anna_wing

Cat 4, of whom I have previously spoken, was found to be pregnant, was captured, and adopted by a colleague. Four kittens were duly born, they seemed to be thriving, there was discussion of names (colleague's housekeeper favoured 'Sweetie', 'Cutie' and 'Tuffy', I suggested "Fang', 'Killer' and 'Claw'; housekeeper won, naturally), all seemed well.

Then, disaster. It turned out that Cat 4 had several serious parasitic infections, which had passed to the kittens, and which killed them all. She herself is seriously ill, and is in treatment. I do hope she survives. There are reasons why most stray cats don't live long.

I am feeling rather guilt-stricken, because while I was feeding her, I didn't think of the parasite issue, which is of course highly salient in a tropical environment. And she was getting tamer even before we caught her, we might have been able to medicate her if we'd just thought of it. I will remember for the future.

1 For no obvious reason, Lap-cat decided that he needed to pee on my shoes. Luckily these are embroidered fabric mules, which can be washed and sunned, and Housekeeper caught it while the incident was, so to speak, fresh. Cats, they are like that.


2 Bus-stop Cat, my portly black-and-white gentleman, started limping badly and developed a lump on his leg. Very likely to have been an insect bite that got infected. Vet was summoned at 9 pm by Whatsapp, came the next morning at 9 am. We weren't too worried, because he didn't appear to have a fever and he was certainly well enough to protest vociferously when we shut him in the kitchen before she arrived. But it's better not to let an infection take hold here, where treatment options for any serious condition are very limited. She took a look, agreed that it was probably heading towards becoming an abscess, and left basic oral antibiotics and a few doses of anti-inflammatories/painkillers in case he needs them (so far not). Luckily he regards himself as Housekeeper's cat, and will let her stuff the pills down his throat with minimal fuss. Seems to be recovering well, limp is much less.

3 It was reported to me when I came home from work that the gardeners had caught and killed a rather large snake in the front garden. I looked it up on-line, and it was probably a youngish King Cobra. I'm not in favour of killing the wildlife in general, but it would have been a bit awkward for the cats and the staff to have it in residence. This one was a bit over a metre long; they get up to 4-5 metres, and are known to be of tetchy temperament.

4 Some friends were in London for work, and wore their masks out. They observed that while very few people in general were wearing them, most of those who were were various kinds of Asian, and it seemed to be OK, whereas white people who wore them were looked at askance. So it had apparently been internalised by the native population, at least where they were, that masks are An Asian Thing. A Caucasian colleague who had indeed been looked at askance for wearing a mask while in London recently (he's an Aussie, with elderly and vulnerable parents in a nursing home, so he's super-careful) told me he had noticed the same thing. Very amusing, how cultural practices and attitudes can change so fast!

I came home from the office yesterday to a household in full mourning. A crow was attacking the nest, trying to get at the yellow-vented bulbul fledgling, despite everything that the parents and Housekeeper could do in the way of flapping about and shouting. Went to bed very depressed.

Then I came home for lunch to some good news, which was that the fledgling apparently escaped, because Housekeeper saw it again this morning. Still some goings on, possibly the crows again, but so far (cross fingers, come on Yavanna, be nice for once) it is still alive.

There are three crows' nests in the jackfruit tree in my garden, and several in the mango trees at the office. They have hatchlings now (no way to tell how many are actually koels, which parasitise crows). They are Very Noisy At All Times Of Day Or Night.

The yellow-vented bulbuls have as usual built their nest fully visible and within touching distance for humans, but at least this time out of leaping distance for the Beastie Boys. They have three hatchlings, which remain totally vulnerable to crows and Greater Coucals.

The red-whiskered bulbuls, having slightly more nous and savoir-faire, have nested in a different, leafier tree, a rather more secure location.

The sparrows are fledging. We found one on the ground, and put it on a convenient ledge. Its parents have found it and will hopefully continue to feed it until it can fly properly.

I had the useless kaffir lime uprooted and moved to the office garden. It has been replaced with another citron tree, making three. Tree Number Two started fruiting in December last year. The three dragonfruit plants are growing nicely, and might fruit this year.

During the last two years of lockdown and general other upheaval, the staff were inspired to put in planter boxes for vegetables and herbs basically everywhere that there was space. Our office building has a lot of unused terraces and walkways, which are slowly being colonised for horticultural purposes. So far there are eggplants, tomatoes, choi sum, lettuce, onion sprouts, several basils, rosemary, sunflowers, chillies, black pepper, wild betel, mint, Indian pennywort, galangal, lemongrass and a couple of local vegetables without English names. We may not get mangoes this year, because the tree fruited nicely last year, and they like to rest in alternate years (that's the tree with spirits in, so no-one is going to try to make it do anything it doesn't want to do...). The gardeners find it much more interesting than just mowing grass, and they get a share, so it's all good.

It is as hot as blazes, and there is an electricity shortage, so I am trying to minimise the strain on my generators by not running the aircon. At least so far (cross fingers) we have dodged any cyclones, though we still have May to get through until the monsoon proper sets in. The Beastie Boys are feeling their age, and spending their mornings lounging around the pool, or sitting hopefully at the foot of the various trees in which there are nests.

I have a glass patio door which is usually open during the day, since there is a separate screened door to keep out dengue and chikungunya-bearing mosquitoes. We've had the occasional bird collision accident. A dove hit in and fell into the pool, and a sparrow stunned itself. Both survived, but the other day a sparrow flew into it at full speed and broke its neck. We hadn't thought it was too much of a problem because normally the resident sparrows know it's there, they perch on it regularly. This one must have been a visitor, or forgot.

We've now stuck up an old plastic bag onto the top half of the glass for the time being, and my friend is sending me some window decals.

The seriously urban otters of Singapore. Apparently a natural hybrid of the Smooth-Coated Otter and the Asian Small-Clawed Otter, though looking at their size, the Smooth-Coated Otter side is clearly dominant.

https://mothership.sg/2021/07/otters-condo-pool-escape-main-gate/

Or in short, a new sparrow family has moved into AirBnB, considerably out of season, since most birds, for obvious reasons, try to get the nesting over before the monsoon. However AirBnB is an exceptionally des.res., being in a covered and enclosed passage, and therefore dry, and sheltered from wind, rain and predators. It could well be a previous family come back for a second round; there's no way to tell since while I'm sure sparrows can distinguish among other sparrows, we can't.

Luckily, the Beastie Boys are reluctant to get their feet wet, so they don't like going outdoors if it has been raining.

And the citron bush has one smallish citron (say the size of an unusually large lemon) almost completely yellow. I can't remember when this one was fertilised, so it could be either six months early, or six months late in ripening. Either way, it's definitely out of season too. Oh well, more candied peel is always useful.

The monsoon has definitely arrived. Good for the garden, farmers, hydropower stations, Aedes mosquitoes and the dengue virus.

Baby bulbul is still around! Last seen alive and chirpy in company with its parents on Monday. We're keeping an eye out. The monsoon is about to begin.

I have gained 500g in the last fortnight, which I suspect is due to mango season being in full swing. Local mangoes are superb, and very sweet, so my fruit-related calorie intake has probably gone up. Never mind, it will go away once the season is over in a couple of weeks, or if I increase the exercise level a bit. Maintaining my current size does take much less attention than getting to it in the first place did, or getting down to my ultimate target BMI will. I am certainly not going to stop eating mangoes while they're around (the season for this particular variety is brief and intensive), and as usual, we're chopping them up and freezing them in huge quantities for future use. I am only a social eater of ice-cream, but having it permanently on hand does make menu-planning for guests much easier. Not to mention that everyone appreciates home-made ice-cream.

I discovered that one can lose excess fat from one's feet too. I should have realised, as a matter of logic, but didn't until I tried on a pair of mules that I had ordered months ago, and discovered that they were loose on my feet. It wasn't much, because my feet were pretty bony to start with, but it was enough to affect the fit. The local sandal shop (where I was doing more support-shopping last weekend) confirmed it after they re-measured my feet and updated my sizing on their books. It's not enough to affect things that involve socks, like boots and walking shoes, luckily, that stuff is a lot more expensive to replace.

A pair of red-whiskered bulbuls is now nesting in the garden! They are distinctly more intelligent than their yellow-vented cousins, so their nest is at least in the middle of a thick shrub, not immediately visible to any passerby, and much harder for one of the Beastie Boys to simply hop up and eat them. The gardeners have been instructed not to clip the shrub for now, and Housekeeper is shooing away hungry koels eyeing the eggs. Red-whiskered bulbuls have a a nice song too. Not as virtuousic as the Oriental Magpie-Robin's, but still a sweet multi-note whistle.


Lap-cat's and Bus-stop Cat's over-licking problem appears to be improving. They are uncomplaining about daily dusting with anti-fungal powder, and seem to have no problem with being brushed. They also seem happy to eat the multi-vitamin pills and salmon oil as part of their regular meals, and their fur looks as if it is growing back. Lap-cat is even gaining a bit of weight, as he is less distracted from food by the itching, which is good. Scaredy-Cat's problem is asthma, which is unfortunately incurable, but so far seems manageable. They are now eight years old, about to be Senior Cats.