Day 1: Ireland or Bust!

About a month ago our friends Socks, Scylla and Charybdis extended an invitation to anyone who would like to join them for the Saint Patrick's Day festival in Ireland. Being sophisticated, world-traveling cats, we jumped at the chance and took them up on their offer. All in all, they had thirteen cats and dogs sign up to join the three of them on an Irish Adventure. Since Ireland is so close to Italy, we thought it would be fun to kick off our adventure with a pizza picnic under the Leaning Tower of Pisa. So, we invited our friends to stop by for lunch before heading to the Saint Patrick's Day party.

photo by Sassy

The Party Animals, in no particular order

Socks, Scylla and Charybdis,
Momo Kitty,
Sassy Kat,
Momo and Pinot,
Mrs. Oz, Emil, Karl
Ruis,
Charlie,
Asta
her boyfriend, Stanley,
and the two of us, Opus and Roscoe

What a wonderful day it was to have a picnic! The weather in Tuscany was just perfect, not too hot and not too cold. We arrived early and set up our blanket, on the green grass of the Field of Miracles, and patiently waited for our friends to arrive.

Momo, who is always ahead of the group since she lives in the future (Australia) was the first to arrive. One by one, our friends traveled to Italy to join us for a lazy afternoon picnic. It was so good to see everyone again. We ate our little hearts out and enjoyed nothing but mouth-watering, fantastic, homemade, Italian pizza!

photo by Asta

After such a HUGE meal, we thought it would best to just take a nap in the afternoon sun, but our adventurous friends all wanted to climb to the top of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is simply called "The Tower" in Italy). We didn't really feel like dragging our pizza filled bellies UP the tower, but how could we refuse the wishes of our dearest friends?

Part of the way up The Tower someone, who shall remain nameless, thought it would be fun to play "Thundering Herds of Elephants". The next thing we knew, all sixteen of us house pets were racing UP the tower! We went around and around and around and around and around... well, you get the picture. By the time we made it to the top, we were all so dizzy and exhausted.

But the views were spectacular!

We stayed at the top for a while, admiring the views of Pisa and the surrounding hills. The sun as shining down upon us all, making it the perfect spot to take a sun bath. Just when we closed our eyes for a little nap, we heard the call. We still aren't sure who yelled it, but we jumped to our feet at once.

"Thundering Herds of Elephants!!!!!!!"

That was all it took to get 4 dogs, 12 cats and 64 paws racing back down the tower. We aren't sure if was the vibration from all of us running down the steps or if was all the pizza we had at lunch but, as we ran out the door of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the tower "leaned" right over on its side and broke into pieces.

It was all over the evening news....

English Translation:
Mama mia! The Tower is Broken!
Local police are not speaking publicly about the disastrous turn of events in the city Pisa. Late this afternoon, the famous leaning tower fell over on its side and broke into thousands of pieces. Eye witnesses state seeing a rowdy group of international pets wearing Saint Patrick Day hats rushing out of the building moments before its collapse. Terrorism is not suspected. Locals of the city fear that all the King's horses and all the King's men won't be able to put back the pieces again.

We didn't stick around for questioning (or deportation). All of us jumped into the Magic Flying Travel Van and started off for the Saint Patrick's Day festival in Ireland.

Let's hope we don't break anything old in Ireland!

It didn't take much time for us to reach our destination in our magic van. Before long, we were all standing in the lobby of the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel, checking into our rooms. All of us stayed there except for Asta and Stanley, who rented a private, romantic cottage.

photo by Karl; edited by Momo Kitty, Asta and Sassy

Once we had our keys in paw, we all rushed up to check out our rooms. This time we opted NOT to play "Thundering Herds of Elephants" as we didn't want to get into trouble again.

photo by Sassy; edited by Momo Kitty

Some of our friends headed out to explore the town while others went straight for the local pub. Be sure to visit our friends mentioned above to hear their take on the days events. As for us, we took a relaxing dip in the pool with the other CCSI excutives while Asta acted our life guard.

photo by Sassy

Then it was off to bed for a long over due cat nap.

It is important that we get our beauty sleep,
tomorrow is another busy day.!