Kismet Comes Home

I wrote, recently, about the awful experience we had with our older dog Bess.  She is still in vet care in Ipoh but is getting better and stronger all the time.  Our vet hopes to move her back to her own home soon. 

While I was in Malaysia I was able to spend some time with our other pets, with Perdie at the vet’s home and with Kismet just a few hours in an office in KL before her flight to Jeddah.  She flew a few days before I returned home and because Mr EE was at work she spent her first few hours in Jeddah in the corner of his office.  We were worried this would stress her but she seemed quite happy to be among people.

Kismet is settling in

We put all her things in a small room, our plan being to allow her her own space to settle in and get used to the family again without being overwhelmed by all the people in the house.  We had instructed the children not to fuss her and to leave her to settle.  We needn’t have worried one bit.  Kismet sniffed at a few bits and pieces that had been in the house in Malaysia and went straight to the sofa to sit next to Mr EE and lick him to pieces.  She clearly remembered him and was keen to re-establish family bonds.  She was happy to see the children but wary of Mini EE who has grown an awful lot since they last saw each other.

She has settled into family life as though she has never been away

When I arrived a few days later I found a house with a cat who behaved as though it had always been her home, which, of course, it has.  Our family has been her home since she was a little kitten and she clearly does not mind about the gap.  Within minutes of my arrival she was sitting on my knee and purring her distinctive, loud, motorcycle impression.  We know dogs remember people they love for their whole lifetimes, we were worried that cats would not.  Clearly and happily, we were wrong.

As the days have gone on Kismet has become more independent and less clingy.  She has always been a house cat and although she enjoys looking outside we are wary of letting her out incase she gets into a fight.  For her part she talks, through the window,  to cats that visit the garden but has not asked to go outside.  She slept on our bed the first few nights, chasing our toes as we slept and curling up in the smalls of our backs.  As time has marched on she prefers to sleep downstairs and do the rounds of all the bedrooms for a few minutes every night. 

She talks to the local cats

Keeps us company in the evenings

As a house full of dog people that just happened to find themselves with a cat Kismet has exceeded all our expectations as a pet.  Clearly, unlike the dogs, she is self sufficient and has not suffered from our absence in quite the same way.  She loves us but does not need us.  She is, however, genuinely good company.  She talks to us, sits with us, plays games and makes us laugh with her antics.  8 months older than when we had to say goodbye in Malaysia the worst excesses of kittenhood are past and she is a calmer (though still mischievous) cat.  Mr EE was away on a trip for most of last week and her presence in the house made the evenings far less lonely. 

Makes sure that we don't forget to pet her

and keeps us warm at night

People here, both expats and locals told us we were crazy to spend money importing a cat to Jeddah when there are so many here that we could adopt and then leave when we leave.  We don't agree, we made a promise to a little lost kitten that we took into our home, we promised that we would be her home for the rest of her life and nothing short of a disaster would make us renege on that promise.   Kismet has come home and her presence has, in turn, made our house feel more like a home.  We had not quite realised how empty it was until she came to fill the ‘pet void’.  We now need to try to get the papers in order for Perdie and, if Bessie is strong enough, get the certificate reissued for her so that we can finally be together again.  

For more posts on expat pets please click the link below.

Posted on the Animal Tales link up hosted by  Green and Rosie Life.  Click the picture below for more pet posts.

Compound Cats Looking For Love

We have had good news on the pet front, our permits for the cat and one dog are approved.  We are just waiting to hear if the other dog will be approved soon and therefore if we can ship them all together or if we should get the two out now and bring Perdie along a little later.  I don't want Perdie to see her 'sisters' leave and go through the trauma of being on her own (although our vet is spoiling her, she seems to have put on some weight) but equally I would like Bessie home as soon as possible given her age.

It is very common for people to take responsibility for the care and feeding of local strays then struggle to find someone to continue to care for the animal when they leave. They just go and hope that others will take over the responsibility.   In recent weeks a local charity has been posting a number of updates asking if people are able to foster or adopt dogs.  I would love to but we really can't, three pets is more than enough.

A lot of the people we have spoken to recently have been surprised that we are brining our cat over. The conversation goes the same way every time 'but why, there are lots of cats here, just leave the other one and get a stray here'.  I have to restrain myself from speaking my mind, Kismet may not be a dog but that does not mean that she is disposable.  When we adopted her we made a commitment to be responsible for her until her dying day.  If, at any stage we cannot fulfil that responsibility (ie a move where the pet is not allowed) we will do everything we can to have her adopted to a good home even paying for her continuing care if necessary.   The only circumstance I can imagine abandoning any of my pets is an emergency evacuation. I must admit to being worried, however, that Kismet will not remember us or want to be part of our family any longer, she has been away from us a long time now.  Nevertheless we will stand by our commitment to her and she can choose to stay or go when she is here, I dearly hope she stays.

The kitten who wanted to go to creche 

This morning, when I brought Mini EE to creche, a little kitten managed to get into the room.  I picked her up and brought her back outside and the poor little scrap sat purring in my arms for a while.  She obviously craves human attention and affection and would make someone a beautiful little pet.  I found out that she and her sister are being cared for by someone on the school compound.  They feed them but don't want them as pets and are looking for a home for them, as there are more than 25 cats on the compound I doubt that they will find someone.  I can't help but feel that the people who brought them in without wanting to give them a full home have not been as kind as they think they are being.  Little Millie has had just enough exposure to humans to know she wants to be a house cat but will never have the opportunity to be one, far better just to leave food out and not hold out false hope of a family.  Some of the teachers at school have raised enough money to pay for food for the foreseeable future and a vet has offered to sterilise them on a TNR (trap neuter release) basis, hopefully that will hold the number of cats stable.

I would dearly love to give little Millie a home but I can't do that.  As I said three pets really is enough.  Even though we could afford the care of another animal, financially we can't commit to the cost of moving another pet and I can only imagine how upset our three would be to arrive here to find a new pet in residence.

Faux touting for pets outside the grammar school

On my way back I ran into Faux, Faux is a big ginger cat who simply loves people.  He belongs to someone on the residential compound but has worked out that if he goes to the school in the mornings he will have lots of children to make a fuss of him. As soon as he sees his mark he pads over and if you sit on a bench he leaps into your lap looking for cuddles.  He doesn't have an audible purr but I can feel his purr muscles moving. I spent a good 5 minutes chatting to him after the children went into lessons.  If Millie does not get a family then I hope, like Faux, she will learn to get her affection fix from a range of people.

Posted to the weekly Animal Tales Linky

Compound Cats

Now that we are in KSA I am able to start the process of getting my papers in order so Mr EE and I can get import permits for our three girls marooned with the vet in Malaysia.  We have never been away from our pets for this long before and hope never to be again.

Let me in....... please........

In the meantime as new people in the compound the resident cats are doing their best to ingratiate themselves with us.  Cats are everywhere in Jeddah and our compound is no exception.  The majority of the cats have been adopted by residents (and have collars to prove it so they are not taken away) but live a sort of communal, outdoors life.  They are not ferral but they are not truly house pets either.  I think a lot of them are related as they look suspiciously similar and I hope the 'owners' have done the responsible thing and had them sterilised as I am not sure I can resist a kitten (because my resolve worked so well the last time).  There are dozens of cats on the compound but there are about 4 or 5 that are making a concerted effort to ingratiate themselves with me.

You can't resist our feline powers of persuasion...

That said they are desperate to make friends and seem to want nothing more than to sneak into our house.  A few of them stare plaintively through our windows, sometimes miaowing fit to break a heart all in an attempt to convince us that they are abandoned kitties that need a loving home.  Others stalk me as I come back home from the shop, running around my feet trying to sneak past me.  If I did not see the collars and know that there are several feeding stations set up by residents around the compound I might be taken in.

I lost a leg, you have to let me in....

While a part of me would love to let them in and act as an extra feeding station cum petting room I don't think our girls in Malaysia would forgive us.  Bessie, the oldest dog is still not to happy at the idea of having one kitty sister so I doubt she would ever speak to me again if she got to her new home to find it overrun with felines.  I am not sure what Kismet will make of them, she is a lot smaller that the bruisers that live on the compound and they have tails (Kismet like most Malaysian cats has a club tail).  She has been an indoor cat to date and I want to protect her from fights in the future but at the same time I don't want her to get depressed at seeing all these other cats out of the window.  We will have to work it all out when she is here.

If you are not going to let me in I will just sleep
in the middle of the road....

Some of the cats are real characters.  The swimming pool posse are particularly engaging.  One likes to dangle his paws in the pool but looks terribly offended if you swim in 'his' water, another likes to walk up and down the side while I swim lengths.

Playing the long game.  This Kismet look alike
sleeps outside our windows.

I am holding firm and refusing to feed them, I do succumb to the odd request for a scratch on the head though, as long as the request is made some distance from my front door.

It is hot and you are making me stay here...
I could be in your lovely cool kitchen.

For more posts on life in KSA click on the picture below

Posted as part of the weekly Animal Tales Link up

Visiting A Moose Garden

I was sorting through my photo collection the other day and found a record of a trip Mr EE and I took to Norway, Sweden and Finland a few years (ok 10 years) ago.  It was one of the last holidays we took on our own before our family expanded to include the children and we had a blast.  We had been meant to go diving but had been gazumped from our liveaboard so decided to drive around the north instead.

Coming into the town of Ostersund after a long drive through the northern Swedish forests we had a huge shock.  While we were waiting at a traffic lights we saw a bad collision between a car and an ambulance.  I remember calling 112 to report it but was unable to explain where the accident had taken place.  I think I thrust my mobile at a local because I do remember getting it back a little while later.  Together with another man we were first to the ambulance and were able to get the paramedics and patient out onto the road and, at their instruction, get the oxygen away from the vehicles.  By the time all the furore had died down and the police had confirmed that there were enough local witnesses that they would not need us to give statements we were a little late to book into a camp site.  Still rather shaken we gave ourselves a treat of a night in a hotel, we must have looked pretty bad because the hotelier, when we told him about the accident, mentioned he had heard it on the news and offered us a brandy on the house.

Reindeer crossing the road

The next day we wanted to take things gently, we had seen signs for a moose garden and, intrigued as to what that would be like we decided to visit.  We had seen lots of herds of reindeer during our drive but no moose.  The farm was closed when we arrived but the owner was extremely friendly and took us to meet his moose (mooses, meese??).

Moose, it turns out, cannot be domesticated but they can be tamed.  A significant number of moose are the victims of car accidents every year and some are nursing mothers.  This gentleman takes any abandoned calves in and hand rears them.  Some stay with him on the farm.  

As we went round we got to meet Helge, a huge male moose who was so tame he let us stroke his beautiful antlers.  I thought they would be bony but they are covered with a beautiful soft fur.  We were then allowed into the paddock with some baby moose who fed quite happily from our hands.  Any babies that are bred on the farm and are to be retained there have to be taken from their mothers at an early age or they will not be tame.  It was quite a wonderful experience seeing these two little babies, similar in size to a domestic calf and know that they are going to grow up into gigantic, powerful beasts. 

It was a very calming experience and we felt a lot better about our brief stay in Ostersund.  

Posted as part of the Animal Tales Linky

Ostrich Satay - not for me...

A few months ago we went on a trip to Seremban (a small Malaysian state capital just south of KL).  There is actually very little to do there and so while Mr EE was giving his presentation at the conference he was in town for, the children and I decided to explore the coastline.  Seremban is quite close to Port Dickson (or PD as it is usually referred to) which is a popular Malaysian resort town and my groupon is forever trying to convince me to book an all-inclusive break there.  To be honest those sort of breaks are not really our cup of tea but I thought that there might be some things to see and do in town.

When we arrived, however, the town centre was somewhat disappointing; lots of commercial centres with shop houses very little different to any other Malaysian town.  We enjoyed the drive in along the coast, however, looking over the Straits of Melacca and seeing the tankers in the distance (PD was originally developed for the export of tin ore and when that started to wane became the location of a large refinery).  South of the town the resort complexes begin in earnest and the area begins to resemble resort towns the world over.  We could have been in Spain!  A little further and we came to a sign for the PD Ostrich Farm.  Expecting very little (these smaller animal ‘farms’ are generally not well run) I decided to stop as we needed to give the baby a bottle.

The owners of the ‘farm’ are obviously passionate about ostriches and there is plenty of information on these fascinating birds.  After a quick sit down with a bottle of water for us and a bottle for the baby we took a walk around.  There are a lot of smaller animals, chickens, goats (very cute as always) and rabbits (poorly cared for with large open sores on their bodies).  The ostriches were tame enough to take food from our hands.  Master and Miss EE were happy enough to feed the goats and the two adorable little donkeys we came across (I have a soft spot for donkeys) but could not quite bring themselves to feed the birds.

The enclosures were small and not particularly well maintained, there was a rather depressed looking camel who, like the rabbits, had open sores on his hump and many of the ostriches had plucked their feathers.  A tour complete the owners tried to persuade us to book an archery or quad biking experience or ride an ostrich, race one against a horse or stand on a (replica) ostrich egg.  They seemed rather surprised when we decided to forgo those pleasures.  We also decided not to partake of the Ostrich Satay on sale in the café.

The whole visit left me profoundly depressed.  I have been to a number of smaller animal centres and when done well they can be a delight (I am thinking of the Otter Sanctuary in the British New Forest or the Moose Farm in Ostersund, Sweden.  This was nothing like those farms.  Some basic adjustments could make it into an interesting place to visit but it was poorly maintained as many of these places are in the region, run for a profit and very little care for animal welfare.

The children enjoyed seeing the animals but even at their ages they could tell that they were not well cared for and did not really want to extend their stay.  It is, sadly, easy to dismiss opinions like mine as those of a privileged expat with no cultural understanding or feel for my host country but that is not really fair.  I have seen excellent welfare projects here in Malaysia (not least the Orang Utan island in Bukit Merah which was world class) and I have heard good reviews of the Elephant Sanctuary near KL.  The state of this farm was all to do with a cynical use of animals for profit and that is a problem for all countries and all cultures.  

Click on the picture below for more posts on life in Malaysia

Posted as part of the Animal Tales linky hosted by Eco Gites of Lenault

Why I Hate Pet Shops

I should probably qualify the statement in my title.  A good pet shop, one that sells toys, food, pet aides, crates, beds etc is invaluable particularly when the people who run it are generally friendly, helpful and a mine of pet related information.  The lady who ran our favorite pet shop in Astana was absolutely brilliant in this regard and I love to go into the Pets at Home warehouses in the UK – it is like a treasure trove of wonderful things for your pet.

No, the type of pet shop I hate are the ones that sell animals with absolutely no regard for their welfare and sadly they are still all too common here in Malaysia.  A friend of ours got their cats through one of these shops and they have had a variety of health problems - our little stray, Kismet, rescued from the streets was much healthier - a true indictment on the 'care' these places provide their charges.

One of the pet shops near our home sells a wide variety of exotic pets as well as puppies and kittens taken from their mothers too early and left to wait alone and un-socialised in a cage.  This is why I hate pet shops…

This poor cat has nowhere comfortable to sleep and has no place
to hide from prying eyes

 

No real enrichment for this poor chap

This ferret is practically bald

A poor environment for young pups to grow up in

Completely un-socialised a bad start in life

Poodles are clever- he must be bored stiff

Desperate for any interaction or loving contact

And marked down because no one wants him

Yes - this really is a raccoon being sold as a family pet!

These little chaps sold for £15 will probably end up being 'liberated'
into an overcrowded temple pond for 'merit'.

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Posted as part of the Eco Gites de Lenault Animal Tales Link up

Good and Evil on the Streets of Ipoh

Sometimes in life, and more often in expat settings than in the comfort of our home countries where we know how to avoid these things, we come across evidence of man's capacity for depravity.  I will never forget some of the scenes I witnessed at orphanages in West Africa, particularly once seeing a baby victim of 'JuJu' or black magic rescued from the bush where he had been strung up and left for the animals to eat.  These sights taught me from a very young age that there is true evil in the world and that there are people who lack even an ounce of compassion for life in all its beauty and variety.

The refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East, the problems faced by the Rohingya, the struggles of communities in Africa against scourges such as famine and Ebola virus and countless other usually silent tragedies that cross our radar briefly before being forgotten in the hustle and bustle of our day to day existence remind us of the beast in man and its ability to visit suffering on others.

A few weeks ago I had taken our old dog to the vet for a pre-op consultation and, when leaving, we came across this crate of puppies.  They were found in a cemetery, tied into a heavy jute bag and left to suffocate and dehydrate in the heat.  Their rescuer had found them and, having washed them down with antiseptic was bringing them to the vets for a check up and inoculations. Thank goodness the puppies seemed none the worse for their ordeal and they were happy and confident enough to talk to our old dog Bessie who was desperate to take care of them.

I ran into the same man a few days later when our dog was in for her operation.  He had some more puppies with him.  He  has a soft spot for animals and is well known in the town so that people call him if they see any strays dumped.  He currently has 41 dogs in kennels in his garden.  All inoculated, all being socialised and trained and he keeps all dogs until he can find their forever home. The vet told me that he is a regular visitor.  We can't take on any more pets (although Bessie would love another puppy) but I know he is doing his best to find loving homes for every dog that comes his way.

I took a photo of the puppies, rescued from a horrible fate and starting out on a far better life than they could possibly have ever hoped for.  Our older daughter, who was with me at the time, said if the man who dumped them was a devil incarnate then the man who saved them was an angel.  These may only be puppies, the action may only be very small in the grand scheme of the problems of the world but she was very right, this picture reminds me that if there is the capacity for wickedness in us all then there is also the capacity for great good.  Something worth remembering given the depressing nature of the news at the present time.

Posted on the Animal Tales linky hosted by Eco-Gites of Lenault

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