quirks that allow it "to carve out a niche in your heart" (Jacobson, A., 2009):

Peter, Jingles, and Honey-Bunny (aka 'the rabbits'): It's hard to pin down specific personality traits of each rabbit, since our interactions are limited to the weekly "poop purge" (Berg, H., 2009) of their cages which are typically carried out by Andrew, because he's the only one quick enough to catch the bunnies.












George the Cat: The dark, dashing, and mysterious cat who really only shows up (sometimes) in time for dinner and bedtime. It's always a reverse game of cat and mouse with this one (us being the unappealing mouse) trying to lure him into the garage at night. This will sometimes take 20 minutes or more of hiding clandestinely waiting for George to enter the garage and then "bang" the mouse shuts the door for the night.

(Because he's so flighty, the paparazzi hasn't been able to capture his photo yet)

Lani the Kitty: The more attention demanding cat who loves being in the middle of the action (like sitting in the middle of the ping pong table while we're playing!), but gets picked on relentlessly by all the other animals. She is also the primary one in bringing out Andrew's interest in cats.









Bubbles the Westie dog: "The best thing about Maui" (Jacobson, A., 2009). Bubbles looks like he might be straight in from the alley, but his arthritic self and floppy ears have enough spunk and character to make anyone smile. He is also the easiest pet to take care of (seriously, he may be easier than the rabbits) since he sleeps around 20 hours a day.

Ginger the chocholate lab puppy: Like any puppy who has not been well-trained, she easily demands the most attention and causes the most aggravation. She's completely unaware of personal space and thinks play-time is all-the-time. She jumps, she chews (though thankfully only on her toys), she picks fights, and she begs for food, but hey, she's a puppy and will learn how to be more civilized.













Its been fun to see what will get us angry and amused at the different antics of the animals. Hannah is learning how to wag her finger and be stern (Andrew laughs everytime she pulls this out) and Andrew has become more of a pet-lover. Just a few weeks ago we certainly wouldn't have anticipated our lives taking this turn. But, in the 'Aloha' spirit, we count ourselves very lucky and say the more the merrier.

A Stroke of luck

I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me that true luck really only strikes when you're not looking for it. Metaphorically, Andrew and I hadn't even put any money in the slot machine when we hit the jackpot: Free living arrangements in a beautiful cottage in Upcountry Maui!!

The move Upcountry, which physically happened on Tuesday, actually began developing several weeks ago. With nothing better to do, we accepted an invitation to go camping with Scott, Andrew's boss, at the Waihe'e Refuge, a property owned and maintained by the land trust. Great, huh? Well, the hitch was that along with Scott would be Scott's son. And along with Scott's son would be his entire 3rd grad class. And along with the 3rd graders would be their parents. Despite knowing full-well that we'd be entering into an awkward situation the lure of s'mores and ghost stories proved too strong.

For most of the evening and the next morning we kept to ourselves, only making small talk with a couple of parents (particularly those in charge of handing out marshmallows!) But clearly, we were there to enjoy camping and not to make friends. So, when it came time to leave in the morning (I needed to rush back to attend a job fair that couldn't wait for Scott), we found ourselves in the awkward position of asking strangers for a lift back to Wailuku. As I cowered in the background, Andrew walked right up to ask. Rejected on the first attempt, he tried again. This time successful.

The man who gave us a ride was named Pete Peck. not knowing that this would be an important conversation, I remember only a few of the details. But the salient points are what matter: his family was leaving for California for the summer and was looking for house-sitters to take care of thier pets and plants while the were away. Andrew traded phone numbers with him and within 2 hours his wife Susie, called and asked if we'd like to meet up at their house to talk details.

After seeing their house and guest cottage, meeting the pets, and finding out that we could stay for free and be paid to look after the animals, we both agreed that 'yes, we'd like very much to house-sit'. Um, kind of a no-brainer! Andrew was right when he said that the only thing that would make the deal better for us would be the use of the BMW Z-4.

So now we're living in Ha'iku. Like the poem. The town is on the northern, more remote, edge of the island between the two more lively towns of Pa'ia and Makawao. The Peck's house is on several acres and has a small guest cottage, where we'll be staying. The cottage sits on a hillside and overlooks a wooded gulch so that the only neighbors we can see and hear are the birdies. Its a simple studio style layout, but is furnished by almost all things Pier I, as far as I can tell. It's lovely and has everything we need, plus some.

I may have mentioned in pasing that the Peck's have pets. To be more presice, they have 3 rabbits, 2 cats, and 2 dogs. For people who are not naturally pet-people (aside from Gracie Spot and Mona), this is a whole lot. As if that we're enough, Ginger, the 9-month old brown lab, demands as much attention as all of the other pets combined (probably times 5!). We may be in over our head, but I guess we'll find out once the Peck's leave (actually, their cab just pulled up!). But for now, we're sitting back and enjoying the cooler air and thinking that life is good!.