It can only get better

"You don't realize how much people can hate, they can hate so much they'll tear the world to pieces." Arthur Miller

Walking along Rue Hedi Chaker (Sidi Bu Jafar, Sousse) , it is boiling hot, no shadow on the side along the beach. I remember a line of quite a few old tall Palm trees, that was before the revolution, why are they all gone? Come to think of it, there are altogether not many trees in Sousse, though

in some streets those planted by the French still exist, additions are pretty rare unfortunately, trees don't just provide shadow they also improve the air and help that towns don't get quite so heated up. Kairouan is there more up to date, the town authorities planted and still plant many trees; it also makes those roads look more inviting. Actually I too planted a tree 2 or 3 years ago, one of those fast growing ones with many small leaves. It was approx. 0,50 m high at the time and now it must be at least 2 m! One problem in certain parts of Sousse are the hooligans who don't value the environment and don't understand why it should be protected. Where parents fail, teachers and the media should step in and make kids at a young age aware of nature's (including animals) beauty and that only stupid people try to destroy and kill. Not surprising, folks in several countries were horrified by the brutal attack on an animal shelter home for dogs in Djerba, more than twenty dogs and puppies were slaughtered in a sadistic way that speaks of a lot of hate and evil characters. The criminals we're fairly quickly caught thanks to camera recording. Then a shameless mob went to the police station and demanded the release of the three devils. I wonder what is going on in their heads. The situation became unbearable for the dogs that survived and the animal protecting folks and they left with the help of many people dedicated to animals' well being, they came from various parts of the country and a demonstration for animal rights and putting a stop to killing cats and dogs (supposed to keep their numbers down, better ways are practised in several countries) took place in Tunis. Meanwhile the President signed a paper declaring that the killing will stop, the criminals will be send to prison and there will be zero tolerance for animal abuse. The right man at the right time in the right place. Thank heavens for that. Various organizations signed in support. The Prußian Philosopher Immanuel Kant: "He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with man. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."

PostScript Much Scope for Improvement

Odette and Hakim

Jessica and Claudia

Amelie and Janina

"Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat." Jean Paul Satre
Lately the number of sweet kittens in front of my door is increasing again. Unfortunately my possibilities are grossly overestimated. I appreciate that those who bring me their cats try to help them (at the same time get rid of pets they no longer want to keep for various reasons and do so with a good conscience). Fairly often actually kids bring the cats. Seeing it positive, kids too want cats to be alright. I would be very happy if I could offer shelter to all, but I must remain realistic, I have neither the space (no garden!) nor the means or energy to further increase our big fur angels community, further, our cats don't want any more additions. Fearing they would otherwise get run over, I already took lately inside Karim, Odette, Jessica, Moses, all very small and from different families. I managed to find new homes for three other little darlings. Sweetie, one of the regular guests at my "Cats' Table", had two babies. While one seemed to be doing well, the other one remained weaker, had an eye closed (managed to help her, carefully watched by her mummy). Then the stronger one disappeared and Sweetie lost all interest in the remaining one. I called her Misty, she ate very little, I had to force her to take at least a bit of cat mummy's milk (made with special powder). Misty didn't really look to me as if she's got much longer to live or that I could save her life, but I took her indoors nevertheless in order to allow her a bit of comfort. She died yesterday peacefully, r.i.p. Misty, poor little darling. The day before I found a cat's transport box with four 6-8 months old cats crammed inside in front of my entrance door. This really got me down, I felt so helpless. Beautiful, gentle, frightened cats, deserving to be treated well. I am on my own, with some support from my husband, what can I do? I urgently need good families to adopt these well kept little angels. Then a young lad informed me that he brought the cats, because his family wanted to kick them out, not that they were difficult, they just feel now that their flat is too small to keep them. At least he was honest, but that doesn't solve our problem. For the moment I gave the little treasures shelter in a small corridor. At first they didn't drink nor eat, still under shock. Just imagine being crammed in a box, taken to a foreign house, dumped there for unknown reasons.... Anyhow, good news, my vet says she might be able to find good families, one maybe take two cats. I hope and pray that this will work out, the gorgeous ones deserve good- for-ever homes.

Much Scope for Improvement

" People are always going to find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That's the way it is. Black, white, short, tall, religious, whatever. People are bad." Chris Rock

It is summer and it is pretty hot, on the roof a bowl with water almost boiling hot - nevertheless some cats have got a cold, not what I expected. My vet recommended Bronchi-stop (0,5 ml and 1 ml 
water sprayed into the mouth), fairly cheap and works quite well. The main health problems of cats here is bad gum, bad teeth, generally a poor immune system. Many die as kittens, get run over by cars (they like to sit underneath for cover and shadow) and don't get much older than 5-8 years. Generally speaking cats are in a much better shape than before the revolution and many would be quite expensive in Europe, really beautiful and gentle, in spite of this often been abused by stupid ignorant folks and their kids. Children frequently simply imitate or react to their parents behaviour. Parents who are cruel to animals, tell their children that they are dirty, useless and therefore must be kicked or chased away, thus kids learn that it is perfectly okay to abuse animals, not aware that is actually contrary to the prophet's teachings (haram). Apart from that cats kill mice, cockroaches, scorpions, can work as an alarm clock, warn when a fire breaks out, comfort depressed or sick people, make you smile or laugh, play football with four legs. Dogs saved many folks life, buried underneath crushed houses, soil, snow or in water, aid blind persons, help trace criminals and drug dealers, offer true and loyal friendship. Cats and dogs are more useful than some good-for-nothings....
who like to believe that they stand high above animals. (How to get their brains pea sized? You just have to do a lot of pumping!!!) Anyhow, children who grow up with such bad models usually are aggressive, bullies, without respect,
don't become gentle but violent adults, often criminals. Many believe in beating their children if they don't obey, this is practiced in several countries and may well be the reason why we have so much violence in the world, control by fear. Bullies are not born but raised. There is hope that the brutal and senseless killing of so-called stray cats and dogs will be stopped in the future. At least some governors are open to alternative solutions to reduce the number of "unwanted cats and dogs", alternatives that are cheaper and work in the long run, already tried out in other countries. Besides, here are many folks who want the slaughtering to stop and the number of animal protection organizations are on the raise. They also have the support of quite a few veterinarians. I would like to donate the song of Cat Steven: "I love my dog" to those who order the shooting of dogs and poisoning of cats. Cat Stevens by the way later on changed his name to Joussef Islam and was denied embarking to US because some bright authorities there decided that someone with such a name must be a terrorist! Today two black and white sweet approx. six weeks old kittens suddenly arrived near my house. A little boy, 5 years old, attempted to kick one of them. Is this normal behaviour? Wouldn't it be more natural for a child to stroke the little fur darling? Well, not for these disturbed kids around where I live. It has improved though, they all know my and my husband's attitude and that hitting, kicking, and stone throwing, etc. is not acceptable to us. We live and demonstrate a different treatment of animals. I am proud to come from an educated animal loving family, or should I say I am lucky that abusing animals was never accepted in my family? 

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

Summer Time 2020

Malek and Moses

Jessica

Riccardo

 "If you are going through hell, keep going." Churchill
The recommendation to carry on wearing face masks and social distancing is mainly ignored now. Looks like back to normal, streets congested with traffic and air pullution raising again, pity. Some folks from the neighborhood are looking for a home for their cat's babies. Too few people took their  cat to the vet to be spayed and neutered, some because they couldn't afford to pay for this operation, others were not sure whether it's right or just didn't want to spend the money. I hope one day we will have an animal protection centre here, financed through donations, to enables poor families to have their cat operated and thus reduce the number of unwanted babies. The money spend on killing homeless cats and dogs could also be better investigated in such a project. By the way, not all pets out on the street have always been homeless. Some people kick them out in order to save money, or simply don't want to care for their perhaps awkward four legged family member. Maybe they never regarded the animal as such, only as a toy or pretty item. Hakim and Odette, kittens dropped behind my barrier, are developing well. I take them indoors for the nights, amazing Diana likes and washes them, wants to adopt the sweet little ones? Not all cats like foreign kittens, in particular those who have babies themselves. Minoussa, the beautiful Burmese cat, doesn't like the other cats from our big community, nor the kittens. Is it because she lost her own babies? Haven't got a clue what happened to them. I noticed too late that she still had milk when she was brought to me. The shameless lier said she has been operated and vaccinated. Vets here cut a bit off an ear as proof the "family planning" has been forced onto the female cat. All my cats have been spayed and neutered except those too young and Minoussa, I keep a record and refrain from using this marking. A cat from across the road brings her two golden coloured babies to my "cats restaurant". One of them had an eye closed. Luckily I know how to help her, it's quite easy if I manage to catch the poor darling. Nature taught them that it may be safer to run away. My first two attempts failed and I got bitten, just a short pain, enough to let her go. The next time I managed to hold her by the neck, put Physiol drop into her eye, clean it and then a bit of Oxytetracycline (from the vet). I had to repeat this procedure twice more, watched by the cat mom who wasn't sure what I was up to, but she didn't attack me, regarded me as a friend. Looks like I have a good reputation among cats! By the way, there is a construction site right next door to my neighbor who felt disturbed by Minoussa calling, some other building works somewhere opposite - maybe we should inform our sensitive neighbor (with those selective hearing ears) that the hammering, chiselling, welding and grinding works are not carried out by our cat. Some positive news, a year ago my husband requested a reduction of street lights. Now there is one less (was absolutely surplus close to another one) and the blinding much too bright lights have been replaced by softer yellow light. We are grateful and so is nature!

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)

Cats a Present from Heavens

Melanie and Natasha

Ricardo, Mallek, Capucco

Hakim and Odette

"An appraiser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last." Churchill
A gorgeous yellow/white cat with long fur (Persian, here called "Turkish") lives across the road, at least it did until recently. Now I frequently see her sitting in front of the entrance door to that house, but the door remaines closed for her. If the inhabitants are trying to save money by putting her out on the street, they should at least have the decency to let the little treasure sleep in doors! I don't mind feeding her (she has become a regular visitor to my Cats' Table), but I do mind seeing her sadness, frustration, disappointment with her family. Fancy suddenly getting kicked out on the street, forced to sleep rough! I shall never be able to understand such cruel actions, my cats are my family members. Their well-being is of great importance to me. This morning I woke up with Tiger in my right arm and Sandy in my left arm.  How they managed to snuggle up like that I don't know, but it felt like a great start into the new day! Unfortunately I had to take 7 year old Sandy (in Tunisia considered an old lady, I would call her middle aged at the most, in Europe 20 years or more are not so uncommon) to the vet to get her teeth done, 3rd time for her. My sweet Habibti panicked when I tried to put her inside the transport box. "Vetocalm" from the vet's doesn't work on her. In Germany I used "Baldrianoel" (Valerian drops), but this is not available here, only in the shape of tablets, not helpful at all as I wanted to use only the smell to make her feel relaxed.  Sandy's brother Tiger worried that Sandy may scratch, tried to protect me. He is absolutely unbelievable, later on when Sandy returned with most of her teeth removed and moaning, he tried to comfort her. Cats and dogs have so much love and sympathy to give, we should learn from them and must stop ignorant folks senselessly abusing and killing them! A yellow/white cat (coloured  similar to Sandy) in front of my door doesn't just visit me to find food, she is even more interested in cuddling and allows me to clean her eyes! Pity I can't take her indoors. With several cats I am quite sure they had a home before, they are so gentle and beautiful. Sometimes folks ask me for a bit of "Salami" (sausage for cats and dogs, not humans). Whenever I can I donate a bit, happy they do keep a pet and hopefully care . I pray that one day Tunisia will introduce laws for the protection of animals, teachers and parents teach kids the right values, open their eyes to see and appreciate the beauty in animals, nature and Tunisia.