More about my Gorgeous Treasures

Soon we will have a lot of sunshine again, my cats love it at least as much as I do. Hopefully their sneezing will stop when they are sunbathing on the roof or ground floor terrace. In addition our visits to the vet ought to become less frequent. It is not much fun more or less forcing my little darlings to take their medication. Bijoux hates it and the other day demonstrated this convincingly by using her claws on my hands. She was born in May 2013 and is a strong girl weighing 5 kg. We kept her mother, Amira, together with her 4 babies, all born on that day (birthdays coming up, I think we'll have sardines for the celebration). Anyhow Bijoux's brother, Tiger, watching her scratching me, decided to defend me (who said only dogs do that?), threatened and attacked her in return. This is the second time my little knight fought for me. Great to have such a chivalrous treasure by my side! The fur of our two black ladies is actually not black, the sun brought this to light, it is a beautiful shining dark brown colour and they are Burma Cats. It appears I have some noble breed cats. Shouldn't be surprised they are not just beautiful, each in his or her own way, but also loyal and well mannered. Diana my Burmese cat with very blue eyes belongs to the now highly fashionable breed around here. On the other hand there is also little grey Grace and beautiful tri-coloured Myriam both with only one eye and Mallek, white with golden spots, who is blind on one eye.

The mainly white cats have rather sensible eyes that tend to tear and in addition their ears require frequent cleaning on account of mites. The vet recommended Aurizon (vetoquinol) for treatment. Some of my homeless visitors to my cats' table have disappeared, including Esperanza and Alice (had temporarily kept them inside while they were feeding their kittens, Grace and Hayet are their daughters) and a white cat. Strange, they all returned at the same time after approx. two weeks. Then Esperanza disappeared again, Alice is no longer always there and the white cat comes regular again. Every morning I count my out-door treasures and I am happy when all are there. This is not always the case, in particular following bad weather. For late-comers I leave croquettes outside and of course always water. It appears to be a new trend among teens/young men to keep larger dogs. The crossroads opposite my house is where they like to meet for unknown reasons. This area also services as a "football stadium". Why they don't go to the near-by beech heaven knows. I presume the frequently stolen food is used to feed some of these dogs. Those guys with their dogs don't just make my little darlings nervous but also those dogs that are kept on the flat roof opposite. Thus we have to put up with a lot of barking as well as the usual yelling. We always look forward to the end of school holidays. Much could be achieved by employing some of those jobless academic folks to help these kids and youngsters, who have a lot of spare time and don't know what to do with themselves. Money well spend! I hear knocking at the door. Adorable Amelie, my Persian beauty, bangs the key attachment against the door, a trick my darlings learnt from each other when they want to enter a room with closed doors. So proud of my little treasures!

Happiness is.....

Happiness is having a cat or more telling you: I am happy to see you and I enjoy your company, great having you caring for me. How do they say so? By purring with contentment, often closing their eyes also while you stroke their beautiful soft fur or give them a massage. It is relaxing to do so. For them you don't need to dress up, put on make-up or style your hair. They offer their unconditional friendship and accept you as you are, no arguments, though my late Mucker used to answer back when being told off. He would come and look me straight in the eye while doing so. Animals are not supposed to be able to do that, I guess he didn't know as he didn't read such literature. After I had Susy operated (tomcats never pay alimony) so that our community doesn't increase further, she decided that maybe she's a male cat and started to chase the other cats of our fur family. They in return tell her this kind of behaviour is not appreciated. Felicitas and Bijoux, my ladies with kidney troubles and a special diet from the vet (rather expensive) like to eat small portions every two or three hours during the day. Felicitas won't eat anything else. These special croquettes are regarded as very delicious by almost all other cats and it is safer to feed the sick ladies alone in a room. Otherwise my other cats will try to take this food and in particular Bijoux allows this when I am not watching and then complains! I told her she won't pass the intelligence test with such stupid action. - Outside I saw a young boy, approximately six years old, lying on a pavement near my house. There was something wrong with his left foot, giving him pain. His five friends didn't seem to care ( often watched similar situations). I asked him what happened. He said he tumbled and feels he can't walk. As nothing seemed to be broken I suggested I help him get up and we will try together. Four of the other boys viewing him getting so much attention, decided to lay down on the pavement as well and pretend to scream because of a lot of pain. Maybe I should have applauded, the little actors were so funny, but I advised them instead that they are babies.

Postscript Those are the Days

Schlawiner keeps visiting my cats's community. He is a real maniac and comes about 10 times, during the day and night. I feel as if I have a fox visiting my chickens. On some occasions a tomcat sits on the roof, ready for him and "tells him where to go". In particular Adamo is good at that. Would have made a nice video, pity I wasn't ready for that! The neighbours wonder why I try to chase this grey/white cat (Schlawiner) away on the street, while all others are treated nicely. I have started to get those of my "ladies" operated that could still fall pregnant. It is not that we don't like these cute lovely kittens, but "family planning" is a must here. Sweet Hayet is only 5 months old, too young to have the operation - normally - nevertheless Schlawiner fancied her and made her hot. She wiggled her backside and called him, from my awning he answered her. Sorry to break up this "Romeo and Julia" affair, but her body is too for a pregnancy and besides her lover is not exactly faithful, he also chases other ladies. The vet confirmed my fear, in spite of her young age  she can become pregnant. So we were forced to have her operated. Afterwards and the next day Hayet was in a bad mood. She is now okay again, the usual little mischief. The daily theft of cats' food left outside for the unfortunate homeless cats continues. The thief treats it as take away food and steaks it with the plastic or cardboard box, even a damaged pottery box is fine with him. At least I can be sure that no animal took it all. - The other day my husband said to a boy you kids don't seem to spend much time at school. The lad replied we study at home now and can take our exams, no problem. How they manage to study at home and at the same be out on the street all day and partly at night remains their secret. Perhaps the parents work as examiners. Shouldn't think they are rich enough to have their children eventually pass all exams the "California way" (came to light that very rich and/ or famous families paid up to two million Dollars for their children to study at the best universities). I always wondered how Trump managed to study. In a documentary I heard one of his old university professors saying that Donald was the most stupid student he ever encountered . Well, everybody can see that it's usually not the best who make it to the top, can be said just about every country! May be this explains the problems we are facing nowadays. School children are demonstrating in many countries all over the world. They demand that politicians and other folks protect the environment. Wonder whether students in Tunisia join in? I am under the impression that they don't care much themselves. But maybe I see too many ignorant guys around where I live.

Those are the Days

If all human beings would act  in accordance with their own sensible interests, this world would be a paradise in comparison to its actual condition. (Bertrand Russell) - I think I hear some loud construction work going on, but no, the engine I hear belongs to an old motorbike. No driver in sight. The engine keeps running idle. Opposite I view an open door of one of those typical little food stores that one can find here at every corner. And there is the environment polluter, an elderly Beduin having a good long chat. I shake my head, surprise, he immediately understands but thinks it's funny when I try to explain that such (totally unnecessary) air pollution caused my chronic cough. He had the engine of his motorbike running idle for 20 minutes. Perhaps he thinks he will be dead anyhow before his cancer can kill him. - One of my cats was screaming on my roof terrace. Wondering what happened I walked upstairs. There I discovered a suprise visitor, a grey tomcat decided to pay my lovely four legged ladies a visit. At first my husband and I wondered who let him in by mistake. The truth is different though. I tried in vain to catch this tomcat (decided to call him "Schlawiner"), a boy from the neighborhood came to help. Finally Schlawiner jumped of the roof onto our awning and from there onto the street. This is not what I wanted and I worried he may have injured himself. Well, he was perfectly fine and returned a few more times. He kept coming and going (whenever he saw me). I guess it would be best to get him operated, if I can catch him that is. It is partly my fault. Not all my ladies are operated, thought it may be enough if the males are, then they can't fall pregnant. But while on heat they shout from the roof that they want to "get engaged", not necessarily to those males already present, living in the same community with them. Looks like I can't save them from having the operation and have to finance the extra expenditure. The alterative would be lots of sweet grey kittens and not knowing how to cope.....