Pets, Winter Season and other Events

 "A lion doesn't loose sleep over the sheep's opinion."  "A rat who doesn't like digging its own hole but loves using holes abondoned by other rats, will one day find a hungry snake in it."  Ubuntu African Proverbs.                                   With temperatures still above 20 degrees centegrate folks ask: where is the winter? Well it takes place at night, though still pleasant unlike extreme temperatures as in Europe. Nonetheless several cats, in particular the littles ones are not well, there is virus and those that were torn too early from the loving paws of their mother, suffer from a too weak immune system. Ignorant people can do a lot of harm, it depresses me seeing very young kittens die in spite of all effords. You don't save unwanted cat babies by placing them in front of animal loving guys' doors. The best way to support them is to allow nature to function, let their mums care for them, give them milk, love and education. In view of the large number of kids in the neighborhood that seem to be constantly screeming and running, out on the street most of the day, (surely not the behaviour of happy children) I feel some human mothers could learn from cats. The street is not suitable to educate children. Besides, the boys here are not interested in reading a book, just want to play football, never get tired of kicking balls against the house walls. If a ball lands on the compound or roof of a house they won't necessarily ask for permission to fetch it but often will help themselves, after all they are good at climbing. Surprisingly there are hardly ever accidents, even though the children don't pay much attention to the traffic, including pedestrians. Times are changing. Nowadays it seems to be fashionable among youngsters to keep a dog, if possible an exotic one. Unfortunately on the other hand all too often there is very little respect for the dog's nature, his requirement, knowledge how to treat a dog properly. Dogs and cats serve as toys for the kids entertainment. Playing with the dog, having fun, to them it means pretending to attack the dog, letting their comrades also join in with shadow kicking and hitting, laughing when the poor dog gets frightened, barks, etc. Then they say: Look the dog is agressive..... I reply: No, you are aggressive and you don't know how to play with the dog so that he also enjoys it. Then they say: We are just making fun. I answer that the dog isn't laughing and that they are at fault if some folks are frightened of dogs. - At present one cannot find potatoes, sugar (was available for a short period), cement on the market, milk occasionally, some medication and cosmetics also, in particular imports. Hopefully it won't concern pet food also. Having to feed such a big hungry feral family that would mean a lot of stress, to say the least. Kids brought me a handicapped lovely black kitten, they found at the Mosque. The right back leg looked as if it may be broken. It turned out that Johnny, as I named him, is 4 months old, the left leg has an old fracture that more or less healed, while the bones of the right one have a complicated fracture, one bone sticking outward, no connection with the other part of the joint and partly broken in pieces. Finding a specialst to carry out such a complicated operation in Tunisia may be impossible, perhaps in Tunis the professor who teaches future veterinarians could, but I can't finance that, in addition it would mean several trips to Tunis and it may all yet be in vain. Johnny is still very young, a difficult decision. The alternative is to let my sweet little treasure carry on as long as he can. He is a quite gentle kitten with fur like velvet. Jeremy, my adult black and white tomcat, with lovely big eyes, looks confused and tumbles. He either fell and suffers from concussion, has a nerve problem or there is yet other cause. It may be necessary to x-ray his head at a later stage, hopefully his medication and a good rest will, though, restore his health. Thank heaven we still have a lot of sunshine during the day time. But when the sun goes down, at approximately 17.00 hrs, it quickly gets dark and the temperature drops. The sky here, in a coastal town, is too beautiful for words. Nature is the greatest artist. In addition Tunisia has the sea, a beech with very fine sand, historic buildings, lovely flowers, the most gorgeous cats and dogs, (as well as poor strays) unfortunately a lot of this is not appreciated. When you are poor and have problems making ends meet, life of cause isn't easy. Nonetheless, my wish: May life treat you the way you treat cats and dogs.