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Quirky Folk - July 2008



Photo by Hansjorn. 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.



Every year my neighbour celebrates Christmas with her two Bombay cats, Higgins and Miggins. During the festive period she places nice ribbons around their necks and buys a Christmas card for them. Each year she writes something along the lines of “To my two lovely boys, thank you for being my companions all year round. Thank you for being my friends and for being always here for me. I love you so much. You are my two precious boys.” etc. What a wonderful gesture.

One year she got a Christmas card from another neighbour. It had the usual Christmas greetings but down the bottom the neighbour had written: “Dogs rule” which made my neighbour and I laugh.

Now that it’s winter I often see dogs walking around with coats on. How sweet. Once the festive season is over my neighbour will remove the ribbons from her cats and replace them with red collars. Somehow the red collars look even more festive, although my neighbour tells me they’re actually flea collars. The red collars look really vibrant and dramatic against her cats’ jet black fur.

Thinking about this while I was walking home led me to wonder if other pet lovers do the same thing. Do you include your pets in celebrations and traditions? Do you buy them Christmas or birthday presents? Or do you go further and buy your pets fancy accessories like those sold at Dogue?


When my parents see the efforts some people go to pamper their pets, they’ll chuckle and say, “Some people care for their pets as well as they would another person.” It’s times like this that I think it’s better to be someone’s beloved dog than a person.

Dogue products link
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Photo by Akaporn Bhothisuwan. 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.


Another day. Another dollar. Another water cooler discussion. This day’s topic was whether or not it’s okay to have a pet against your landlord’s wishes.

This was my colleague’s solution to my landlord’s no-pets policy: “You could try smuggling a cat in,” he said. “You couldn’t do the same thing with a dog as it’s too noisy but who’s going to hear a cat miaowing?”

Now I’ve known people who have done this. My friend Brett, for instance. He’s the sort of laidback person who doesn’t worry about stuff such as being evicted so he went and got two cats without his landlord’s permission. One of my neighbours has a couple of cats in her flat. Again the landlord was not consulted. Unlike Brett, this neighbour worries constantly about him finding out. On the other hand, I’ve pointed out to her that several people in her building also have pets (with his permission) so he can’t stop her from having pets when other tenants are allowed to have them. This neighbour has trained her cats not to miaow and to hide in her closet whenever someone knocks at her door. Clever things. There’s enough room in her closet for several cats. Once they’re all inside, all she has to do is shut the closet door and hey, presto! A no-pet flat!

I personally wouldn’t be game enough to do what Brett and my neighbour have done. I love my current flat and don’t want to do anything to jeopardise my tenancy there. Plus with the current rental market in Sydney being so tight I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to flat hunting which, as anyone who’s done it knows, is far from an ideal way of spending one’s weekend. I am holding back from getting a pet for the same reason. Even if my landlord okays it, I can’t help wondering how much harder it would be if I needed to find another flat later on. That was why my neighbour decided not to tell her landlord she has cats – she was scared it would jeopardise her rental application. What a sorry state of affairs.

What about you? Do you think it’s fair to your pet to try and smuggle it in?
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Painting by Heinrich Sperling. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


It never ceases to amaze me how heartless some people can be. I was talking about how pets go missing with one of my workmates when she told me that her husband’s family dog was almost stolen.

She told me the dog, a small Maltese Terrier was allowed outdoors. Even though they didn’t have a fence, they thought the dog would be safe as someone was always at home to keep an eye on it.

One day my workmate was outside watching the dog when she saw a car suddenly pull up. Someone opened the car door and tried to grab the dog. When my workmate called out to them “What are you doing?” they sped off which made her suspicious. “If they thought the dog was a stray they would have said, ‘Sorry, we thought it had gone missing’ but they didn’t,” she said. “If a cat or a dog is a purebred people will try to steal it as they’re very popular.”

“That’s sick,” I said. “They should buy their own dog or get one from the pound.”

Speaking of sick acts, one of my neighbours told me after she had a nasty breakup with a boyfriend, she came home to find her dog dead. Tests revealed her ex had put bits of glass in the dog’s dinner. My neighbour was devastated. She now keeps all her pets indoors and is very careful about who she allows in the house. For the same reason, she would rather feed them herself rather than have someone else do it. Since she doesn’t go away, trusting petsitters is not an issue. When she told me this story I couldn’t blamer her for not trusting people.
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Is it Cruel to Have Pet Birds?

July 28th 2008 21:00


Photo by Toumoto. 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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My Family ‘Heirlooms’

July 27th 2008 21:00

Photo of an American mink by Mustela Vision. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

As an animal lover, I refuse to wear fur. My fur-loving parents would call me a hypocrite, saying if animals are okay to eat, then it’s just as okay to wear them. I can see their point but to me, it’s one thing to kill an animal for its meat; it’s another to do so for its fur.

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Warriors Cats Books

July 24th 2008 21:00


Okay so I bit the bullet. I had money burning a hole in my pocket. I was itching to spend so I decided to indulge in some Warriors cat books series I mentioned in my previous post. They are not as bad as I thought. I didn’t even have to suspend my disbelief. I found the manga novel The Lost Warrior the funniest. The plot about a cat called Graystripe that is caught and owned by a Twolegs family (that’s humans to you and me) and who tries to escape from his captors had me rolling around in laughter. It’s not that Graystripe’s Twolegs family are mean to him; in fact, the kits (kids) treat him quite well but Graystripe feels he belongs in the wild rather than being just someone’s pet. It makes me wonder how many pet cats actually despise being kept as pets. Do they also hate being indoors all the time? Do they really hate dried food?

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I am so tempted to buy these fantasy cat books by Erin Hunter :

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Animal Adoptions Gallery

July 22nd 2008 21:00
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Eliza Gets Bird Poo in Her Mouth

July 21st 2008 21:00


Photo by Aomorikuma. 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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Photo by Cep21. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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The Kentucky Fried Chicken Debacle

July 17th 2008 21:00


Photo by BrokenSphere. 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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I was saddened to read about a lioness who, after giving birth to four white lion cubs, took one look at them and didn’t want anything to do with them. How mean. They are so beautiful. At first I thought maybe the mother was thinking along survival-of-the-fittest lines and thought four white lions wouldn’t survive long. But that doesn’t make sense as they were born in a zoo. Another possibility is she was so freaked out by their alien (to her) appearance that she thought, forget it. Nature can be cruel.

Despite the mother’s misgivings, I think the cubs are beautiful creatures. I love their whiter-than-white colour. It gives them a slightly surreal appearance. According to Wikipedia, their colour is caused by a recessive gene i.e. both parents must carry the gene in order to create such a mutation. Wikipedia says the gene can cause the colour to range from blonde to nearly white and even to red! That’s one animal I’d definitely want to see.

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Adam Cullen - The otherness when it comes 1992-93

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Excerpts from a Dog's Diary......

July 13th 2008 21:00
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Photo by Orlovic. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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Photo by Prskavka. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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Looking very dark and scary himself is my neighbour’s cat, Higgins.

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Dodgy Duck Stationery

July 7th 2008 21:01


Now how dodgy is this?

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Photo by Eric Guinther. 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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Boring Pets?

July 3rd 2008 21:00

A black moor goldfish just like Spicer. Photo by KD Blackmore. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


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I Apparently Cannot Communicate

July 2nd 2008 21:00


Photo by Jmolina. 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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Fur-free Cats and Dogs

July 1st 2008 21:03


Photo by Peter Mollard. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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