Jupiter's Adventure and the Wet Snow

There hasn't been a whole lot going on this week here in Enschede for us. Roxi's been busy working on some of her academic writing so I've been taking advantage of the time to do some long overdue video editing. I've been working on editing videos from our trips to Hawaii and Mexico from the beginning and end of last year. I hope to have them up on YouTube soon.

There were a couple of interesting events of note though here at our apartment. Since we've been here, Roxi's cat Jupiter has become very comfortable sitting or sleeping on the sill of the window and occasionally looking outside at her new world. We have tried, a few times, to coax her out of the apartment, into the stairwell and outside so that she can explore the new world for herself. This has only resulted in her cautiously trekking up the stairs and not down. But she loves to be outside on the balcony and even on the balcony ledge, much to our chagrins.

Last week, we were video chatting with our friend Charles back home in Louisiana and Jupiter was outside sitting on the balcony enjoying the cold evening air as she is wont to do. We had been talking for a while when Roxi looked up to the open curtains on our living room picture window to see that Jupiter had not only managed to get onto the outside windowsill from the balcony, but she was halfway across the ledge and moving quickly to it's end. Roxi ran to balcony and talked Jupiter into returning on the very narrow ledge. The sill was actually so narrow, that our cat could not even turn around but rather had to walk backwards to return to the balcony ledge. I must say I've never seen a cat walk backwards let alone as fast or gracefully as Jupiter did. So all was well but we couldn't help but think about Jupiter loosing her footing and falling off the ledge.

On Tuesday night we were both at our computers, Roxi working on her academic writing and I working on some video editing, when we noticed that Jupiter had gotten onto the outside window sill again. We tried to get her to come inside, and she did, but returned to the balcony a few minutes later when the door was open. We couldn't get her to come back in, so we left her to sit on a chair, again in the cold evening air. A few minutes later, Roxi said she heard scratching and thought that Jupiter had fallen off the balcony. I said she probably hadn't and that the noise must have been something else. When I went to investigate though, there was no sign of Jupiter on the balcony. I was thinking that she had probably just slipped back inside without our noticing but looked over the edge just to check, and sure enough, I was met with her cat eyes looking up from the ground about fifteen feet below.

I quickly ran down the stairs and around the side of the building to make sure that Jupiter was okay and for an instant, saw no sign of her! Then rustling leaves in the darkness caught my attention. Jupiter was playing in a small pile of dead leaves. She seemed okay and was enjoying exploring this new place. Roxi met me outside a minute later and we strolled around our building as Jupiter cautiously investigated her surroundings. After about ten or fifteen minutes, we corralled her back into the apartment to get her collar with a bell and ID tag in case she pulled this stunt again. We had plans to take her back out for more exploration but after getting the collar on, she wasn't too interested in going out in the stairwell again. Thankfully she was not injured in her fall and she got to see outside for herself. I only hope that next time, we can convince her to take the stairs instead of the fifteen foot leap to see the outside world!

Another event of note, though not nearly as exciting as Jupiter's adventure, happened today. This afternoon I was sitting at my computer facing our large picture windows in the living room working on one of my videos when I glanced up to see snow falling! Now this might mean nothing to any readers of this blog seeing as how it's been snowing everywhere this winter including my hometown of Lafayette, LA where it only snows about once every ten years. However, Roxi and I missed this decade's snowfall by a day due to our trips to Mexico for Cari and John's wedding. I was excited to see snowfall but I have seen it a couple of times in the past few years when I lived in both Austin and Nashville. Roxi on the other hand hasn't seen snow in much longer and was very excited to see this, our first snow in Enschede.

We went out on the balcony to enjoy the fact that we could experience it while being comforted by the fact that we were not out walking around in it either on campus or in the city. Once I got outside though, I realized it was only wet snow, melting immediately when it came in contact with the ground. So unfortunately there was absolutely no accumulation and it didn't last for more than a few minutes, but we did enjoy seeing it though and it made for a nice afternoon treat for the two of us.