Good and Bad Days

Odette greeting the new day

Social distancing on account of Corona

Hakim and Odette love to hugg.

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." James Baldwin
It is June and the sun gets up early. I love to be woken up with bright sunshine. Our fur angels come running and don't get tired of purring. They have so much love to give. The advantage of the face mask is one can hide wrinkles and if you have  bad teeth, that as well. Most shops and cafes are open again, lots of traffic, very few facial masks and not much social distancing, one could think Corona has disappeared. Wishful thinking. Supermarket Carrefour employs a member of their security guards to check their customers' temperature, nice gesture, don't think many folks here use a thermometer as a precaution measure. Yesterday my husband discovered a cardboard box with four tiny cat babies in front of our door. They are at an age which doesn't enable them to survive without their mother and her milk, so I was relieved to hear that the mother had actually also been taken to our door, she just walked away and quickly returned. All too often we found cat babies with their eyes still closed (blind for the first ten days approx.) and later on they died in spite of all my efforts. Anyhow, the only solution I could think of was the little "cave" for the water meter, an idea a stray cat mother had a while ago. So I put the cute baby cats there and their mother who turned out to be gentle and accepting this new accommodation. I gave her water and food which she enjoyed and we started a new friendship. The next day a lady inquired about the cat and her babies and told me that she brought them to my house because she already has two cats and didn't know how to cope. It was good of her to be honest and I appreciate that she wanted to protect the poor cat mummy and her sweet babies. Always happy to help but now I can only pray that there won't be any further new arrivals. I won't be able to pay for more (I have no charity organization to support me) and my cats are starting to fight, some prefer less company. -

We can now travel again to other towns using minibuses or buses with less passengers (4 instead of 8) and a 50% price increase. The journey to Kairouan was pleasant, more space for us in the minibus and a good driver. The return trip, also by minibus, was a totally different matter. At first there weren't any minibuses, after we paid 7 1/2 Dinar each, we heard there is one now and the driver got the tickets. Surprise, surprise, 8 passengers and a multi tasking driver! He knew a short cut that took us to his house, where he picked up a bowl of couscous and demonstrated that he can't just telephone while driving (nothing new here) but also enjoy his meal! Prior to that an elderly gentlemen who fell with his motorbike after coming in contact with the minibus, got up and declared he is okay (hope he really is). Someone on the bus joked the guy jumped like a cat and cats have 7 lives. I have seen too many killed by traffic to believe that. Our Burmese cat wants to get engaged, she keeps calling. Our very special neighbour who likes to educate us and even invented new laws (just for us) complains that she is too loud. Interesting, children screaming at ear-splitting level, hammering, welding sounds, motorbikes tuned to the highest sound level (the Nuernburgring racing stopped several years ago and appears to be revived in front of my house), all that doesn't bother him, only our cat, poor guy. He seems to have a very selective way of hearing. I love the song and video: The Sound of silence (Disturbed)