Yo soy DomoKun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's another Domo Domingo as requested by Robyn. Enjoy!

Día de Las Estrellas: Star Wars, Star Trek, Starbucks!

We had a super Star Day in Santiago yesterday! First, we went and saw the Star Wars, The Exhibition. Then we went to the cinema to see the new Star Trek movie. And before we went back home, I enjoyed a beverage from Starbucks!

The Star Wars exhibit was really fun! They had all types of props from all the movies. There was more stuff from the three newer films, but they had a lot of drawings and storyboards from the original Star Wars trilogy. Carly also got a cool Star Wars Chile t-shirt. We took way too many photos! So, we made a slideshow. (You can adjust the speed and pause it.)

Next, we went to the cinema to see the new Star Trek movie. HOLY SMOKES IT IS GOOD! If you haven't see it yet, go! It was a lot of fun. Best of all, Carly loved the popcorn there. It was salted, but not too salty. It was a special treat for her.

The cinema is part of Parque Arauco, which is the most massive and fancy mall I've ever seen. It's in Los Condes, the fanciest part of Santiago. The map for the place is enormous, and they have plenty of expensive shops. Everyone there looked quite well-too-do, particularly for Chile. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it has this beautiful outdoor plaza. There was a jazz group playing. On the third level of the mall there was a woman providing soothing piano music.

The food court was quite large, and it had a Taco Bell. Carly was ridiculously excited about that and ate a Crunchwrap Supreme. She also wanted to get sushi later, but it was way too expensive.

I made a visit to Starbucks while we were there. There are more than a dozen Starbucks in Santiago, but I haven't made it to one before yesterday. Whoa! They are identical to home. Seriously, while inside the store it is almost impossible to tell that you are in a different country. It was a nice little visit.


It was a pretty busy day. We had a lot of fun. Next on our itineray is a trip to the city of Valdivia. It's a seven-hour bus ride to the south. Stay tuned. Oh, and here's a picture of our new friend me met yesterday morning.

Operation Gatito

Today we saved a kitten's life!

Last night our neighbors, Blake and BreAnne, told us about a kitten who was hanging out in the large case where the gas meters for our apartments are. The kitten was meowing but would run back inside the case whenever they got near it. After giving it some milk and food we decided it was our mission to rescue it. Jeff grabbed our broom and tried pushing it to the other side so we could grab it out. We finally pulled it out and the poor thing was traumatized.

Jeff and I took the gatito to our apartment and gave it a bath since it was all mangy. The gatito was surprisingly calm and didn't move or make a sound while we washed it. Afterwards, we wrapped him in a towel to dry him off. It was then I noticed little Gatito was absolutely covered in fleas on his underside. He might have been covered on his back too but his hair was long and dark so it was difficult to tell. I have never seen so many fleas on one animal; and really large ones too! We took Gatito to Blake and BreAnne's to see if they knew how to get rid of the fleas. Blake looked it up on the internet and it said to put baking powder on it then rinse the cat with dishwashing soap.

Gatito sleeping on the stool after his second bath

We took Gatito back to our place and Jeff rubbed the powder all over Gatito's belly then rinsed him off. Then he scrubbed him really good with dishwashing detergent. After Gatito was sudsy Jeff held him submerged in a big bowl of warm water for almost 10 minutes. It was really gross because all the fleas started going up to his face. Gatito was surprisingly okay with this and only went crazy when he got a little soap in his eye. We killed a lot of fleas but there were still a ton more! We wrapped Gatito in a towel and put him on the stool then discussed what to do with him. We talked about putting him with another family of kittens on the stairs or trying to get him cleaned up and adopted. We decided to take him to the vet to get a flea bath then try to get him adopted. We asked Blake and BreAnne if they'd come with us since we can't really speak Spanish and they're practically fluent. They were happy to help and we decided to leave at 9:30 the next day.

Gatito stayed hidden under the towel most of the night

We decided to put Gatito in the shower for the night and shut the doors so we wouldn't get fleas in our apartment. He was really cute wrapped up in the towel. We put some cat food, milk, and water in with him. He went right to sleep. We thought he'd sleep all night long; boy were we wrong.

As soon as Jeff and I were ready to go to sleep, around 1:30am, Gatito started meowing. We went to see what was the matter but we think he was just scared. He ate a lot of food and just laid underneath the towel. He wouldn't leave it. We left him alone to go to bed and he started meowing again. We tried to ignore it but he was pretty loud. Jeff went and sat in the bathroom near him for a bit while I slept. Then I went and kept him company. Jeff put his old Ipod shuffle cord in the bathroom so he could play with it. He seemed okay but whenever we would shut the shower doors he would start crying. He finally fell asleep around 6am and stayed asleep until 8 . Gatito was still pretty scared of us even though we helped him, though he did purr a little when we were petting him. I think he just wasn't used to humans.

At 9:30 me, Jeff, Blake, and BreAnne set off to find a veterinarian. Jeff carried Gatito wrapped in a towel. The poor thing was so scared he was shaking and meowing most of the time. We checked out a few vet places but most of them were closed. We finally found one that was open. BreAnne explained the situation and asked if there was a shelter we could take him to. The doctor examined Gatito and said he was in good shape. We also learned that the kitten was a macho (boy). He wrote out a prescription for Frontline Flea Spray and some anti-parasite medication and told us where we could take Gatito. A place called Bahia Mascota in Placilla that was out of town on the way to Santiago. We found a microbus and arrived at our destination around 30 minutes later. Jeff held Gatito the whole bus ride.

The people at Bahia Mascota told us Gatito had to get checked out by their vet then we'd have to buy food, kitty litter, and flea medication for it while it stayed there to get better. Then they would put it up for Regalo. The vet checked out Gatito again and asked where we found him and if he ate. She said he was probably 2 months old, even though we thought he was only a month old because he was so small. She said that since he's a kitten and a boy he would get adopted quickly. We bought the supplies to house Gatito then the vet gave him the medicine and soaked him in the anti-flea spray. We said our final goodbye to Gatito and wished him a happy life. Overall, we didn't have to spend much money to save Gatito and we were all pretty sure Gatito wouldn't have survived long if we hadn't helped him. He definitely would've gotten sick from all his fleas. He also might've been eaten by a dog, which the shop owner across the street said happened to his brother.

We wish we could help every homeless animal, but there are way too many. This one, however, we will remember forever.

Gatito survived his first (and hopefully last) microbus ride