It's been a while since my last post, but we had some turbulence... We had planned a few fun excursions on the last weekend that my parents were with us, so I thought I'd have some pics to post... However, things turned out quite different.

Kathryn's cat, Katinka, who just turned one last May, was run over by a truck (no less!) on Saturday morning. She survived the experience and the operation, and we were looking at a long recovery process and two further surgeries when she passed away suddenly on Monday, just after the girls came home from school. (Most likely a blood clot.)

We were all pretty devastated. None of us had experienced such a sudden and violent loss. Katinka was the perfect children's kitty, gentle, playful, sleeping in their beds in the morning (after being out all night), always ready to be cuddled. She loved to pounce on our dog, Binky, when we came back from our walks. Half the neighborhood knew her, since she was so confident that she would lie out in front of our house completely unperturbed by passers-by.



To me, pets are like a little patch of love in our lives, giving and receiving, and when they're gone we realize how important that love is to us.



From the top, Kathryn and Katinka (as a new kitten); Binky and Tinky sharing a bed; Ursula and Katinka; Iago and "mini-me".

Next post, I promise some good news...

Today we went on our first "real" bike tour to the Ketscher Rheinwald. Here are Andrea, Kathryn, and Ursula during our picnic next to the Rhein. The Rheinwald is an island formed by a sidearm of the Rhein. There are any number of paths; we took the one circling the island. We picniced at the southern tip. Plenty of small pleasure boats buzzed back and forth, and quite a few barges, mostly from Holland, went both up and down the Rhein.

A rare photo of the official family photographer! (I'm still trying to figure out lighting etc.). To the right you can see a side arm of the Rhein.

Ursula and Kathryn.

Once we'd circled the island, we stopped by the Wildschweingehege (wild boar enclosure) and made a short video. This is the first tour we've done since getting our bike rack for the car, and we hope to do a lot more over the summer!