Little Mint loves Saturday mornings. This is the time of the week where I clean out her condo and make up a fresh little box. Mint adores fresh kitty litter and watches me impatiently as I prepare it. As soon as it’s in the box, even before I have time to tape down the bag, she jumps in and plays around like she’s in a sandbox. She’s a sensible kitty, too, as she only plays like this in squeaky clean sand.

We bought the Le Bistro food distributor to ensure the cats got three meals a day while we were on vacation. However we were so happy with it that we now use it constantly. It features a large wheel that rotates one quarter-turn three times a day. However Pepper has figured out how to get her meals a little earlier. Even though little Mint watches her earnestly and reaps some of the rewards, she has yet to figure out the trick for herself.

On our penultimate day in Georgia, we visited the walled city of Sighnaghi, now completely reconstructed as a tourist town. For me, the highlight of this town was a little puppy that we called Sluppy. This small chocolate brown dog soon adopted us as we stepped off the bus, and guided us up and down the main street. She showed us the park at the top of the street, and waited for us outside as we perused the shops. She was distracted for a moment when she had to chase a car away, yapping happily, but then she came trotting back up to us, looking proud of her accomplishment. As a reward for her loyalty, we treated her with some salami from the local supermarket, and she happily snapped it all up. Unfortunately, it was soon time for us to get back on the bus, and she watched us with some confusion as we drove away. Soon though we saw her scampering off, with the smug smile of a puppy with a full belly of salami.

We have been able to visit two of the charming cave towns of Georgia – Vardzia (established around 1185 CE) and Uplistikhe (perhaps first settled around 1500 BCE). Vardzia is still an active monastery, however Uplistikhe is now abandoned. We were able to wander through a maze of streets, bakeries, churches, palaces, apartments, and prisons, all carved into the limestone caves. In Vardzia, John and Adrian chose to explore the dark, narrow, slippery innards of the cave system, while I made the much more scenic decision to return to the bus via a quiet path through the meadows, sharing my trail with lizards and birds enjoying the sunshine.

The day met an adorable end when John discovered a puddle of puppies sunning themselves on a footbridge. They ran up to me enthusiastically, and responded blissfully to a belly rub. Whenever I moved away, the followed me and plopped down at my feet, begging for more attention. I felt like sneaking one into my bag, but they appeared to be well loved by the farming family that lived nearby.