More about Cats, Dogs, and Careless Folks and Others

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 "A wise man said:" Don't take revenge. The rotten fruits will fall by themselves. " Jabah Funniebo (African proverb) " If you sit long enough by the river banks, you will see your enemies floating by." Chinese proverb.     

  It is the time of year once more when many cats have their babies, and too many cat owners feel the strange urge to pull these from the loving paws of the feral mothers. Why ? A lot of cruel treatment of animals has to do with money, lack of education and convenience. The unwanted cat babies are thrown among the garbage or secretly dropped in front of houses of folks who more or less care for animals. While cat owners who either can't or don't want to get their cats spayed and neutered ("family planning") say they can't support a cat family, they expect others to be able to take an unlimited number of ferals, on account of such acting (I call it irresponsible) they believe they deserve a good conscience..... Lately I had 14 kittens in total placed in front of my house, 3 times I happened to see a cute innocent little one nearly having a fatal accident. I feel stressed and under pressure. Save their lives, take them indoors? How much food can I pay for, for how many can I finance their dental and other treatments, what about getting them spayed and neutered one day (approx. 120 Dinar for the female and perhaps 60 - 70 Dinar for the male), how many more "family members" will my cats tolerate? How many more toilets, how much longer can I cope? My cats don't do their big and small "business" on the street. I am no longer young and healthy, don't belong to that women group of " considerate proportions", with other words, what I can carry on my shoulders is limited. Vaccination for e. g. 40 cats is out of question. I am not an association. We urgently need animal protection laws, killing so called strays is no solution. It's been going on for so long and what has been achieved? Kids, youngsters, adults should be educated to learn to appreciate and protect nature and animals, after all Allah's creation I encountered several guys, young and old, with a disturbed attitude, e. g. frightened of absolutely gentle strays, without reason throwing stones, using sticks, etc. All bad I ever experienced came from humans, not animals. Disturbed kids feel the urge to damage, destroy, don't I know it! I was forced to exchange attractive plants (pulled out, broken off) in front of my house, by cactus plants. This doesn't prevent some from throwing kittens among them. The other day I found a lovely little one with a thorn in her forehead. Concerning the tree I planted a few days ago, well, children/ youngsters started to break off twigs, mark the tree trunk slightly with their pocket knife, will they allow it to grow? I shall try to protect it, the one I planted some years ago in Kairouan develped well (see photo). Now it is 4m tall. The Quran tilling in front of my house has been damaged by a stone. I heard the loud crash but didn't discover anything at first as I didn't know what to look for. Today I saw more kittens near my house. Very sad, not a quiet area here and plenty of traffic. I discovered Fleur, a sweet regular visitor to my Cats' Table, with her lovely baby between my cactus plants. I took them indoors, a small corridor. Mummy cat is happy with the service and her baby seems to be well. Two young girls knocked at the door. They requested the return of a tri-coloured kitten they brought to us 4 weeks ago. We told them that this kitten isn't in our house. After they left I remembered a lovely tiny cat baby, not very fit. We took her to a vet who thought she will probably be okay after a short while. At first it looked like it, but one morning we sadly found her dead. Quite a few little ones don't live long, if seperated from their mother, even if provided with the expensive baby milk. I believe they also miss their brothers and sisters, they like to cuddle together. In my house they find other kittens, from various families, and they play together or look for an adult cat, male or female and try to suck for milk. At present we have a problem with some little ones suffering from diarrhea, could be due to worms. This means may be a quarter (1/2 kg kitten weight) of the special tablet once a week for 2 weeks and then once a month for some months. Only problem with so many, making sure all receive the medication and none double. All not easy in particular since I am not very well myself, it can only get better - I hope. What really depresses me it that since a few days for 4 weeks in the whole of Tunisia stray dogs are being shoot. It is supposed to be cheaper than vaccination. Dogs don't deserve such a fate, capital punishment for barking or because some folks don't like dogs/ believe they are dangerous? Abused dogs may be aggressive, not all of them though, they put up with a lot of suffering, amazing. Dogs don't lie, cheat, steal, start a war. They are very loyal, experts in saving people's lives. Neglected, disturbed kids can lie quite convincingly at an early age, already when they just stopped wearing nappies. I repeatedly experienced this and had to stress that my eyes don't lie. Friends of mine in Europe are deeply shocked how strays are treated here. This shooting is a method that doesn't seem to belong to this century. How can one then for a better society preach the need for solitary and empathy? If free vaccination, neutering and spaying, of stray dogs is too expensive for Tunisia, why not ask for help from Europe? A team of dedicated international veterinarians would surely be happy to come and work without requesting payment.