How my kitty tried to kill me

Hi folks,

I am new here, and perhaps this should be my intro letter. I am living in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman with my wife, a parrot and two kitties. I guess without those kitties, I would not have wrote here.

This was a letter that I wrote elsewhere a while back, but that was not in a cat forum. Then a few days ago , I thought perhaps I should join a cat forum where folks there might be more understanding as they have kitties too. So here I am.

I copied that letter into my livejournal, explaining why I was in the office in flipflops that day.

But in truth, it was on

"How my kitty tried to kill me"




Warmest regards

Shanlung


index

Folks,

Thank you for the warm welcome and expressions of sympathies.

I feel a tinge of sadness on the sentiments that hubbies should come secondary to kitties for breakfasts. So I cannot drag my wife to this forum to show her the error of her ways in feeding kitties before at least getting me my coffee even if not my ham sandwich.

That incident was on 18 Oct 08.

By now, the physical damage healed over even if the scar is left.
The damage to my self esteem, that kitties breakfast took priority over my coffee and ham sandwich is a long lasting damage.

That was not the only time I had physical injuries inflicted on my by Katie. Dommie was her active supporter, but to a lesser extent.

Of course, they looked at me with eyes of innocence. That they were only having mock fights, with my ankles in the vicinity. And of course! their slashing claws did not know my ankles were nearby. That it was all my fault I did not move away.

Another person tried to give me comfort with this video from youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo

The only comfort I drew was that I was not the only brain-damaged entity who decided to live with kitties, even if that person was more musical than me.

BUT bad deeds done to me by Katie had not gone un-noticed and a few days later, repercussions of that attempt rebounded onto Katie in

Karmic retribution on Katie and Riamfada trust
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/84195.html





Warmest regards

Shanlung


http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/

One would have thought Katie learned the error of her ways.

She did not, and yet another heavenly punishment fell on her in

Dommie loved to go walkabout with me. In the mountains and also into the ocean


Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119381.html


We did that many times before such as in


Tinkerbell Kitty Mash//Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabou
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119237.html


I do not trust kipples for kitties that came out from a box. I made my own mash for kitty without any strange ickky additivies in them. You might like to read above how I made kitty mash.


Warmest regards


Shanlung

This kind of started when my kitties Dommie & Katie joined us on our daily neighbouthood walks such as below



We then went out on picnics with the kitties. And found Dommie had no fear of water , getting into the wadi with me as below.



Eventually kitties were brought to the beach, but Dommie was the one who regularly joined me into the ocean wading into tide pools.






Below is a kind of summary of the things we have done with our kitties in the Sultanate of Oman. That was written as advice to a lady who wanted to know how I gotten the kitties to follow me about and if she could do the same.

Sharon & kitty advice
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/113583.html

I hope you find that if not useful to you, amusing for you all to read at the very least.

Warmest regards

Shanlung

Rosiemac,

Thank you!

Mystik Spiral,

You must be referring to that one and only Katie. That original one who tried to do me in at the beginning of this thread that I wrote about
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/79517.html

I confess I am only a WorldCup soccer fan in that I watched soccer only during World Cups and that the ball is vaguely round. So comparison of Katie to a soccer ball never crossed my mind.

Katie had many names though. As minors might be reading this, I refrained from writing some of the names I called her.

My wife said Katie looked like a black and white cow in milk advertisements. So I called her the Cow, and when I got back from office, I might asked my wife "Did the Cow come home?"

Katie was never very clever. When my wife stared into Katies eyes, she told me inside was a space 'two sandwiches short of a picnic'.

Katie was never a fan of driving out. Here she was cowering between my wifes feet in the car.



Dommie was very different. He loved car rides.

Do you think only doggies stick their heads out of car windows?





That what Dommie did to me when he was not giving me unsolicited advise on how to drive and where to go from the backseat.

(from Riamfada & kitties - foundation of my relationships with kitties
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/100658.html )



Here is another episode just with Katie on a picnic


Raining curses on Katie at Al Felaj dam
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/110199.html

Folks keeping kitties will understand.

Thank you folks.

It looked like I am with those either beholden or slaves of meowing furry beasties or having them as familiars.

Those who went on to click onto my livejournal will find that much as I write here, and the photos that you enjoyed, the iceberg is within the livejournal links with even more photos. And if not enough, the Flickr follder contained even more photos and videos.

Taking kitty to walk in the ocean isnt easy at all, requiring a dozen or more trips to the beach. As related, the first attempt saw blood and marrow coming down my thighs as Dom tried to hide in my baggie shorts.

Wearing baggy shorts that a kittie tried to find shelter in is a very bad idea for that first trip to beach. Then it became easier and easier, depending on the kitty. Not fair to force kitty. It was clear that Katie did not like it after a couple of trips to beach with her. So she stayed at home.

But as you all can see, Dommie loved the ocean, and just about everywhere else with us.

We liked to take all our beasties with us when possible. Often we had to wait for that cow to come home before we could all finally go.

Here is one such picnic trip.

Hope you enjoy this too.

Katie & Dommie at Buwah//Good to be a cowardly wimpy traveller

shanlung: Katie & Dommie at Buwah//Good to be a cowardly wimpy traveller








My wife , and chief photographer with her familiar Katie turning around to look at you all and the traitor Dommie by her side. Dommie used to sleep on me until my wife joined me in the Sultanate of Oman. Dommie then transfered all allegience to my wife. It will make you sick to see the saccharin in his eyes whenever he gazed to my wife.



Warmest regards

Shanlung
山 龍

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/

I am happy you enjoyed that.

I normally refer just to the URL of those sagas written in real time at that time.
Especially where that was on the kitties or with large portion on the kitties. As can be seen, I wrote then largely for the birdie world.
But I could not but include my beasties as they were such a large part of my life, much as it confused those in the birdie world.

Except I made it clear to them that without my beasties then and in the past, I never would have been able to do what I did with my birdie. And viceversa, without the birdies, I doubt I could have understood my beasties that well for that matter. They love my beasties too over there.

Likewise, I hope you tolerate my talking of the birdie in this beastie place

But this particular episode was so technical and so much on birdie that I thought it would be better to extract the beasties part that hopefully you all might enjoy.

This was from

Reflections on Riamfada at edge of the Empty Quarter and some rants
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/112576.html

The extract


On that Saturday, I decided to go to Wadi Harban with the kitties telling my wife that I thought of taking them there the last and first time we were there.


more photos in flickr folder "Wadi Halban with Kattie and Dommie"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7623527800680/

That was certainly true.

But now in retrospect, I think what underlay those wonderful logical rationalization was the emotional fear of going to Buwah. I had thought Buwah was such a safe place to free fly, to all the worse scenarios in my mind then. That exuberance flight of Riamfada at the desert blew those scenarios apart.

Wadi Harban was a place that Riamfada would remain leashed up and that was why I chose that place to go to that day. The fear was too raw in me just the next day.

At Wadi Harban, we all enjoyed ourselves again. The unusual rains this year allowed lush growth of the grass and wild flowers there. Dommie was ever the explorer. Katie was fearful and remained inside the car, under the car, top of the car but mostly under the driver seat in the car.

The bee keepers came over this time to admire Riamfada and her recalls to me. They made us felt very welcome there with offers of water and honey that we declined with counter offers of our picnic goodies.

more photos in flickr folder "Wadi Halban with Kattie and Dommie"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7623527800680/











That day passed well in between lunches, reading, flying Riamfada, trying to persuade Katie to be out of the car, snacks and cursing Dommie.

Dommie wanderings became more exuberant than before. I was dragged out of my book by my wife squealing away. I looked a while before I could make out Dommie was not only across the dry wadi, Dommie was making his way up the side of a high hill the sun was setting behind.



Dommie taken with 25x zoom on side of hill

That was a beautiful sight as Dommie stood in the skyline blazed by the sun behind him. My wife tried to shoot that shot. I told her if she accepted my offer to buy her a proper monster SLR camera (that of course she was expected to carry), she would have gotten a photo the entire world would crawl at her feet for. Instead of thanking me for that repeated offer, she directed verbal kicks to me.

She stopped verbally kicking me only because Dommie disappeared over the other side of the hill to wail away at me to get him back.

I firmly refused to walk that 200++ meters over the wadi, climb that humongous 45 degree slope to look for a Dommie that traitorously transferred allegiance to my wife and with saccharine eyes only for her. Cursing Dommie loudly was all I was prepared to do.

I even laughed and reminded my wife we planned to leave 20 minutes later from that place.

I wickedly added with or without Dommie and glad Katie was such a coward to remain within the car.

Dommie was a bad penny before it became reincarnated as Dommie. Just as I finished packing up base camp, Dommie appeared on the other side of that hill true to the nature of his former life as a bad penny. He came down the slope, ran across that wadi and my wife was happily reunited with her familiar again and we all went back home.

more photos in flickr folder "Wadi Halban with Kattie and Dommie"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7623527800680/


On the 4th Mar 2010 Thursday, I decided to return to Buwah. Katie had not liked Wadi Harban and she seemed to explore happily at Buwah even if not to the extent of Dommie.


more photos in flickr folder "Buwah with Kattie and Dommie 4 March 2010 "
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7623580263992/


Strangely though, Katie refused to leave the car as before.

Despite one week of brooding, I could not think of a solution to Riamfada’s potential exuberance flight. The leash remained on Riamfada that day at Buwah. Not as if having that leash on hindered her flights to me in any way. The only impact was on Riamfada that there would be no soaring exuberant flights for her that would cause me premature aging.

That day was spent in the way it should be. Very uneventful to the point it could be considered boring for all of us.





Picking up rubbish & plastic bottles left by other #@$#%^&&(*^$# picnickers




We packed up and drove back.

A glimmer of a partial solution came during that drive back.

I could not pray to be given precognitive powers. And if I have precognitive powers, I would not have wasted it on Riamfada.

I would be a billionaire 100 times over playing the stock market, racing horses and futures market. I would then wired Riamfada up with miniature sensors and GPS widgets with no regards to costs to know exactly where she is at any time. And engaged a backup army of humans on scrambler bikes to keep eyeball lookouts to get her back.

I have little concern for spook flights for reasons I touched on earlier.

Parroty joke flights done to me had been local and had to be accepted as parroty joke to be lived with and within walking distances.

That eventuality that I had to prepare for is that Riamfada during an exuberance flight got blown or chased until she could not come back and too far for me to get to her.

Falcon transponders I had enquired in Dubai who wanted to charge me 3 times the price I saw on Internet.

But what if Riamfada could tell those who found her my telephone? Or my telephone number be on her that I then could be contacted.

What if something could be clipped to her with my telephone?

Not all reports on kitties had photos. This was one such report, for obvious reasons that will be clear in that report.

From shanlung: Idiot kitties // Riamfada free flights at home and outside villa



Idiot kitties

We have had Riamfada doing those free flights at Buwah
shanlung: Riamfada free flights at Buwah
together with our kitties. We drove by Wadi Fanja to shoot some photos of those flash floods that you seen in last report. Wadi Fanja was the first wadi we got to know and to take the kitties and Riamfada to and that place earned a soft spot in our hearts. So we would at least drive past there even if we stop going to Wadi Fanja for picnics the way we did in the past.

The light was falling fast when we went through WF and onto the highway back to Muscat. It was a very good day, with the morning spend with the Jabris and the afternoon doing all the freeflights. So instead of cooking noodles at home, we decided to take Riamfada with us for dinner. That was to be at Arab World restaurant, just a couple of klicks down the road from where we stayed. They also serve delicious mutton soup that I be happy to pay for. The strange part was that the soup was free with meals. As there was a chill in the air, and that day had been good, I wanted to have that soup.

But we have the 2 kitties with us. Dommie is a bully and a coward. He would stiff legged to any kitty smaller than him to growl 'Wwwuuuuuuu' and intimidate him/her. Should the other kitty be even the same size and look at Dommie, Dommie would turn tail and run and hide.

I cannot say Katie is fearless. More likely Katie is crazy and my wife said Katie is 2 sandwiches short of a picnic. I wonder what kind of books my wife read to come up with such corny saying. Never mind, wife and woman can only be appreciated without having to even try to understand them. That restaurant has its resident kitties. So taking Dom and Katie there would not be a good idea. Riamfada was always welcomed there. She delighted the staff with her flights and by just being there.

Since we had to pass by home before the restaurant, I told my wife we would drop the kitties off first and then go on to the restaurant. Our villa was in a kind of gated compound except there was no gate. The road into that compound was not very wide. Once you enter the road, you either go all the way back into your villa so you can turn around and get back onto the road again or you reversed all the way out to the main road. Villa 2 where we stayed was near the entrance of the road with only villa 1 before it. Just before villa 1 was a big piece of land with a low wall of about 5 feet (1.7 meters) high surrounding that land.

I did not care to drive back home, or later to reverse the car out. So I stopped before the entry of road leading into the compound, told my wife to open the door and toss the kitties out. My wife sitting at the back opened the car door. The kitties looked at me as if bewildered. So I told them “ Out Out Out! Go out! Get lost! “ They stared at me and turned to get out of the car sat on the side of the road looking at me. I told them they could jolly well go back home themselves. That was thirty odd meters away. This was also part of the almost daily neighbourhood walks where the kitties joined us. I had seen the kitties coming out of this land when I drove back home at other times. I expected them to go home, jump over the garden wall as they had always done in the past and get through the cat flap they created in the screen door to eat their kitty kibbles at home.

I turned the car to get back onto the road and drove on to that restaurant.

We went on to our dinner. Waiters, cooks and other people there were pleased to see us again. Riam did recalls to obliged them. Soon the food came, soup and humus and bread and nice tasty succulent ‘Manti meat’ (mutton) and rice. We enjoyed the dinner, Riamfada enjoyed the cucumber slices. Riam refused the small pieces of mutton or bones that I persisted in offering her. I am a carnivore and Riams persistence in trying to remain a Vegan offended me not withstanding from time to time, I added hard boiled egg yolk or cooked minced meat into her mash to ensure she got some animal protein as well.

We finished the dinner and we drove back. As I turned off the main road into the approach to the community road, we were stunned to see both Dommie and Katie sitting motionless on the top of the low wall like little ugly gargoyles. I was telling my wife how insidious and horrid those 2 kitties were. Doing their best to make us feel guilty at dropping them near home instead of at home. Sitting there just waiting for us to get back.

I stopped the car and my wife opened the door. Katie jumped down looking at me. She melted my heart and I asked her to come in. She immediately ran to the car and jumped inside. You all know Katie is my kittie even though she tried to kill me with her figure of 8s weaving. Dommie then jumped down. I felt he was a traitor preferring to sleep with my wife instead of with me as he did before my wife joined us. Coward and bully though Dommie was, he was also the more steady of the 2 kitties.

I gave an evil chuckle, told my wife to close the door and I drove off back home. When I got out of the car, Dommie was already on the wall about to jump into the garden.

And instead of thanking me, those two evil kitties went to their kibble dish to munch and crunch away at their kibbles. Despite them being so horrid, ungrateful and bad, I think I will miss them very much when we have to go

Warmest regards

Shanlung

I thought I extract the relevant parts from those URLs. Even if not all the photos , at least enough that you see our relationships.


Tinkerbell Kitty Mash//Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabou
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119237.html

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Tinkerbell Kitty Mash


That Tinkerbell Mash Batch 9 was made recently, with lots of baggies in the freezer.

I told you that I discard the mash Riamfada did not eat at the end of the day to the kitchen midden for wild birdies to forage about.

One day, I decided to give that discarded mash to the 3 little kitties. To see them fighting each other to gobble that up even when kitty kibbles were in another bowl next to them.

You know I have deep disquiet over kibbles that come out of a box. That extend also to kitties. So I decided to do a trial batch of kitty mash with Tinkerbell Mash as its foundation. I took out 3 baggies of Batch 9 from the freezer and defrosted them.

They weighed 840 grams. I kneaded 200 grams of minced beef into that lot as kitties needed taurine which can only be found in animal protein.

The 3 kitties loved the kitty mash. To both our surprise, the diarrhea that the 3 tiny kitties were having went away the next day giving us beautiful solid kitty turds. Must be our imagination, they seemed to grow so visibly. We only have a few weeks to go and I wanted to give them a better head start in the short time we got left.

Dommie also love that kitty mash, and it went quickly. Even though I topped that kitty mash with discarded Riamfada's mash at end of the day.

I then decided to cook a batch of special kitty mash as that first kitty mash went so quickly. The rest of Batch 9 will be for Riamfada.

I had no desire to cook a batch, and knead beef mince into that as that was too much hard work.

So I did the following


1 measure (20 grams) of soybeans
1 measure (20 grams) of kidney beans
1 measure (20 grams) of garbonzo beans
1 measure (20 grams) of pinto beans
1 measure (20 grams) of blackeye beans
2 measure (50 grams) of Great Northern white beans
1 measure (20 grams) of red beans
1 measure (20 grams) of green beans
1 measure (20 grams) of black beans
1 measure (20 grams) of lima beans
1 measure (110 grams)of frozen sweet corn

1 measure (100 grams) of brown crushed barley
1 measure (100 grams) of brown glutinious rice
1 measure (300 grams) of brown rice
1 measure (100 grams) of brown rolled oats
1 measure (100 grams) of brown rolled wheat berries


(about 400 grams) of sweet potatoes 3/4 grated (thereabout)
(about 400 grams) of carrots 3/4 grated (thereabout)

(0 grams) of brazil nuts (because I ran out of brazil nuts)
(70 grams) of almonds
2 tablespoon of wheat germ
5 teaspoon of cuttlefish bone crushed and powdered (I felt more calcium needed for growing kitties

600 grams of regular fatty beef mince

(NOTE:
Lima beans contained linamarin, which releases a cyanide compound unless cooked thoroughly. The soaking/germinating process that I do reduces the linamarin.
The liquidizing of the all the beans ensured the beans are broken into small bits so that cooking is thorough to render harmless all poison from lima and other beans. This is a new addition on my part. If you do fear lima beans, you should exclude it)

The dried beans were first soaked about 8 hours in individual containers to start the sprouting process. All the water were then drained, and must be drained or rot might set in. The beans were subsequently soaked and washed AND DRAINED repeatedly over the next couple of days and nights until the time of cooking.

It was like making Tinkerbell Mash. Except all the beans/sweetcorn and nuts were liquidised, together with 600 grams of minced beef for the taurine. The rice were powderised. And the cereals added to the boiling beans/beef soup like typical Tinkerbell Mash. And into baggies the next morning into the freezer.

All the kitties and Dommie loved that kitty mash. And got fat and beautiful in the process.
=====================================================
(added on 14 Feb 2011)
See this for explicit details on how to make mash

Making of Tinkerbell Mash
Morning with Harry & the decision// Sultan of Oman Palace// Tinkerbell Mash Batch 7
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/109957.html

See also the making of Tinkerbell mash batch 8
with changes and further improvement on batch 7
Iceland and Goldman // Jebel Akhdar // Tinkerbell mash batch 8
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/114545.html



see the making of Tinkerbell Mash Batch 9
with changes and further improvement on batch 8
Pakistan//mind of parrot//Tinkerbell Mash Batch 9//Riamfada pulling up cup//Villa walkabout
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/119016.html

====================================================

If you like that mash and it works for you, remember that nice cheque to Gerald Durrell Wildlife Trust or to any of your favourite charity for Pakistan relief aid

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/as...jjUJ&wom=false


A few days ago, we came back home to find the 2nd kitty missing. He might have gone out of the gate when we drove out. We looked and called for him around the neighbourhood. He was not found. He would always come running to me when I called. He had got to like human company. And beautiful looking too, not the bag of bones that he was. I think quite likely, he was picked up by someone who decided to give him a home.


Of the 3 tiny kitties, there is only one left now at this point of writing at 2pm 27 Aug 2010. Just an hour ago, a nice expat family fell in love with the tiniest, Nameless and taken her away with a big bag of frozen kitty mash baggies.


Only Dommie is with us now, with Noname.

I miss those 2 other horrid balls of orange now.

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Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010

360++ photos in flickr folder 'Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010 '
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7624686264945/

With Ramadhan 2010 on us, it was not all walking about inside our villa.

With the fasting during the daylight hours, we know we would have the beach almost all to ourselves.

And we all can enjoy that with Dommie and Riamfada.
We went there late in the afternoon when the sun was low and cooler.

Dommie love going to the beach with us. The last time he will be doing that.

He went into the water for a while, then he decided the water to be too wet and came out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2e6uCbQaOE



He romped about on the sand, chasing little crabs about, just being with us, occasionally paddling in the water.

And of course, Riam loved that too, doing recalls to me now and then.

We sitting on the beach now and then, and just enjoying those moments

360++ photos in flickr folder 'Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010 '
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlun...7624686264945/




















When Dommie had enough, he would just go back to the SUV by himself and wait there for us.

Photos say it better.







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Extracted from

Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010
shanlung: Pakistan//Riamfada at home//Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabout 3



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Riamfada at home and flying through tiny gaps
(Partial extract of kitty stuff)

more photos in flickr folder 'Riam flies through curtains '
Riam flies through curtains - a set on Flickr

A day after I posted that last blog, the remaining orange kitty Noname was adopted by another family.

The kitty mash that I made for 3 kitties and Dommie filled the freezer together with Tinkerbell Mash batch 9.



The top half of the freezer, including that Twist icetray is packed with Tinkerbell Mash batch 9 for Riamfada. If I had added veges into the mash, there would not be any space left. For that matter, you noticed in my mash making, the pot was so filled that I always have sweet potatoes and carrots left over.

Those frozen Wyman's mixed berries are for Riamfada by the way.

The bottom half of the freezer is packed with Kitty Mash. I barely have some space left for my icecream. Isn't that pathetic?

.
.
.



Dommie enjoying his kitty mash.
How kitty mash is made is in below. Perhaps you might like to make it too.


shanlung: Pakistan//Tinkerbell Kitty Mash//Dommie at the beach Ramadhan 2010 //Villa walkabout 2

.
.
.
(extracted or comments on photo later might sound inane and meaningless otherwise)

I could adjust the curtains to have a small gap for Riamfada to fly through. I wrote earlier that Riamfada could fly through a tiny gap in the door to sneak into the kitchen. I could not and would not want to risk any injury to Riamfada , but the light curtains would be perfect to show that she could fly through a tiny gap.

And so can your parrot. So if you keep the door barely closed, that might not be as safe as you think.

at point of curtain, this series of shots caught her adjusting her wings to fly through



see her adjusting her wings

.
.
.

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Dommie at the beach again Ramadhan 2010
more photos in flickr folder 'Dommie at the beach 3 Ramadan 2010 '
Dommie at the beach 3 Ramadan 2010 - a set on Flickr

As mentioned before, we made use of the relative emptiness of the beach during Ramadan to take Riamfada and Dommie to the beach. I do believe this will be the last Ramadan that Dom will be at the beach. It is not likely Omer will be taking DomDom to the beach in future Ramadan. Or to other places. But it is enough that Omer be providing love and care to Dommie.




You see how wide the wingspan can be, and you contrast that with her flying through that gap in the curtains above.









trying to get at that crab




and Dommie in the sea before he decided the water is too wet



crabs in the sand is more fun than to remain by my side.







more photos in flickr folder 'Dommie at the beach 3 Ramadan 2010 '
Dommie at the beach 3 Ramadan 2010 - a set on Flickr



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Warmest regards

Shanlung

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9

It was not the beach and ocean or neighbourhood walks all the time.
We walked about on the hills too.


Here is one episode just with Dommie as that stupid cow did not come home that day.

From shanlung: Closing this chapter//Buwah off Harban with Dommie// Beautiful Wadi Qurai
and as before, not all the photos in above URL were extracted into here.


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Buwah off Harban with Dommie


many more photos in Flickr folder "Buwah off Halban "
Buwah off Halban - a set on Flickr

You know that Wadi Fanja was a place we liked to go to in cooler season and with our kitties too. It is cooler now, but the water in that part of Wadi Fanja had dried up. That being said, the heavy rains of yesterday and today (and forecast to last a week) should fill up that Wadi.

We drove a few times from Wadi Fanja over the hills towards Harban. And around Buwah we saw this scrubby woodlands. Since no one lived there, and the woodland was extensive, we have thought of going there with our kitties.

So it was on Friday 4th December we went there. Idiot Katie was not around and did not answer to my calling of her. So only Dommie came with us. We had bought takeaway the night before and we all were going for a picnic there.

It took 20 minutes to drive to Harban and at the T junction, we turned right as towards Fanja. 4-5 kilometers later, we were in that woodlands. We turned onto a track and drove 5-600 meters to be far from the road. Lots of trees here and we chose one to give us shade.

Then the camp chairs, ice box , camp table unloaded and set up. Riamfada perch hung from the car and we all enjoyed that place.


many more photos in Flickr folder "Buwah off Halban "
Buwah off Halban - a set on Flickr












This might give you an idea of the size of that patch of woodland. Dommie stayed near us most of the time. Periodically he would do his explorations wandering far away. When he was beyond sight, I would call for him and he would appear again and make his way back to us.


We walked from time to time to a ridge, protected by Dommie padding after us, or ahead of us, or behind us as he deemed fit. We never had to call Dommie to join us when we walked away. Dom would always join us on those walks.

It was such a safe clear place that we did some very long flights to almost the extent of the line, 100 meters or so.





As the day went on, the car had to be moved to stay in the shade of that tree.


















many more photos in Flickr folder "Buwah off Halban "
Buwah off Halban - a set on Flickr




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Warmest regards

Shanlung

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9

As said before, not all episodes came with photos. Such as this.
It was bad enough for me to go where mad dogs or Englishman go. My wife was not going to follow me to snap photos when she could remain in the comfort of home.



Extracted from
shanlung: Oman snorkelling//Dommie threw tantrum or mad dogs & Englishmen // Riamfada takeoffs

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The other night on our bed, I was stroking Dommie when I discovered he got this big tick gorged with his blood under him where his right front leg joined his body. My wife was called over. We recalled this article we read that taught one and all how to remove the tick. That if you roll the tick about like giving the tick a body massage, that tick will get groggy after a while and released itself. We were warmed if we try to kill the tick or pull out the tick, the tick would inject toxins into the cat which will be bad.


So we tried that recommendation. I hold Dommie while my wife rolled and rolled that tick. It did not work.

Then my wife hold Dommie while I gave that tick a rolling body massage which did not work either.

It got Dommie more and more annoyed. Dommie is such a laid back character who never seemed angry at the indignities or insults I hurled at him. We were so shocked when Dommie growled and then spit at us. Like lightning, he slashed his claws at me. And I faster than lightning, pulled my hand back.

That did it. We decided to use the Frontline we bought earlier for the cats but never got to using. Frontline application was to be made onto the skin on base of his head and that would be enough to protect the kitty a month from ticks and fleas.

My wife hold Dommie down again and I applied the Frontline as directed. Then I smeared a bit of Frontline directly on the tick. We did not like the idea of Katie licking Dommie and getting the Frontline off or the tick dropping off in the house. So with the agreement of my wife, I carried Dommie and put him out and closed the front door.

I returned to playing my chess on Internet in the living room. After a while, Dommie came to the sliding door and meowed to be let in. I turned around , looked at him and gave him a laugh. I wickedly told him that was what he deserved for being a traitor and giving my wife saccharine eyes and sleeping on her instead of on me like what he did in the past before my wife came. He stayed there and meowed to be let in. I told him rudely to go away and I went into bedroom and slept.

Waking up the next morning, I missed Dommie next to me on the bed. I asked my wife if Dommie came back. She told me no. When she went out to feed the cats, only Katie was around.

I thought that to be strange, but as I had to take care of Riamfada breakfast and play with her before I left for office, that matter was forgotten.


I came back for lunch. I asked if Dommie got back. My wife said no. I was feeling very uneasy as I got used to Dommie even if he was so insolent to me.

I thought back at last night and my laughter at him and the words I used to taunt him and I felt bad. I had my lunch hoping to hear Dommie again.

He still did not appear despite my calling 'Dommie Dommie COME COME COME'.

Summer is on us. Temperature in the shade that day was 44C. House was cool only because of the split unit AC blasting cold air at 22C.

I was getting more and more worried. I thought of how Dommie would snuggle to me first on the bed and rubbed his head against me before he walked over to my wife and slept on her. Dommie was not that bad to me. And I laughed at him when he was pathetically meowing to me to open that door.

The sky was so clear on that mid day. The sun beating down with ferocious heat. But I felt I had to go out to call for Dommie in the neighbourhood. As I walked out of the house and on the road, I could feel the sun reflecting off the walls along side the road and focusing on me. No one else was out there. I recalled reading ' Only mad dogs and Englishmen would walk out in the mid day sun'.

I walked on calling 'Dommie Dommie come come come' . No black and white creature came to greet me. I kept calling and walking and calling and walking. My calls turned to curses. To avoid problems with neighbours, my curses on Dommie were made in Chinese. Dommie had not appeared when I came home.

I had to return to my office. I was worried enough to plan another massive search later in the evening. But when I got back after work, Dommie was at the French sliding door and he meowed at me like nothing was wrong. I opened the door and he came in just like before. The tick was gone.

But it was not normal.

He refused to get into bed with us when it was time to sleep.

The next night, he slept away from us.

I had enough the following night. I grapped him , tossed him kicking and screaming on our bed. He then rubbed his head on me, and walked over and dropped himself on my wife as we went to sleep.

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Warmest regards

Shanlung

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9