Flowers for Nova

One of the cool things about living in the Netherlands is that buying flowers is an everyday thing and not just for special occasions. We ordinarily don’t partake in this cultural activity because of Nova. He’s always been a disaster with flowers and plants. One of his very first accomplishments was the utter destruction of a 3 foot tall peace lily plant. He followed that up by eating the 4 foot palm plant. Fresh flowers in a vase are even messier because the water just goes everywhere. We’ve tried every now and then over the years, but Nova has been very persistent.

Last Saturday, Dennis and I were tempted by the first tulips of the season. We figured that Nova is 12 years old now and we might be able to finally trust him. That and we got a really heavy vase that might be harder to pull over. When we bought the tulips, the girl told us to soak them in cold water for an hour to freshen them before putting them in a vase. The only thing big enough to hold the tulips is the bathtub, so in they went.

Sometime later, we were sitting downstairs watching TV when we heard a ruckus upstairs. We thought it was Nova rushing down the stairs after leaving a deposit in the litter box. Sometimes in his haste to escape the poopy-smell he races down the stairs and hits the bottom with quite a thump. Sometimes there is meowing involved (Nova IS a boy after all).

Oddly, when Nova arrived back to the ground floor, he had wet feet. And they weren’t just a little wet. And really he was pretty much wet all over. Hmmm, time to investigate…I went up to the check the flowers in the bathtub and I found the bathmat rumpled and water all over the floor. The flowers in the tub appeared untouched.

Apparently, Nova was leaning over the tub trying the reach the flowers when the bathmat slipped and he fell into the tub. Let me remind you that the water was very cold which elicited some meowing. He must have managed to scamper out of the tub and probably slipped again causing a big thump. Tulips 1: Nova 0.

Maybe Nova thinks the tulips are scary now. He’s left them alone for a record amount of time. Do you think we can finally have fresh flowers in the house?