Dog update

Mokka has been with us almost a year and she's come a long way.

When we got her she was scared of...

Stairs
The hallway
Leaves
Wind
Loud noises
Quiet noises
Baths
Leashes
The outside in general
Rain
Weather in general
People
Dogs
Everything else

Things she was not scared of...

The cats

Now, she is no longer scared of...

Stairs
The hallway
Leaves
Wind
Loud noises
Quiet noises
Leashes
The outside in general
Weather in general
People
Dogs*

*She has a dog friend in the building!  A 9 year old pup she gets so excited to see.  It's adorable.  She still doesn't like all other dogs. Puppies freak her out.

She's come so far!

I don't know that baths will ever be her favorite, and we took her to the dog beach for the second time today and she still doesn't like that water either, or all the other dogs wandering around.  And she doesn't care at all for rain.  I sense a theme.

She knows how to sit, lay down, jump up, spin, shake, stay, and is learning roll over.  She knows she's not allowed in the master bedroom and the kitchen, but there are places outside each room that she likes to lay where she can see what's going on. Yes, she goes on the furniture.  But she's better about the cats (and the cats are better about her).

She knows when it's frisbee day and that she'll get to go to the park and run around like a crazy thing.

She knows the time of day and gets really irritating when it's food time. Actually she gets really irritating a lot of times when she wants attention.  I haven't figured out how to get her to stop pawing us for attention. A cat pawing is cute and soft, a dog pawing leaves marks.

She has a stuffed pig.

She'll do anything for a piece of string cheese.

She's still learning to be a dog.  She doesn't know how to chase a ball, is completely uninterested in sticks, and rarely doesn't know what to do with the rest of her toys unless it's stuffed with a treat... or is her pig.  She really likes her squeaky pig.

All in all, though, she's a good pup.

Next Post: Baghdad

With our youngest graduating high school in June 2019 and a position in Baghdad opening up summer 2019, we figured now was a good time to throw in our hat. It sounds simple enough.  And then reality sets in.

We have 4 pets.  Why?  Oh, good question, but irrelevant at this point.  Four pets that need to go somewhere for a year since they can't come to Baghdad.  Not even one cat to keep us company.  We have plans for all the pets.

We have one kid who has graduated college but doesn't have a full-time job yet.  She's working on it, and we hope that by winter time she'll be all squared away. 

Another kid is planning to move off campus at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.  She'll have the dog by then and we wanted to be there to help her move.  It's flexible.

Another has enlisted in the Marines and should be graduating boot camp next April in South Carolina.  We wanted to be there for that.  We will be there for that.

The youngest graduates on 1 June 2019 and has the whole summer 2019 to fill before going to university, wherever he goes.

Germany is interesting - it doesn't allow families to stay in-country if the direct hire isn't at post.  It is not a safe-haven country.  So the day that Ian leaves is the day the rest of us leave.

Here's where it gets really interesting.

The youngest graduates on 1 June.  That's immovable.  Home leave (required at the end of each tour, or after 2 years if the tour is 4 years, consultation days and holidays are not included) is a minimum of 20 unworked work days - a full month.  You can try to wriggle it a little bit like take training first, or get it shortened a few days, but on the whole it is non-negotiable.  We arrived in Frankfurt at the end of July in 2016 and are given roughly 30 days on either side of that date in 2019 for departure, but that is flexible though it requires some hoop-jumping for HR.

So... when we bid on this job, we expected that we would leave on 2 June... do homeleave and training... and arrive to the next post mid-July.

The person he's replacing leaves in June.

We've been informed, in no uncertain terms, that gaps at post are not allowed.  For any reason.  Ever.

Ian is the only one that matters when it comes to timing of stuff - getting his home leave done, getting to post.  If I could stay in Germany with Jonathon after Ian left to get through exams and graduation, I would, but as far as I know I can't.

I'm open to suggestions on how this is supposed to work.