Living with Cats or Dogs

Two men walking home late at night. First man: "I'd wish I was a mouse, I'd wish I was a mouse." Second man: "You what?" First man: " My wife is frightened of mice....." Thanks to a few cats around here one rarely sees a mouse. Should one appear it wouldn't survive for long. I guess most cats nowadays never saw one anyhow. Amazing how neat and clean cats manage to look without ever taking a bath or shower, but they do spend a lot of time washing themselves or sometimes their friends (this includes me their friendship goes a long way). With most of the food I provide for my little darlings they decide themselves how much they eat. The majority are fairly slim. Jolino, Soleigh and Mallek are overweight and strange, all are white with golden-yellow patches, looking alike, but coming from different families. Living with either dogs or cats for many years I think I gained enough experience to state that they are not stupid. I'd wish I could say the same about some of the kids/youngsters in the neighbourhood. Croquettes that I leave for my homeless sweethearts outside next to my entrance door, got stolen on various occasions in the past, but now everyday, including plastic box. Frankly I am getting a bit fed up with this. I presume the thief either feeds his dog, perhaps his cat, or is just a natural hooligan (we've encountered a few). There are several dogs around here, usually gentle and well behaved, those without a leash walk away when I demand this (without using a stick or stone). Dogs on a leash on the other hand often try to  get underneath cars in order to hunt cats. I guess this is what their owner taught them to do. The other day I noticed that a young lad had tied his big dog to my barrier. When I questioned him he said he wanted to watch football..... Yes, I must not forget, we've got a cross-road football stadium right in front of my house. Perhaps I should try to sell tickets! Springtime will soon start  we should have more sunshine and it's good-bye to those cold and wet nights that were making life hard for all without shelter and/or heating. Haven't seen Margarita for three days now. She's got a gum infection pretty bad. If I don't manage to take her to the dentist's (vet), she will starve to death soon. She is such a lovely gentle white darling, but instinctively knew I wanted to catch her and avoided turning her back to me. We have a dedicated vet, whenever we are not sure a cat is still sober (a requirement for the aestetization) she lets us leave the cat with her overnight. Hyat's mother, golden coloured Alice, also hasn't turned up at the usual feeding times for three days now. Not like them, I can only hope that they are okay and will return soon. Gorgeous Gloria (never saw a greater beauty) and beautiful (all white with blue eyes) Cinderella disappeared for too long now, they are either dead or (a more comfortable thought) found a new family. Tunisians as a rule want very young kittens, but some may make an exception in particular when it comes to very special little treasures. Older cats by the way also make great companions, they tend to sleep more, are more relaxed, know respect and gratitude (the same unfortunately can not be said about a few guys we met). A dog I once had used to walk to the balcony door whenever she wanted to go out. So one day I got off my armchair to fetch her leash but when I returned Tessa was no longer standing in front of the balcony door. Where was she? Surprise, surprise, the clever darling was sitting on my armchair. Not bad.

Making Ends Meet

Teacher: "What would you like to be when you are grown up?" 1st Student: " Street vendor, just like my dad." 2nd Student: " A lawyer, just like my dad." 3rd Student: " A doctor, just like my dad." 4th student: "A burglar." Teacher: " I beg you pardon?" Student : " Well, just like my dad!"  -  A taxi stops in front of our door. Visitors? No, folks around here according to an unwritten law ask their taxi driver to always stop in front of our house (then they disappear in all 4 directions.) While the passengers slowly get their money out, wait for change, remove their bags and luggage, the driver of course keeps the engine running. For unknown reasons this seems to be yet another unwritten law, let your car/ motorcycle engine run idle, even while doing a bit of shopping (e.g. something to drink or some bred).  Air pollution by the way caused 50.000 deaths in Great Britain and it is against EU law to let the vehicle engine run idle. Air pollution effects the lungs, heart, etc and experts discovered it reduces the intelligence of children when pregnant women were exposed to a lot of air pollution, it also increases the risk of dementia. Luckily Tunisians are immune to all that  including  cancer etc. Why I have started to cough a lot I don't understand. By the way, we watched a mother with 2 children getting out of a taxi. As one of her sons likes to frequently yell at ear-splitting level alongside our house, we thought this is a chance to address the problem, only to be advised that this can't be, as her son (6 years old) attends school from morning until evening 6 days a week. Poor boy, sounds like a 48 hours school week while other children fairly often are send home after an hour or two or have no lessons, while teachers are yet again on strike. - Prises keep rising, various products 3 or 4 times last year and again in 2019, altogether between 30 and 50%. This concerns local as well as imported goods. Some have more or less already disappeared from the shelving's. Looks like not the buyers but the wholesalers decide what you can take home. I remember a time when poor folks not only couldn't afford to buy meat, even eggs rarely landed on their table (it was when Ben Ali was still dictator), now egg prices are said to be rising again, at least bred remains cheap. Hopefully lessons from history are learnt here (bred and games for the people, as the Romans knew already). Strange, the instruction leaflet for medicine produced in Germany (e.g. Micardis) is in Arabic and French while another one made in Tunisia (e.g. Triatec) is in English and French, a long list of possible side effects (several of severe nature).  I presume folks who require medicine here can read English and/ or French well enough not to require information in Arabic! Anyhow this reminds me of a pharmacist who stated he would prefer if no leaflet was provided for the patients, it only confuses them and they may feel inclined not to take their medicine. Frankly I prefer to judge myself whether I rather live with my illness or with possible grave lasting so-called side effects. The said pharmacist by the way recommended to buy 3 month's supply of Triatec (maybe difficult to obtain at a later date....). When his customer objected, "not sure it agrees with me, haven't tried it yet", he advised: "it is a good product with hardly any side effects."- My husband was approached several times by men he only knew from sight, stating that they come from the same town as he does, they need money for an expensive operation, if he would contribute with at least 100 Dinar, a peanut sum for him..... Sounds interesting, wonder where they get their information from, must ask my husband where he keeps his hidden treasures. If you don't know whom to support, don't know any poor persons, here you can find guys willing to help you. In the meantime discovering that I am forced to spend more and more on food, medicine and vet/ dental treatment doesn't make me rich (contrary to what some believe), but I cannot let those gorgeous little darlings down. They reward me with their trust, respect and love, so precious. In order to make ends meet maybe I can eat less bred?

Irresistible little Tigers

Young lad: "When these cat babies are still in the womb of the cat mother, don't they scratch her?" There are many things in life one doesn't really need, cats are necessary, I believe. Of the normally 4, sometimes 6 kittens, usually 1 resembles the mother, the others are a mixture and proof the  lady cat got more frequently engaged than just once. Amira e.g. has a streamed boy, Tiger,black, brown and white, a golden- yellow girl, Sandy, another one white with golden coloured patches, Soleigh, and one girl resembling mummy, Bijoux, 4 colours: white, brown, black and golden-yellow. Most cats have white "socks and bib". I would lie if I would say they all get on well with each other, like us they make friends with some cats and don't seem to like others for no obvious reason. Some are gentle and appear to be liked by all, never willing to fight, let cats even steal their food, while others quickly get jealous. In a group you may even find some kind of bullying for unknown reasons. Several are happy to belong to a cats' community others, though, would prefer to be an "only child".  Sandy is like that. She loves to sleep next to me.  I don't know how she does it, but I often wake up holding her in my arms.  Her brother, Tiger knows the same trick, but being 'a gentleman' he makes space for her and sleeps at my feet, whenever she wants. A fostered cat can afford to be less grown up than those that are homeless. Previously I only had experience with male cats, not by choice, it just happened to be like that. As my 4-legged family got bigger, I decided to have only the males operated (family planning and avoiding the marking of their " hunting area", my house, with urine). The advantage: avoiding the bigger and more expensive operation as well as the poor female getting partly shaved (hair growth again at a slow speed). I wasn't aware of the females' suffering while "on heat". Kitty sits on the roof terrace, looking down and calling, on the search for a fiance. She twice managed to even get out on the street , hiding underneath cars. Not so easy to get her indoors again. She expressed her dislike by scratching me, just as well I don't intend to enter a beauty competition in the near future, besides I am married already and my cats don't care for my looks. They'll cuddle with me and my husband anyway. Fancy having breakfast with 2 or 3 cats on the lab? They enjoy it and so do we. It would be nice to let cats out on the street and have their adventure, but there is a high risk of them getting run over by cars, I viewed this happening to a lovely baby cat and two adult ones, it was horrible. Four accident victims are living with us now. We managed to reduce the cases of kids throwing stones at cats, kicking or hitting, but it still happens. Some with a twisted sense of humour think it's funny to have a dog chase cats. Only the other day I told a young man that at his age he can be expected to use his brain and stop leading his big dog towards the cats, several sitting in front of my entrance door. He was trying to tell me the dog is a gentle female and likes cats, would never do them any harm. The dog's reaction was quite a contrast to these words, growling and pulling hard, wishing to chase my little treasures. Amira used to be a street cat, on the few occasions when she goes out now she has enough of the street after two minutes. Cats here learned to mistrust and fear children, which I don't consider a normal cats' reaction otherwise. The usual ear-splitting yelling of the kids makes me nervous, it must be torture for cats' ears. Most people either got used to it or they have given up. I've been told not all cats I feed are necessarily homeless, some clever folks save money that way. From time to time my plastic bowl with croquettes gets stolen either by cat or dog owners.  At least it still serves its purpose as animal food and I learned already quite a while ago that it is better not to put a nice potery bowl outside. And yes, I have to keep an eye on my expenditures, I would love to do so much more, cats are a special gift from heaven. They have a lot of love to give and they are grateful and modest, we can learn from them. 

My Mischievous "Children"

When a young lad was advised that if a cat puts her ears flat to the back this means she is not happy, maybe even angry or frightened, he enquired: If I push her ears to the front again, will she then be happy and relaxed?
My Persian (Tunisians call her "Turkish") cat, Amelie, sounds like a bird but she knocks at the door like a man! In the beginning I wondered whether we have a visitor that I wasn't informed of. Adele can imitate the "wuff" of a dog. Diana sounds a bit like a goat.  All have their own individual voice, some high, some deep but none so deep as my late Mucker. He used to climb over my desk through the window on to the balcony. Then he would wait behind the balcony door and demand to be let back in. This he would repeat several times and when I got tired of his game he would be annoyed. One day I had an argument with my husband and Mucker decided to "threaten" him. So sweet my little "iron knight", we both had to laugh. Bijoux discovered how to open the kitchen door, jumping on a cupboard allows her to reach the door handle. I am now waiting for her to learn how to close the door again. As Felicitas and Bijoux suffer from kidney troubles, the vet recommended special croquettes, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, rather expensive. It turned out to be really delicious for cats and all want a share. This we have to deny them and take care the croquettes remain for our two patients, I therefore put a bowl with croquettes inside a round  plastic box with a lid, only to discover later on that this was opened and the contends got "stolen". The strong plastic bag containing most of the three kilo food I had closed with a rubber band, this my cats did not remove, but they slit an opening instead. Cats of course don't steal, helping themselves is a measure nature taught them in order to survive. Anyhow, the vet provided us with a strong square plastic box designed for this type of food and difficult to open. We are so far happy with this solution, our mischievous "children" are not. As all their meals are otherwise secure, they mustn't grumble. Sliding wardrobe doors are great fun, if there isn't enough space to climb inside, not a problem, why not throw out pullovers, t-shirts or other clothing, that can also be fun. So I can't get bored. My little treasures have plenty of ideas. They love to play with balls, football shooting with one of the four legs or handball (leg ball). When I throw a ball in the air, my cats will jump up trying to catch it. Tennis balls create a sound they enjoy. There is nothing like a purring cat thus saying, I am happy to be with you. Adele and Eileen play with other female cats "husband and wife", chasing, jumping on the back, love bite and then just cuddling and more cuddling and more cuddling. Impossible not to love these beautiful fur angels.