My beautiful big Wild Family

 "Beware of people who dislike cats." Irish Proverb  "Without tolerance our world turns into hell.  Humor is the mask of wisdom.  Who sows fear, reaps weapons.  Nothing that    has been thought, can be taken back.  The world is bad, but not without hope. It is only hopeless from an ideal viewpoint."   Friedrich Dürrenmatt.                                                       My first worry in the morning, are all my adopted feral kids of various ages (from 3 weeks to 11 years) okay? Due to a usual poor immune system especially the young kittens are endangered. A sudden death is always a shock. For two years now Calcivirus is a big and often deadly problem. It effects the gum (red, bleeding) and teeth (brown, starting to decay) and gives a bad smell from the mouth. So it is not just blocked noses but a. o. also the Calcivirus that makes a cat /dog stop eating. Those infected need a veterinarian, dental treatment, and injections etc. as soon as possible. The best preventing is always vaccination, but unfortunately I can not pay for 30 cats getting vaccinated. Ignorant folks who keep dumping their unwanted kittens in front of my doors (and those of other animal supporting citizens) don't think of this or just don't care. Seeing the plight of innocent animals and being unable to help is difficult to take and terribly depressing. For unknown reasons even women (usually) driving big expensive cars, kick out cats and dogs, either secretly or saying they haven't got enough space /an animal that fights with this one, etc., the mother of the kittens/puppies disappeared/ died, or they found these animals outside. All very strange. I would suspect that they have more space than me, most probably even got a garden, unlike me. Those citizens know a lot of Fairytales. Nevertheless, I love my big feral family, children of all colours:  golden-orange with white bits, black/white, all black, grey, cream/white, all white, 3 colours (always female my vet advised) orange/black/white (Chiquita, Esperanza, Celine) mixed dark colours, light yellow, golden yellow, long or short hair, expensive breed e. g. Persian, Siamese ( Amelie, Minusa) or not, mixed with Persian breed thus long hair (Melanie, Maruth, James) dainty (Paulinchen, Chiquita, Daisy) or overweight (Riccardo) , more or less handicapped: only one eye (Tareka, Myriam) half blind (Malek and Mary), fully blind, ( sweet Lulu), young black beauty with complicated broken bones near back leg that cannot be operated here (amazing Johnny decided to ignore his handicap, one can feel one of his bones almost sticking out), one baby of Madonna paralyzed back legs (born that way). Those with one colour plus white often have a white bib, tummy and socks. Some are easy to care for, love to cuddle and get along with everybody, others dislike certain cats (for unknown reasons, wrong perfume?), some kitten orphans that arrived without a mother teaching them, recognize straight away their toilets as such, some mothers gave birth in my absence without leaving any blood stains. My big boy Riccardo doesn't get on with all of my other children, but he is never aggressive with me, not even when I end a verbal or actual fight and carry him downstairs from the roof, or give him some kind of medicine - which usually is the moment when other feral family members hate me (briefly). Malek, my daily "masseur" and cuddle champion, unfortunately suffers liver problems, as the blood test brought to light. The prescribed special croquettes appear to be very delicious and are at the same time quite expensive. Luckily (for my purse) he should only have 40 grams, maximum 50 per day. Malek finds this okay as an hors-d'oeuvre, yet he doesn't understand why the main meal isn't serviced. How can a big boy live on a kid's portion? Does his mummy no longer love him? It is those questions I fear and I try my best to convince him of the opposite. In addition his expensive medicine doesn't seem to agree with him. I have decided to split his daily (liquid) medication into 3 portions. In order to prevent Malek helping himself to the usual croquettes that I feed to my other little treasures, or them "stealing" his, I have to seperate Malek at feeding times. Soon after he starts to complain about his plight, poor boy. All not easy. The croquettes for kittens are difficult to find. Tunisians rarely buy them, unlike those for puppies. I guess it's because they prefer to take very young puppies, (often too young to be seperated from the bitch) and they value kittens less high as one can find them all too often forced by ignorant persons from their loving mother's paws and thrown out on the street, with good chances to starve, die of invections or abuse, get run over by vehicles etc. or are just too young to survive without their mother's milk plus having to cope with a rough world. Anyhow, not only my kittens love their croquettes, the adults too show great interest, so I here too have to interfere. My very special darling Madonna allows me to work as her waitress (she would look me straight in my eyes and declare that she is hungry and I must serve her some delicious food), assist her with her babies (if one climbed out off the basket she calls me to find and return it for feeding and cuddling with her), do the toilets - but not touch her as I am only a human and not a cat! I respect her attitude and I am prowd of having her in my house. My husband said: " We have so many children, pity they can't help us with the work in the house, or at least the shopping (we appear to be constantly buying mineral water as that from the tap is not recommended as drinking water)." As long as my wild family is reasonably health I shan't complain. Why wild? You should see them first thing in the morning, when nearly 30 cats rush into my small kitchen and demand to be fed first.... 

Postscript Hot days and Tropical nights

 "Teachers who love teaching, teach children to love learning." Ivan Welton Fitzwater.  "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow." Albert Einstein.  When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. " Jimi Hendrix                                  It is autumn now, yet the heatwave continues and there is still no rain. This doesn't induce some folks to stop wasting water - watering the streets. Do they intend to plant something there? The UN chief said the climate change has opened up the gates to hell. We had a power cut in Tunisia for 4 hours during the night. Accustomed to street lights being switched off at 5.30 a. m. while it's still dark, I woke up through the sudden darkness. Like in other countries the power cut encouraged those with criminal energy to break in shops and houses. Two who injured themselves in the process got caught quickly. We were lucky, I only had a bowl stolen filled with croquettes that I leave outside for poor hungry cats. Surprise, surprise, my note stating that these items are not placed there for stealing, resulted in my bowl (empty) being returned. Some neighbors don't just let their cat out to get a free meal at my Cats' Table, but also help themselves to cost- free croquettes for their dog or cat. Occasionally I am asked if I got any to spare. Well, it is good to know that cats can here too find a family. The other day an elderly overweight man addressed me on the street and told me that I should stop feeding cats, didn't understand why he doesn't like them. I replied that Allah sees all we do and let him judge whether it is right or wrong what I am doing. I cannot understand how cats (and dogs) can be disturbing in a neighborhood where kids and youngsters are out on the street most of the day and late at night and in addition as a rule appear to lack education and good manners. They are very loud and my husband wonders why other roads are quiet. What is the attraction here? As there aren't any benches, stairs and pavements are used as a substitute. Why don't they meet near the Mosque, a more inviting area with trees and benches? Or go to the beech? Folks in other countries dream of such a lovely beech, within walking distance. 

Hot Days and Tropical Nights

"Not all grey hair you see symbolizes wisdom." Ubuntu African Proverb. "No man is born to be wicked, but man makes man to be wicked." Nigerian Proverb. "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough." Opral Winfrey.           Extreme heat during the day, even early in the morning already bright sunshine, feels like living in an oven, high air moisture levels in addition is not very helpful. Rather warm wind from the Sahara, called Chili, may be exotic for tourists, but it is not exactly refreshing. Animals are also feeling exhausted, my cats ly flat on the floor, we have to be careful where we walk, as the roof is less attractive for them now until the sun goes down. Catastrophic weather condition in many countries, man made clima change, leads to reduced harvest or even the complete loss and thus it is not surprising that 20 countries imposed export restrictions for major food commodities, e. g. rice, vegetable oil, cereals, etc. Before the war North Africa and the MiddleEast received 50 % of their cereals from Russia and Ukraine. This explains several empty shelves here. Once upon a time Tunisia exported cereals and wheat. People are complaining about too high petrol prices, but many are still letting their vehicle engines running idle for 10 to 20 minutes or more, kids and youngsters continue to ride motorbikes just for fun. Pity they are not aware that this is bad for the environment. We continue to find very young kittens in front of our house, unfortunately neither our income, our space, nor our energy is unlimited, besides, we haven't even got a garden. Further, our big feral family feels there shouldn't be any more additions. Sweet Mary demonstrates she doesn't like it. Accustomed to spend part time outside, but always sleeping indoors, she refuses to do so when new kittens arrive, even in front of our house, the usual "solution" for those who don't want to keep kittens. Madonna, a very special little treasure, just had 4 babies. Being unexperienced, she felt overwhelmed and after feeding them she used to take a rest on the bench. After 2 babies passed away, Madonna decided to spend now more time with her little onces. Hopefully they will survive. The father is either 'Ali ben Habib' or Schmusi, who both got a bit too late sterilized. Madonna doesn't trust/like humans, only cats. I am not allowed to touch her, but she will look at me and declare that she's hungry and deserves something delicious. I love the sweet darling. Well, not all cats are alike, makes living with these little treasures more interesting. Their life isn't easy, all too often. Sometimes even for those who are lucky to have a family, not always a lasting relationship, in spite of all the love and loyalty cats offer to possibly  ungrateful folks. In parts of Indonesia selling and eating of dogs' and presumably cats' meat is banned, thanks to animal protection organisations, horrified tourists, and people's fear to catch rabbies or some other illnesses. Nevertheless in other areas of Indonesia restaurants continue to have dogs' meat on their menue, even worse, they buy pets' meat from families that perhaps think their dog was growing too much over the years, considered to be no longer cute. Isn't it like betraying, selling and eating "a family member" ?  A nightmare, absolutely sickening, unbelievable what brainless, evil folks are capable of doing. In addition pets' meat is more expensive than that of strays, as they are usually better fed. So shameless persons without a conscience are sadly even rewarded. Though animals are also in other countries all too often not treated well, at least such practice is unimaginable and haram in any Moslim and Christian state among others. I judge folks according to how they treat animals and do wish life does likewise! - In Sousse town authorities promised to do a clean up of littered streets. They did a good job, in an area that had a lot of it, papers all along the pavement of a school, litter dumped around a rubbish container, all gone. Clean streets, happy to see this, in particular where the residents are very friendly and polite. I always felt they deserved a neat surrounding. Hopefully guys of all age are prepared to keep the streets clean and stop dropping their rubbish wherever they are. We found that young persons if addressed, often apologize and pick up the plastic bottle, wrapping of snack, or other stuff they throw where it doesn't belong. We are now waiting for rain, lower temperatures, the return of sugar and other items, less raising prices. By the way, sometimes an unexpected compliment, even for a stranger, can put a big smile on the face of fellow citizens. I love it.                                        

Photos above:  

Tareka and Carlo.                                                                                                                            Clean streets as requested by good citizens. 

Kitten found in front of my door (without the mother only survived 2 weeks) and 2 babies of Maradona. 

Sweet Myriam in a bag - not for sale, she just tried to find out whether she would fit.