Some make it and some don't ...

Two lovely kittens ...

One died a premature death. Probably got eaten!!!

The other has a comfortable life and eats me!!!

Is life always about the survival of the fittest? Does luck not have a role to play? I suppose it does...otherwise, the first kitten would have been alive right now!

Which Breed? ... The Wild one

 Our (not really...no ownership here) kitten (no more, she's a seven month old cat now with very sharp teeth!).

This snap was taken a few days before she bit me. You know people wonder about how painful a cat bite  could possibly be...especially when compared with dog bites. Or Monkey bites (well yes, that hurts...I've been bitten by a monkey too). Or snake bites (which obviously cannot be compared, it isn't a mammal).

A bite could be fairly serious if the cat is infected, which mostly they are since they eat rats and rodents and frequent dirty places. But about pain...really how painful could it be? How much could a "kitten bite" hurt? 

Well guys, look at her teeth...still think the same?

BTW, doesn't she look like a tiger cub here? Or a leopard cub...well, one of those big cats...??? :-D

Foot in the mouth

Literally speaking...that is my foot in Dustu's mouth.

Dustu is the male kitten (Meow's litter) and he is a darling. The only problem is that he thinks "my feet" are his friends. So he insists on playing with them and according to him, play means using his sharp canines. Not to forget those sharp nails.

So what is the good thing...well, I have those tetanus and rabies shots already, so nothing can happen for another few months :-D (no, I am not exactly hoping for another cat bite or a dog bite...just an observation). Imagine getting a rabies vaccine for a kitten bite!!!! Seriously, that was embarrassing (if only my parents were a little less paranoid but then you can't blame them).

Big Sad Face :-(

I had no idea about Siberian huskies till I saw a video of a dog called Kaiser, some three years back. Since then, Siberian husky has been one of my favourite dogs. Infact if I was staying uphill, in a cold place and had the time and space to keep a dog, it would definately have been a Husky.

Huskies aren't exactly the obedient kinds and it takes a lot to train them. Even if you have trained them, it is highly unlikely that they would like to please people. Unlike  Labradors, they are very independent but just like them, they are very affectionate too. They are highly intelligent and stubborn dogs. Plus they shed enormous amount of hair. So, if one wants to keep a husky then all this should be kept in mind.

But they are lovable.I know every dog is but Kaiser was a class apart...

Kaiser was just 6 years old and had cancer. 

If I miss Kaiser's video's and am sad at the thought of never seeing any more of them, imagine what the owner would be going through. To have a dog and lose him is terrible and if its someone like Kaiser...

May Kaiser's soul R.I.P.

How time flies...

Time and tide waits for no one.

Just a few months back...

And how times have changed...

He remains my favourite and I admit, I will feel bad when I would have to make him leave. He is sensitive and attached and hence, the affection towards him.

Apparently, the kittens create too much of a mess. The neighbours are all vegetarians and they do not like us giving non-vegetarian food in the garden or whatever we can call the little stretch of greenery infront of our home. 

Moreover, it would be impossible to feed these cats. I mean two of them are females and females reproduce every quarter. So whether our GDP increases or not, the consumption would definately keep increasing. This is not a good investment because they are of no use...they don't protect you, are not affectionate (except for this one) and have an attitude which makes you wonder about your status in their life...are you the master or are you the servant??? With inflation increasing at a higher rate than GDP, and given their tastes and preferences for "only-non vegetarian food", we might just be wondering...why not dogs???

New Lessons Learnt !

So, what am I talking about? What do you think...about - cats!!! No, not that Broadway musical but homely (apparently)cats of the feline community!

 

Now now, who is this? This is the male kitten. He is friendlier than the rest, emotional and sensitive. Now how could I make that out? I can't even read people, how did I ever read them...correctly? Long story...some other post. Like every other cat, he likes to groom himself.

And, unlike the other kittens who visit our place...he lets me pick him up and does not resist in any way. But that happens only when I get a chance to pick him up. He is so fast that it is next to impossible to catch him.

Now, who is this? Well, she is the cutest of the lot. She on her part doesn't realise how cute she looks. She is only interested in food and doesn't quite care about anything else - and that includes her sister and brother. And she is THE reason that I am writing this!

So one day, I tried to pick her up. And got bitten...seriously. Yes, she is just a six month old kitten but she has very sharp teeth. And my mother is someone who gets hyper very quickly.  To make things worse, she spoke with  an over-excited doctor about it. And then, injections followed...another story altogether.

Yesterday something new happened. 

While I was feeding her (and the others), she tried to bite me again. This time,  I got a bit irritated and picked her up in the way their mothers do...by the skin  behind the neck. And she didn't move.  No, I wasn't strangulating her, nor was I torturing her. Once I had heard in a programme in NatGeo that when a mother holds her cubs this way, the cubs can't resist and it becomes easier to carry them from one place to another. So, then that was it! I became their mother :-D...and no she couldn't resist. But the consequence of that was a few found respect for me. Now she only purrs, no more bites!!!

I need a tet-vac now!

And why would that be?

Because stray cats think its a good idea to bite me!

These are not love-bites for sure!

No, I do not want cats to bite me and I do not invite them either. But I did hope that since I have been feeding them since they were a month old, they'd have a little more trust on me. I mean, I am not going to bite them in return! Every time, I try to pick up this kitten (who well, is no more a kitten...almost grown up...6 months old now), she tries to bite me and successfully scratches me all over. This time though she actually bit me a couple of times (in a bid to defend herself) and the bites were a bit deep...so tomorrow, the first thing to do is go to a doctor


Ofcourse, one would ask...why pick her up anyways? Well, temptations are always hard to resist. :-D

And then, one would also ask...why the photo? Well, because I thought it would be a good idea to have a snap of me and her...a nice one. And so in a bid to do that I ran after her for nearly 30 mins and finally when I picked her up...it seemed like I had made one of them worst decisions of my life!!!

Bitten!

You are biting my foot baby.

You think?

 No baby, I am just imagining this pain...

Yuck...your foot tastes horrible. I need some food. And in the meantime,get a pedicure!

And this is my cat's (who actually isn't mine at all) daughter from her second litter. All the kittens of the first litter got eaten, presumably by stray dogs.
Why the snap...well, simply because she has started biting me a lot these days. Everytime she wants something she bites my feet. But what is the amusing part (since getting bitten is obviously not amusing) ???
She cleans the area before biting it...I mean she licks my feet well before she bites it.

What a way to have fun!!!

The Smarter One!

A leopard gets his smartness in inheritance...and no one can do anything about it!

Your Royal Highness...I wish we could save you!

“Tiger! Tiger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

~ William Blake

News : Two 17-month old tiger cubs were poisoned in Ranthambore tiger Reserve, India a few months back and now in Sariska Reserve. A tiger was killed in Assam some time back when it killed two people in nearby village.

“Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It’s a shark riding on an elephant’s back, just trampling and eating everything they see.” ~ Jack Handy

The main reason for killing has been poaching for a very long time. In fact, tiger skin can be arranged in as short as a week’s time in some markets in places like Bhutan or Tibet.  This can be curbed only when people would stop thinking of (dead)tigers as an object of decoration or fancy clothing. And no, tiger testicles are NOT going to make anyone more potent. Tiger bones are NOT going to cure you of some rare diseases, or even not-so-rare diseases. Education and sensitivity – both are seriously lacking in people.  And the government has been unable to stop this mostly because of lack of governance and administration coupled with a lack of serious effort from the common man.

“When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity. The distinction between crime and justice is no greater.” 

~ George Bernard Shaw

But then, it isn’t just poaching now. Tigers are now killed because they come in direct conflict with “man”. One should realise that a tiger is a territorial and solitary animal. Only when his territory is threatened & encroached upon and there is lack of food that he attacks anyone.

Suppose you let your cattle graze in forests or outskirts of forests (after having encroached a part of it and living there), why would the tiger decide to leave an easy meal and wait for a deer. I mean it takes substantial effort to make a kill. You can’t go to a tiger’s home and blame him for acting like a tiger!

In any case, the two tiger cubs in Ranthambore were poisoned this March. Goats were coated with poison and tied to a tree and the tiger cubs died after eating it. They were killed by villagers since the tigers had been attacking their livestock. At that time the officials lamented and said that had few tigers been relocated to Sariska, these cubs would have got more space and wouldn’t have strayed to the outskirts.

 And look what happened in November. The relocated, collared tiger was killed too and most probably, by villagers. A Revenge Kill! Tigers unlike lions are solitary creatures and hence do not live in groups. There is no one to protect the cub when the tigress goes hunting. They have high mortality rate and very few cubs survive till adulthood. In these circumstances, it is very disheartening to hear such news.

How do you protect India’s National Animal ???