Sunday, September 18, 2011

Episode 217 - Pet vs. Working Cat

When I was small, my family used to keep cats to fix the rats problem.

They were working cats and they were allowed to go outside the house whenever they liked.

We fed the cats with fish and rice. At that time, the fish hawkers sold some low end fishes at discounted price. The fishes were fried in the wok until they were completely dried and broken down into small pieces. The dried pieces were then mixed with rice to feed the cats.

As the cats lived freely, some time they just did not come back after wandering outside at night and we had to get new cats to fill the vacancy in the team.

Sometimes the female cats had babies and we had to distribute the kittens to our neighbours.

The past experience in keeping working cats would not, however, assist us in keeping a pet cat.

There is no rat for it to catch so we have to give it some toys to do exercise instead.

We have to erect fences at our windows to avoid the cat from jumping out (at 50+ floors!).

We have to teach the cat to be careful with the loose objects in the flat. Our souvenirs are in danger!

The cat now eats pallets. How strange!

We also need to use cat sands (which absorb smells) for the cat's toilet.

What a difference!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Episode 216 - Playing Cat


We bought a gift for the cat today.

It serves as a scratcher and a toy.

See how the cat indulges in its new discovery!

Sunday, September 04, 2011

Episode 215 - New Family Member - An Adopted Cat


We adopted a cat from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) today.

It is a young male cat of around 4 months old.


The whole family is excited about the new member and we are working at getting him settle down in his new home.


Friday, August 26, 2011

Episode 214 - Birds at Hamilton Island

Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Laughing Kookaburra

Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo and Seagull
Currawong
Seagull

A Quail?

Episode 213 - Hamilton Island

1. Coral Sea view from hotel room


2. Church


3. Front Street


4. Jetty for boat to the Great Barrier Reef


5. Sunset at One Tree Hill




6. The Buggies

My family had a short holiday at the Hamilton Island recently.

Hamilton Island is located at Queensland of Australia. It is one of the Whitsunday Islands at the North-eastern part of Australia.
There had been some changes to the Island since we visited it over 10 years ago:
a. The hotel looked old and requires some renovation.
b. The arrangement was less convenient - we needed to pick up our luggage at the airport and took it to our transfer bus (last time the luggage was transferred direct from the plane to our room!).
c. The zoo had moved to a new site. The previous site appeared to have been redeveloped to build houses. It becomes a very small zoo now.
Having said that we still consider the Island to be a place worth revisiting again in the future. The Island, in particular the sunset at the One Tree Hill, remained very very beautiful. It's easy to see wild birds around the Island (see Episode 214 for photos). Travelling around by golf car (they called it buggy there) was also very enjoyable.
The original photos were taken by my family using a Nikon D7000. The photos as posted here reduced in size and quality after uploaded.