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All Creatures Great and Small

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An old animal...

[video]http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/television/japanese-man-terrified-by-8216dinosaur8217-on-tv-show/story-e6frfmyi-1226707204684#[/video]
 
A great day whale watching was had by all. Whales everywhere on the day. Something interesting was the number and size of the barnacles.

Cheers
Country Lad


Whale1.JPG


whale2.jpg
 
I had a very sad and disturbing thing happen to me today.

I have been feeding a stray cat, that has her third eye lids showing. I felt very sad for her and thought some nutrition could correct here eye problem as its sometimes (as I've read) the result of, among other things, lack of fat in this tissue.

Anyway, I've come to find out she had kittens over near the parking lot next door where we park our car. I also noticed that one of her kittens had the same condition, so now i suspect a virus.

Today i fed them dry food, as i normally do in the mornings. The kittens are very timid so i just drop off the food and walk back to my apartment.

Today i walked back, did a few things and went down to oil the chain on my bike before going for a ride. When i came back, i was stunned when i came out of the elevator to see a kitten on the ledge of the window, in our stair well outside our door. When i went down to have a closer look (the window is at the landing between the 8th and 9th floors) the kitten got startled and jumped...off the ledge into thin air.

I was shocked and didn't want to look but i knew i had to find out what happened. The kitten, after some nerve related movements, was dead. I then had to figure out how to tell the building management. My wife had left for a class reunion so i didn't want to bother her. I called her brother, who speaks good English and he translated to the building manager what had happened. Together we got the cat off the third floor roof and put it into a bag to take away.

After some reflection, i realize that this was my fault. The kittens were looking for me. Now the mother is looking for her kitten and i feel just awful.

I know i shouldn't feed strays, but i just love animals so much and here they're really treated poorly. There is no animal shelter where they can be fixed up and given to good homes, not that there are many of those either.

My dream one day, will be to have enough funds to start an animal shelter and take in strays, get them healthy, DE-sexed and offer them to good homes with responsible owners, or have them put down humanely.

Until then, I'm afraid i can't be feeding stray cats anymore, its just not in their long term best interest...likely I'm only doing it to relieve myself of my own guilt.

I only posted this because i needed to process this a bit, its been quite stressful for me to see it all unfold the way it has. You know I'm not a particularly religious person, but i did ask god for forgiveness...
 
In a sequel to the above event. When we were collecting the remains of the first kitten, i saw the orange sibling on the fourth floor roof. I lost sight of it, and thought i can check later from my window to see if i could see it, when it had time to calm down. I could hear the mother all day frantically looking for her two kittens so i went out to see if the third one was ok and it was. I then searched the ground perimeter of the building by the fourth floor roof, in case it had jumped off too, but found nothing.

I decided to back onto the roof and look for the orange kitten. Sure enough it was about to head down a drain pipe. I managed to get it away from the drain pipe and into a corner. Fearing a shredding, i went back to my apartment and got a thick black shirt.

I managed to trap it with only i tiny scratch on my finger and get it back in the building, down the elevator and back across the street to its mother...

I feel a little better for the whole thing now, but i have learned a valuable lesson today...

Don't feed strays!
 
CanOz, first thank goodness we have people like you who care about animals. And don't beat yourself up over responsibility for what happened. It was distressing and sad and I can imagine how you felt. But, without your intervention and feeding in the first place, probably all the kittens would have perished.

I'm not sure about the wisdom or otherwise of feeding strays. Many people have had years of happy pet ownership which started from the accidental coming of an animal into their lives.

I'd be up for going half shares with you in your shelter to protect animals. Or if that's not practical, making decent contributions to an existing animal welfare organisation.
If I had any say, desexing would be compulsory unless buying from a registered breeder with the intention of continuing the line. Probably not much chance of policing this fully, but the policy should be widely recommended. This would hopefully prevent the spread of animals with unstable temperament and encourage buyers to take a responsible attitude toward cat or dog ownership. Get something for nothing, and minimal value attaches to it.

We currently have a tenant next door. They have a young bitser dog which starts howling a minute after they leave for work at 7.45 am and literally doesn't stop until they come home at 5.30 pm. The dog is locked in the house, never gets taken for a walk. The council has now become involved and are insisting the problem be resolved (via anti bark collar) or they will remove the dog. The dog is the innocent party in all this.
It's demonstrating its misery in the only way it knows how.

All the best with the remaining kittens and the mother cat, CanOz, and good on you for caring.:)
 
CanOz said:
I had a very sad and disturbing thing happen to me today.

I have been feeding a stray cat, that has her third eye lids showing. I felt very sad for her and thought some nutrition could correct here eye problem as its sometimes (as I've read) the result of, among other things, lack of fat in this tissue.

Anyway, I've come to find out she had kittens over near the parking lot next door where we park our car. I also noticed that one of her kittens had the same condition, so now i suspect a virus.

Today i fed them dry food, as i normally do in the mornings. The kittens are very timid so i just drop off the food and walk back to my apartment.

Today i walked back, did a few things and went down to oil the chain on my bike before going for a ride. When i came back, i was stunned when i came out of the elevator to see a kitten on the ledge of the window, in our stair well outside our door. When i went down to have a closer look (the window is at the landing between the 8th and 9th floors) the kitten got startled and jumped...off the ledge into thin air.

I was shocked and didn't want to look but i knew i had to find out what happened. The kitten, after some nerve related movements, was dead. I then had to figure out how to tell the building management. My wife had left for a class reunion so i didn't want to bother her. I called her brother, who speaks good English and he translated to the building manager what had happened. Together we got the cat off the third floor roof and put it into a bag to take away.

After some reflection, i realize that this was my fault. The kittens were looking for me. Now the mother is looking for her kitten and i feel just awful.

I know i shouldn't feed strays, but i just love animals so much and here they're really treated poorly. There is no animal shelter where they can be fixed up and given to good homes, not that there are many of those either.

My dream one day, will be to have enough funds to start an animal shelter and take in strays, get them healthy, DE-sexed and offer them to good homes with responsible owners, or have them put down humanely.

Until then, I'm afraid i can't be feeding stray cats anymore, its just not in their long term best interest...likely I'm only doing it to relieve myself of my own guilt.

I only posted this because i needed to process this a bit, its been quite stressful for me to see it all unfold the way it has. You know I'm not a particularly religious person, but i did ask god for forgiveness...
Click to expand...

You're to be commended for your compassion. Things don't always turn out the way we hope, but you felt compelled by your compassion to put in your best effort just the same.

Your grief is understandable, but the reality is that you have much to be proud of!

You even went a few extra light years by showing a willingness to temporarily suspend personal convictions in order to ensure that anything and everything conceivable (no matter how improbable it might seem) had been done for the welfare of the cat and its kittens.

You have a huge heart!
 
Julia said:
I'm not sure about the wisdom or otherwise of feeding strays. Many people have had years of happy pet ownership which started from the accidental coming of an animal into their lives.
Click to expand...

CanOz - all our cats over the years have been "rejects" - either from a shelter, from someone who is getting it put down or strays that have wandered in. Currently at 4 cats and a dog at our zoo. All neutered and stay in at night.

Kittens will wander & some won't make it. It's sad when one is lost. But as Julia notes - the odds are stacked against them. We realise we can't save them all but we can save one or two. Which is one or two more than if we didn't try or care.

Don't lose your compassion. The world needs all it can get.
Cheers
BTW - the Rat is cold wet and windy atm. 8 ° in October!. You're not missing anything!
 
+3 to all above

Good on you CanOz for caring and dont lose your compassion
Take care, and know those animals feel loved :)
 
Thanks heaps for you words of encouragement Cynic, Julia, Johenmo, and Tink...

Johenmo, those rat winters are just like these Shanghai winters....bitter damp cold. Thanksfully there not as long as a cold dry Harbin winter @ and average temperature of -25c!

Sure would weed out the weak animals.

Juila, one day i'll start my shelter up, will give you a call when looking for investors!
 

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