So much has occurred in the past month that I don't know where to begin! We've moved, visited Germany for the first time, welcomed Mom and Dad Feldman to Italy, tried to get settled in our new home (and are almost there!), and most recently- went olive picking, and invited a new guest into our home...
Meet Luigi Feldman, 9 lbs of energy and love!
I expected to go downtown for lunch on Saturday (mmm, sushi) not expecting to come home with a dog! Much less, a stray. Ben has been persistent over the past year and a half with his requests for a dog. For those of you that know Athena, then you know that she requires an absolutely ridiculous amount of attention and is more of a human than a dog. She certainly wants nothing to do with other dogs and only likes to play with people. I thank Ben for spoiling her. Hehehe. Anyway, we went to our new favorite sushi restaurant, Kukai, and decided to go for a walk near Piazza Plebiscito afterward. It is always a flurry of activity near Via Toledo downtown and a great people watching experience. We were walking back towards the direction of the car when we spot a strawberry colored creature behind a bench, greeting another dog. The first thing that comes out of Ben's mouth? If that is a mini Golden Retriever, I'm taking it home! I had made the mistake of telling Ben about a miniature Golden Retriever that I had seen walking through downtown and he's been adamant on finding one for us ever since. This was no mini GR but he sure was cute. It's really hard to describe what kind of a dog he might be- we think there is definitely some dachsund, but he has chihuahua ears, and his body looks like he might have some Corgi. Luigi is the epitome of a "Naples mutt." Once Ben followed him all over the street and had him in his arms I knew it was love at first sight and there was no going back! We had watched as he approached shops and street vendors only to be shooed away. He went up to other dogs and was told to take off because they were not allowed to play with him. Every time we see one of the hundreds of innocent stray dogs on the side of the road as roadkill, or walking around the streets scrounging for water or food, or being yelled at by street vendors to get lost, it breaks our hearts. This was definitely one that Ben was not going to let get away. And apparently I'm a softie because no matter how determined I was to be a one dog family, I had to give in! Two accidents in the backseat on the way home, a full preventative flea and tick bath (Luigi is the cleanest stray I have ever seen, no dirt and certainly no fleas or ticks), and some new gear later, Luigi officially became a Feldman. :)
On the other hand, if dogs could talk I have a strange feeling that Athena would have told us to leave Luigi in the streets. The queen wants to be as far away from him as possible and tries to attack HIM every time he attempts to play with her. We have already become accustomed to the sound of her growling and snapping at him over the past few days. As you can see in this picture, she wants no part of it.
We took Luigi to the vet today for his full exam. The vet scanned him and confirmed that he has no microchip, no diseases, and is an extremely healthy 8 month old. If it weren't for his strange habits, I would question whether he is really a stray. He likes to find corners in the house to sleep in and "take shelter." I've found him hiding napping behind the couch, next to our large potted plants, and underneath tables. He also yelped bloody murder today- I'm not kidding when I say you could probably have heard his cries well into the parking lot-when the vet gave him his vaccines and told us he thinks the dog must have been harmed because he is very fearful of anything remotely close to painful :( Taking in an extra animal is more work, especially when you travel often, but we are incredibly happy to have rescued one dog from the dirty Neapolitan streets. He is now clean, well-fed, and attached at the hip to Ben. Ben is happy to have "a man's dog."
As for the rest of our weekend, we had the opportunity to go on a day trip to an olive grove and olive oil factory! We went to a small Italian town just outside of Benevento to a private olive orchard with our friends, Chad and Amber. The scenery was beautiful- the trees were filled with olives and the color of fall was everywhere. Here are a few pictures from our trip:
Ben decided to sample an olive fresh from the tree and decided that our guide, Maria, was right. Olives in this form are not tasty! They must be cured and salted if you choose to eat them or they have a mighty strong aftertaste!
Olive picking is no longer manual labor! They have fancy schmancy machines that you rake through the trees.
The process of olive oil production:
Ben was holding my Vitamin Water bottle and jokingly asked the worker if he could have some olive oil. The guy filled it up with fresh olive oil, free of charge!
After a long, yet interesting, day of learning about olives and olive oil we took our two bottles of delicious olive oil and made our way home to our doggie crew. This was definitely an eventful weekend in the Feldman household!
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