Kona in Kona

After two days, an overnight layover, and 8.5 hours of flying, Kona touched down in Kona.

Not Jersey followed Kona’s plane on flight tracker and gave me updates. “They’ve begun their descent,” he said, smiling, “They’re going to land four minutes early.”

Shortly after we pulled into the Alaska Air Cargo loading area, Not Jersey said, “There’s his plane right there,” and pointed toward a set of headlights coming out of the clouds.

Other than the few harrowing moments when I couldn’t find the stupid Department of Agriculture form in my car, and dropped 22 consecutive f-bombs, Kona’s arrival was the complete opposite of his departure: chill and uneventful. Hawaii is like that in most ways. Kona breezed through his vet check, we packed him into the Rogue, and drove home over the mountain.

Kona was happy to see me, but he was happier to be out of his crate. He explored the apartment, ate food, drank water, used his litter box, and jumped into the bathroom sink and demanded a hairbrush session. He is currently lounging on the patio listening to the coqui frogs, ducks, and geckos.

He is quite curious about the new sounds. I built him a cat greenhouse to keep him from jumping down into the koi pond or onto the neighbor’s patio. So far, so good.

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, comments, and encouragement. I am so happy to see my big fluff. A special thank you to Whalecrone and Mutha Russia who made this all possible.

And to Not Jersey who does sweet things for me every day and who also now carries my cat litter upstairs. You are the best.