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Quirky Folk - December 2007

I’ve Changed my Mind About Adventure Bound

December 31st 2007 21:01
tuna on cutting board
This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Tuna_on_cutting_board.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license.
A few nights ago I was watching Adventure Bound as usual. The one thing I really like about this show is that they normally throw any fish they catch back into the ocean. I couldn’t handle watching a show where the presenters killed all the fish they catch.


But the latest episode deviated from the norm. It showed a guy catching tuna and then showing the viewer how to kill it. This happened twice. And there was a lot of blood. I was really grossed out. I felt sorry for the poor things. Imagine swimming around in the water as usual, expecting nothing out of the ordinary to happen and you end up with a hook stuck into the side of your mouth before being pulled onto a boat and some guy lifts you up to show you off before he sticks a knife into you and kills you. No wonder I try to avoid eating meat.

The good thing was, though, it didn’t take long for the fish to die (i.e. about 5 seconds) so at least the presenter tried to kill it in the most humane and fastest way possible.

This leads me to the hooks. I always thought having hooks go through the side of the fish’s mouth would be very painful for them but according to my mate Nim, who loves fishing, there are not many nerve endings around a fish’s mouth so being hooked isn’t as painful as it appears. I hope that’s true. Nim also throws any fish he catches back into the ocean.
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Have a Happy New Years Eve but Please Remember Fido

December 30th 2007 21:28
Animals are terrified of New Years Eve – in particular, the noise from the fireworks. One of my neighbour’s friends dreads every New Years Eve as she knows she will have to spend hours calming her dog who panics and hides to get away from the noise. Funnily enough, the noise doesn’t bother my neighbour’s cats, who like to sit out on the balcony and watch people going by. This is unusual as her cats are very sensitive to noise and get upset if anyone around them is having an argument. The clever pussies seem to be able to sense there is tension in the room. They also dislike shouting for the same reason.

So, whatever you do, if you have pets and you feel like going out during New Years Eve, please remember to lock them up in a safe place so they can’t escape if they are terrified. I would hate to see any animal come to harm during the festive season. And on this warm note, let’s see in 2008 with a bang!
Hanabii in Adachi
Photo by Shin-改 T. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
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The Dog who is Terrified of Storms

December 27th 2007 21:04
My best friend Andrea once had a neighbour who owned a yellow Labrador. This dog was terrified of storms because she happened to have been born in the middle of a storm and her mother had been terrified, passing the terror onto the poor pup. The pup grew up to become a gentle Labrador who was always kept inside. Unfortunately, she was terrified of many things, in particular, loud noises so the owners had to handle it with care.
Labrador_jeune_chienne_assise
Photo d'une jeune chienne labrador assise (Photo of young labrador sitting down) contributed to Wikimedia Commons by Mzelle Laure. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
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The Terrifying Labrador

December 26th 2007 21:03
Looks can be deceptive. A case in point was the scary Labrador that lived near my school. When my best friend, Andrea, and I were growing up, we had always believed all Labradors were friendly dogs. Let’s face it, we grew up in a world that showed little yellow Labrador pups playing with toilet paper on TV and from being told yellow Labs made good guide dogs. No one ever told us Labs could also be good guard dogs. That was until I encountered the yellow Labrador.

One day, while I was walking past the property, this yellow Labrador came flying out of nowhere, barking crazily at me. I was only about 9 or 10 then, still terrified of large vicious dogs, so that was enough to scare me. I learnt to keep away from that property for months on end. My sister and I would avoid going past the property altogether but failing that, we would quickly run past, hoping the Labrador didn’t notice us.
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Fishing: More Interesting Than You Think

December 25th 2007 21:03
I used to find fishing boring. And smelly. Whenever someone talked about fishing it brought back many memories of long, hot summer afternoons with my parents, sitting on the dock and watching them for hours while they dangled their fishing rods in the water, waiting for their catch. Maybe it was my parents’ lack of experience or suitable bait, but seldom did they catch anything. That led my sister and me to the conclusion that fishing must be a futile exercise.

Due to my mates at work, I no longer think that way. Never being a girly girl and given the fact the girls in my team like to talk about weddings, babies and engagements all day long, I gravitated to the boys. Listening to them talk about sports cars, motor cycles and fishing was quite refreshing compared to the endless drone of girl talk coming from the side of my desk. And Nim, one of the boys, was willing to talk to me about fishing so long as I was interested. That led to him telling me which rods he liked, and why he had pictures of fishing equipment called Dog Fight on his computer which silly me, had mistaken for motor cycle parts. I then noticed he had Tide Times on his desk – brochures telling you the differences in times of high and low water. One of them even had a cute logo on the front for a shop called Fish Outta Water. Finally, it led to discussions about Nim’s prime time viewing for the week, a show called Adventure Bound which was on every Thursday night on TVS, or, as I called it, the “funny channel” as it is a community TV station, and so it was not mentioned in the local TV guides.
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Cat with a Cigarette in its Mouth

December 24th 2007 21:03
My sister found a picture of a grey Persian cat with a cigarette hanging from its mouth. We both thought it was hilarious. I’ve printed it out and have it hanging at my workstation. Many a colleague has asked me if the picture is actually real. That, I cannot answer but I would love to know. Did someone actually stick a cigarette in the cat’s mouth? That seems awfully cruel. Or did they simply digitally alter the image? I’ve noticed there’s a shadow of the cigarette on the cat so if the cigarette was digitally placed there, whoever did it did a very convincing job.

To see the picture, please click on the link below:
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Two-Tongued Kitty

December 23rd 2007 21:05
I was doing a Google when I stumbled across this web site showing a two-tongued cat.

two-tongued cat link
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The Day Robert the Cat Tried to Attack Our Budgies (Part 2)

December 20th 2007 21:04
One of my readers, Eva W. relayed this amusing story about cats and birds being a bad combo:


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What one Mongrel Did to a Poor Dog

December 19th 2007 21:08
Check out the links below to find out what some cruel, heartless person did to this poor dog. According to the Daily Telegraph, Joshua Peterson “forgot” he had left a border collie in a car. The Telegraph said Rookie’s nose was pressed right against the back of the cage as he tried to escape. My heart goes out to Rookie’s owner, as I think of how desperately he must have tried to dig his way out of the car. How can you simply “forget” you left a dog in the car? Whenever I look after my friend’s pets, I watch them as closely as if they were my own children. I check their food bowls to make sure there’s enough food and water, and I check all the windows and doors to make sure they can’t escape and injure themselves.

My neighbour lives near a busy street where there are popular car parks and she says she often sees dogs left alone in cars with the windows shut and no water. I cannot understand how people can be so careless, especially in summer.
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Being Licked by a Cat

December 18th 2007 21:12
Nothing beats the sensation of being licked by a cat. I will often get a licking from my neighbour’s cat, Higgins, after I’ve had some potato crisps. Higgins will start licking one finger and slowly make his way up the entire finger. He will do the same for all my other fingers before moving to lick my knuckles and the palm of my hand. As sensuous as it feels, my neighbour doesn’t like Higgins licking me or anyone else; she believes it makes him sick so she tries to limit the licking to a minute.

Miggins, Higgins’ brother, is more reserved so he doesn’t lick me or anyone else for that matter.
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Brown-o and White-o’s Insect Diet

December 17th 2007 21:03
When my sister first got our quackers, like most people who have not been raised on a farm, we had no idea what to feed them. The people at the pet store told her to buy duck pellets, which they sold by the kilo, and to give them water to drink. This sounded really simple. We had no idea that as Brown-o and White-o grew, they started wanting more variety – namely insects – until one hot day when we noticed the ducks would try to catch flies with their bills whenever one flew near them. This led to my sister killing many flies with her tennis racket and collecting the bodies in a small plastic container for them. When she collected sufficient dead flies, she would bring the container over to our ducks and they would gobble them up in an instant.

On another day, the sun had just come out after it had been raining for some time. The ducks had been out enjoying getting soaked and now it was hot again. The ducks decided to hang around the brick wall in our backyard, where it was shady and cool. That’s all they were doing – or so we thought. We then noticed the ducks seemed to be scanning the walls for something and it didn’t take us long to find out what it was: snails! Yes, our ducks were patiently waiting for the snails to come out after a long rain and once they spotted one, they would race over to it and gobble it up in a second. Again, this led to my sister hunting all around the house for snails. When she found one, she would lift it up by its shell and place it in the same plastic container. The snail would slide all around the container and my sister would feed it to the ducks.
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Monty the Dog Gets Upset

December 16th 2007 21:14
It was Sunday and as usual, I was walking to my sister’s house, something I do most Sundays. As usual, as I went past the hairdresser’s near her place, Monty the dog was sitting outside, his legs spread out on the pavement like a flat pressed Chinese duck.

I went over to say hello to Monty. He knows me now so the moment I sit down, he will let me cuddle him and he will start licking my face. I get several wet sloppy licks and I normally have to aim my face upwards so he can lick my chin, else I will end up with dog saliva on my mouth. Today, I gave Monty a couple of hugs and I got a couple of licks in return, so many that my face smelt of dog breath. I patted his head and then said goodbye and walked off. There was silence so I thought everything was okay buy after a few seconds, I heard a loud pitiful yelp. It was so loud I could hear it 10 metres away. I turned to look back at Monty and could see no one else around so I presume he was yelping for me. Poor thing. He really howls sometimes. My sister said she’s seen his owners walking him around the neighbourhood so obviously he’s got a home to go to but I always feel sorry for the poor sucker, left to sit outside the hairdresser’s on his own on most Sundays, without a bowl of food or water. I hope for his sake he doesn’t get to sit there for long periods, especially during the summer. I’d hate to see the poor thing get dehydrated.
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Monty the Dog Gets Upset

December 16th 2007 21:10
It was Sunday and as usual, I was walking to my sister’s house, something I do most Sundays. As usual, as I went past the hairdresser’s near her place, Monty the dog was sitting outside, his legs spread out on the pavement like a flat pressed Chinese duck.

I went over to say hello to Monty. He knows me now so the moment I sit down, he will let me cuddle him and he will start licking my face. I get several wet sloppy licks and I normally have to aim my face upwards so he can lick my chin, else I will end up with dog saliva on my mouth. Today, I gave Monty a couple of hugs and I got a couple of licks in return, so many that my face smelt of dog breath. I patted his head and then said goodbye and walked off. There was silence so I thought everything was okay buy after a few seconds, I heard a loud pitiful yelp. It was so loud I could hear it 10 metres away. I turned to look back at Monty and could see no one else around so I presume he was yelping for me. Poor thing. He really howls sometimes. My sister said she’s seen his owners walking him around the neighbourhood so obviously he’s got a home to go to but I always feel sorry for the poor sucker, left to sit outside the hairdresser’s on his own on most Sundays, without a bowl of food or water. I hope for his sake he doesn’t get to sit there for long periods, especially during the summer. I’d hate to see the poor thing get dehydrated.
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Fred Chases me Around the Garden with a Caterpillar

December 13th 2007 21:04
Tobacco Hornworm
photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Everyone has phobias. I personally cannot stand maggots, snails, worms, caterpillars, grubs – in a nutshell, larvae in any shape or form. In fact, anything that has no bones inside it (such as jellyfish) gives me the willies. I just hate the way larvae can undulate their bodies – it looks so ugly and creepy. The furrier the grubs/caterpillars are, the creepier they are to me, especially moth larvae. Ugh! I think (apart from maggots) they are the ugliest of the larvae family. And I can’t stand the ones Sir David Attenborough calls loopers. You know, the caterpillars that have no legs in the middle so when they move, they have to wait for the back half of their body to catch up with the front before they can re-commence moving.

My friend Fred, in contrast, loves caterpillars and cats. He says that’s why caterpillars have ‘cat’ as part of their name - it’s because they’re nice and furry like felis catus. Oh, please! But it’s funny that he mentions that as the Cantonese word for caterpillar is derived from the Cantonese word for cat.
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Cupcake: the World’s Cutest Pomeranian

December 12th 2007 21:01
Been calendar shopping lately? Then you may have noticed a sugary-pink coloured calendar with a dog dressed up as a cupcake on the cover. I was never a big Pomeranian lover (I’m more partial to Bulldogs, Labradors and Pugs) until I saw this calendar, even though one of my friends has one and my sister is a big fan of them, too. Both swear they are the world’s cutest dog. My sister loves to pick them up and put them in her lap. She keeps a photo of herself holding one and the dog looks so yappy and happy with its bright eyes and tongue hanging out of its mouth.

Still, my Pomeranian friend thinks this calendar is cheesy. Maybe this has to do with him being a boy and the fact boys aren’t keen on pink coloured stuff. I gotta admit I find Cupcake the dog pretty damn cute.
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Brown-o and White-o Thrive in the Rain

December 11th 2007 21:07
Most people hate being in the rain. I suppose the same would apply to many animals. But not my childhood pet ducks, Brown-o and White-o. As soon as the first drop hit the ground, the two ducks would be out and about with a vengeance. This was their time to splash around and get wet. When you think about it, this is hardly surprising, given that ducks are waterfowl and, like all waterfowl, are designed to be in the water. Brown-o and White-o would quack and quack in happiness and let the rain completely wet them. The more, the better it was for them! Of course, the rain didn’t completely penetrate their feathers…You know that saying, like water off a duck’s back? That’s actually true as ducks have an oil gland at the base of their tail feathers, which they will twist their heads upside down and backwards so they can rub the oil all over their heads and the rest of their body. This waterproofs their feathers so they can get as wet as they like while their inner most layer of feathers – the down which even grown ducks like my beloved Brown-o and White-o retain – is used to keep them warm.

As teenagers, my sister and I loved to watch Brown-o and White-o play in the rain, followed by them twisting their heads around in a long act of oiling their bodies. They looked so cute with their heads upside down. It’s amazing even given the fact due to the positioning of their eyes, they could see almost 360 degrees around them, making them easily spot predators.
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The Love Between Two Cats

December 10th 2007 21:08
When one of my friends contacted the Cat Protection Society with the intention of adopting a Siamese cat, he instead got a call from them telling him they had a pair of Tonkinese Cats. Tonkinese are half Siamese, half Burmese so my friend was keen until they told him that he had to take both of them; because they were brothers they couldn’t be separated. My friend nevertheless decided to take the two of them, saving two lives. I was touched by his kindness. He said the adoption fee was $220 and that Tonkinese kittens normally sell for around the $1000 mark. When I asked him why the cats had been surrendered, he said their previous owner developed an allergy to them.

When he told me they were in a cage when he went to the animal shelter, I felt very sad. Like all cats, his Tonkinese love to roam around the place, explore the backyard garden and lie in the sun.
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My Parents’ Cat Litter Tray

December 9th 2007 21:07
My parents owned a restaurant but their command of English was, at best, poor. It should have then come to no surprise to me one day when I found out they were using a kitty litter tray to serve drinks to their customers.

They had been using the tray for weeks before anyone said anything. Maybe the customers were too polite to say anything or they figured anyone running a Chinese restaurant probably didn’t speak English that well and took pity on them. It was actually me who drew it to their attention: One evening I was having dinner at the restaurant and I noticed this large tray sitting in front of me with a ‘CAT LITTER TRAY’ sticker prominently stuck on the side. I started giggling. My father asked me what was so funny and I told him to take a look at the tray. As my father read the sticker and I sat there wondering whether he knew enough English to be able to work out what it said, shock slowly registered on his face and he promptly tore it off.
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Kitty Bladder Infections

December 6th 2007 21:19
For those of you who have ever suffered from Urinary Tract Infection, you already know how painful it can be. The same goes for cats. My neighbour used to feed her cats a urinary alkalizer whenever they had UTI. She gave them Ural, which is actually designed for humans but she claims it works just as well for her moggies. “Just like humans,” I used to say, thinking how cute it was.

According to Kittens for Dummies by Dusty Rainbolt, kittens with bladder infections suffer from the same symptoms as humans: they want to go all the time but when they do, it stings like hell. What I found particularly interesting about Rainbolt’s book is that she says kittens suffering from bladder infections start to believe that the kitty litter tray is what is actually causing them pain, so they start to pee anywhere else but the box. I feel for the poor things. Imagine suffering from so much pain and being unable to communicate it to your owner. As much as I would like to come back in my next life as a beloved cat, dog or duck as I prefer animals to humans, it’s the lack of communication that would frustrate me.
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My First Kitten

December 5th 2007 21:05
I had always wanted a real pet. By real I mean an animal that you can play with and one that peed and pooed all over the place. So by my definition, my parent’s humble goldfish didn’t qualify as there wasn’t much I could do with them.

So when I was in second grade, a girl who lived nearby was giving away some kittens. She had one left over and asked me if I wanted it. I took one look at the poor ginger coloured tabby cat that was in a small cardboard box and said yes. I didn’t even think about how my parents would react; I simply assumed they would take one look at the poor defenceless thing like I did and their hearts would be instantly won over.
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The Day Our Budgie Died in Our Arms

December 4th 2007 20:59
I’ve never liked Christmas for the very reason everything’s shut and there’s nothing to do. To me, it’s the most boring day of the year. It’s also the saddest as I think about all the people who don’t have friends or families. It must be the loneliest time of the year for them.

It was one Christmas day when my sister’s gold and yellow budgie got sick. It was listless all day and wouldn’t fly or chirp. I went to grab the Yellow Pages to look up the phone number of the nearest vet with the slim hope they might be open. While I was doing this, my sister took the budgie out and put it in her lap. She stroked it, trying to cheer it up. All of a sudden it looked liked it was coming back to life: It flapped its wings about and my sister’s eyes lit up with joy. Then, just as quickly, the budgie let out a chirp and shuddered before it lay still. My sister started talking to it, saying, “Don’t die. Please don’t die.” But all her hopes were in vain as she watched it and it continued to show no signs of life. My sister then started crying, saying it was her favourite budgie and why did her budgie have to get sick on Christmas Day – of all the days of the year – the day when nothing is open, including the vet?
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The Day Robert the Cat Tried to Attack White-o

December 3rd 2007 21:03
Our Pekin duck, White-o was playing in our backyard when Robert the female blue Persian cat approached. She stood right next to White-o. White-o was a calm, placid duck. Nothing ever upset or annoyed her. She simply went with the flow, her feathers literally unruffled. She was also as large as the cat so while watching them, I didn’t think anything would happen. But I was wrong: just as I was thinking this, Robert slowly moved closer and closer behind her target until she was within swiping distance. She then lifted her paw and took a swipe at White-o’s back feathers. White-o turned around, took one look at Robert and waddled off without even as much as a quack. Robert looked miffed and gave up on the pursuit.
Hausente
Photo by Maren Winter. Used in accordance with the terms of Wikimedia Commons’ GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
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Black Persian Cat With Glowing Eyes

December 2nd 2007 21:12
I found this amazing photo of a black Persian cat with glowing eyes. If it wasn’t for the long fur, it looks just like my neighbour’s cat, Miggins. Until I saw this photo, I didn’t know black Persians existed. I had always thought they were white or grey. But black? No way!
Black Persian
Photo by Lcolson. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
So now I’ve learnt something new.
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