Cats, Kids and so on

Teacher: Ali, if you found a wallet with 100 thousand Dinar, would you report it? Student: If I know that it belongs to a poor man I would definitely hand it in. - Shakira, the golden yellow cat with one kitten of the same colour and two black ones (a bit older) that she adopted (as far as I can judge) looks well after her little ones. From time to time she leaves the basket to stretch her bones, but quickly returns. I check the kittens' eyes, which they open for the first time after approx. 9 days, yet sometimes the eyes get sealed again, with bad luck even filled with pus. Luckily I know how to handle this, something I learnt from a neighbour (first Physiol chlorure de sodium a 0,9%, clean eyes gently, then Pommade Ophtalmique). This time I discovered a walnut-sized swelling around the belly button of Shakira's little one. Before I could ask the vet (weekend), the baby kitten disappeared. I looked everywhere. There can be only one conclusion that I don't like very much. Mother nature has occasionally strange solutions. A sick/weak baby can endanger the whole family as it may attract the enemy. I experienced it once, when a dog gave birth to more puppies than I counted the next day, 2 weak ones had disappeared.(I tried very hard to find them, all in vain.) Shakira continued to feed and clean the black kittens. One day she walked out, in nature the mother has to find food and the little ones remain quiet, waiting for Mummy to return. Gloria, the other cat mother from time to time (as the kittens get a little bit older) goes for a walk, relaxes and leaves me to baby-sit. She trusts me fully, nice thought. Well Shakira did not return, I waited for 15 hrs and then decided to check whether Gloria would be prepared to adopt the black kittens. She did,   great mummy, guess what, 2 hrs later Shakira returned, looking for her kittens. It may be wrong, but I decided, as it wasn't certain after all, which cat is their actual mother,  to leave them with Gloria and her other babies.  They seem to get on very well and Gloria is the more experienced mum. I gave Shakira some food and water and she stayed over-night to sleep. On the next day she seemed to be looking for the black kittens again, went out and returned after a few hours. At times like this I wish I could explain the situation and get a reply from my cats. Well, we live and learn. Saladin, my lovely skinny Persian cat requires special food from the vet as he suffers from chronicle diarrhoea, always hungry but not putting on any weight. He tries to eat from all other plates on the floor. after a while I discovered that he's a good actor, pretends to eat and then spits it out again. He likes his food served in my hand, at least I can then control how much he then actually eats. I have to soak his croquets and hide them from my other cats, who are only to keen to have it as well. They even open doors for it. I am now prepared, lock the room door. Having had several cats operated (family planning forced onto them), I thought I could spare my Amelie (lovely Persian cat) the operation, as she lives in-doors and all tomcats have been operated. I had no previous experience with female cats and wasn't aware that when they are on heat, they suffer quite a bit when there is no admirer (tomcat) around. Similar situation with my other lovely ladies, Cinderella (white cat, darker coloured part of her face, her tail and paws, blue eyes) and Diana (Thailand cat, turquoise eyes, markings similar to those of Cinderella). All these beautiful little darlings I found right here, there are more outside but I can't provide shelter for more. Where do they come from? I feel pretty sure they or their parents/grandparents had a home before and the families moved away or gone abroad. Before the revolution I never viewed such a lot of gorgeous cats, many were then rather skinny, I guess cats can nowadays find better food outside (more/ better food thrown away?). My cats motivate me to get up really early in the morning, it's great, all the little trouble makers are fast asleep and we can enjoy a peaceful breakfast, only occasionally some dogs arrive, luckily well behaved and they disappear on my command. Dinner time is a different matter, the kids here love to spend every spare minute playing football, yelling at an ear-splitting level. Their balls fly in all directions against the  walls of the houses, onto the roofs, inside the yards, making even newly decorated walls look dirty, tatty. Due to oh so many bad experiences, cats fear these hooligans (as I mentioned before, stones are their favourite  toys, cats aren't even safe underneath cars). The children regard the streets as their home, including pavements, etc. why should I  have the right to feed cats on my pavement or get angry when their balls or stones hit/ damage my property or even worse, frighten or injure my fur friends? - A neighbour parked his car at  the side of my house, it has been there for quite a while now,  perhaps some folks believe it belongs to us. Anyhow, 2 tyres are now flat, one window is smashed and various parts are getting loose, attempts to dismantle by bored ignorant hooligans, one door-handle is missing, the owner hasn't got money for the repair and soon it will be beyond repair. The hooligans lack all feelings of wrong doing, they are difficult to catch as they learn from an early age onward to run fast and deny everything, even if you see them with a so-called smoking gun,. (apart from the running bit, isn't this what Donald Trump practises every day?). -  Prices have gone up, some items 10% , others between 30 and 50 %. Not easy for those who have no or only a low fixed income. A tailor told me she can't pay for the medication that her doctor prescribed for her. The flea markets with lots of clothing from Europe ruined her trade. Hardly anyone orders a new dress or other items,  the usual customer wants alterations at a low price as he/she didn't pay much in the first place for the respective item. I've been told the government intends to protect the local market and stop the influx of cheap second hand clothing from Europe. Many items were donated in Europe by persons who mend well, aid for the poor. The other aspect detonators are often unaware of, (a share of the clothing remains in Europe and often gets sold or given away by charity organisations) a large amount is sold in a big bulk to Africa. No domestic clothes store or tailor can of course compete with those flea market prices, a problem also in other African countries.Talking about selling, I found it surprising that bananas on the market are from South America (not Africa) and apples mainly from Europe (e.g. Tirol), not Tunisia, but at least oranges are and some other delicious fruits. Tinned fruit is rare and expensive, but who needs it? African leaders are meeting now aiming to make African countries support each other more, a bit like the European Union? (Exploitation, land grabbing, corruption keeps many countries poor.) By the way all posts on this block are solely written by me, also those stating a different writer. - While the winter doesn't seem to be prepared to leave Europe, even though it's spring time, we enjoy lovely sunshine, more than 30 degrees centigrade and there are more such days to come. Great to see the sun, hopefully healing many colds and flue attacks, my little treasures have been sunbathing on the roof, they love it and several are also trying to get rid of their cold. We are all welcoming the sun. Tunisia is blessed with better weather than many other part of the world who are less fortunate. At present a warm wind from the dessert (Sahara) is blowing gently.