Life ain't easy for Cats and Dogs

little Moses

Mother and daughter in law

 Sweet Odette

"Freedom is the right to say what some folks don't want to hear." George Orwell

Happiness is having a cat come running to you, never stopping to purr and when you stroke her/him telling you don't stop, when you start to move away, holding you back, reaching to you with one of the lovely paws, or waking up with one or two cats in your arms. Cats like to adopt old age pensioners because they have a lot of time for them and a regular income. In return cats can lower humans' too high blood pressure (just stroke their beautiful soft fur), offer loyalty and a deep friendship and of course they are happy to spend all the time in the world with you. They will never ask you for expensive gifts but may require medical care one day. They are so brave, not happy to be taken to the vet's but afterwards never grumble (unlike some kids and husbands). The vet's in Tunisia appear to be better at calculating the right doses for aenethatic to pets than those I visited in Germany. There my Filou nearly died afterwards, he fell over and got stiff. At first I nearly panicked, then I got very calm and concentrated on what I had learned during my first aid courses and how to reanimate a baby, just a very light breathe, the kiss of life. (For hygiene a piece of cloth between us) Thank heavens, it worked. My gorgeous black beauty returned to life. One day when I was late getting home, Filou waited for hours in front of my door (inside my flat) and when I finally arrived, he ignored me, pretended he doesn't know me and proudly walked away tail high up in the air, not allowing me to stroke him, my punishment for keeping him waiting! After a few minutes he returned and offered me his friendship again. Such a darling! Mummy Mary to whom I had given a make shift shelter together with her four sweet baby kittens, disappeared with her family one night. It was the night when an open air wedding celebration took place right in front of my door by people we don't even know. Unfortunately it appears to be a custom here to use loudspeakers fit for an Olympic stadium or several football fields, I am not exaggerating, for us it is like torture, for the cats it must be absolute hell. Poor Mary took her babies, one by one and brought them to an unknown less loud place. Extreme noise is by the way considered by experts as one type of harmful air pollution, unheard of by many noise loving Tunisians. I'd wish we would have laws that would force the ignorant to be silent at fixed hours and not exceed a certain level of noise, limit the size of loudspeakers in residential areas. By the way, mummy Mary returned next day for breakfast, a bit late, maybe she had a long walk. I see her regularly again, but not her babies. I can only hope they are okay. - We have the most beautiful cats and some lovely dogs out on the streets, several obviously fully breed. Sounds strange, well some folks' actions are strange, cats and dogs that turn out not to be the toys they thought the pet would be, not being able or  or not wanting to pay any more money on food or for medication, they choose to be cruel and kick them out (unless they can sell the ex-family member, most probably never seen that way). I was shocked to learn that in various parts of the country town authorities have so called stray dogs and cats shot or poisoned. Many are disgusted to see the slaughtering and it doesn't achieve anything, only sufferings. It hasn't worked for twenty years and still doesn't. In GB and parts of US there is no problem with rabies, they even have many wild foxes in GB , just a question of sensable vaccine. There is hope. The governor of Sousse aware of the brutal pictures of killed dogs and cats, comments of animal loving citizens  in the internet, pointing out that Sousse is a modern town and such actions aren't acceptable, listened to local vets suggesting to open a centre where cats and dogs can be vaccined, sprayed and neutered. They agreed to have this service available in four months time. Such a project won't require much money and will prove to be effective. Let us hope and pray that other governors will follow suit. Good to have here dedicated vets and a governor who is open for a new rewarding approach that also respects the prophet's demand to have sympathy with the animals on Earth. - A burglar got attacked by a dog who defended his owner and the property. As far as I could see the loyal dog only caused slight injuries. Nevertheless he is supposed to be killed because of attacking a human being. Should he have licked the burglar's feet ? Possibly allowed him to harm the owner? A person very close to me got murdered by a burglar, had he kept a dog, he may perhaps be still alive. In US you can shoot the person breaking into your house, here the dog gets a death sentence as a reward for doing his duty? Sounds like a bad joke, I hope and pray that more folks won't forget to switch on their brain before making such decisions, or do we want to encourage crimes? By the way, we have had a burglar equipped with a knife in our house, I heard he injured his private parts while climbing over our fences. Should we pay him compensation? Lol