Here we are locked down at home, with our pets being a major source of distraction as we try to alleviate anxiety and find ways of not becoming addicted to reading the news and obsessing about Covid-19 and our collective futures. Continue reading “Stuff to do during lockdown: Tips from our cats”
Companion animals bring comfort and friendship to many in these stressful days of lockdown and social isolation. Pets are a very immediate way of bringing nature back into our lives even in constrained circumstances. Continue reading “A story book for children: The tale of Nougat the Kitten”
Starting at midnight tonight it is South Africa’s turn to go into lockdown to try to slow down the transmission of the Covid-19 coronavirus disease so that our fragile health services might be less overwhelmed. Our government is acting decisively in the face of unimaginable challenges and we are all wondering how we will cope. Continue reading “Learning from animals in these times: Cats and music in a world where love survives”
Starting off 2020 with a good news story about the lovely Ella, one of our rescue cats, seems appropriate enough. I had considered several other ideas, from baby animals in general to flower portraits taken during 2019, but settled on the story of Ella.
Continue reading “Reasons to be cheerful part 1: Ella the rescue cat”
Luckily for me, both sides of my family had habits of frugality, which included saving stuff and reusing it or keeping it in case one day it might come in handy. Some folks might call it hoarding, but I value the presence of old handed-down objects, even if no longer used, which are signifiers of a time when people were more in touch with where their food came from. Continue reading “Nature’s bounty in the kitchen”
For this week’s Photo Find, sticking with the small town theme, I could not resist this photo taken in Nieu Bethesda of one of the prettiest kittens I have ever seen. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: Nieu Bethesda’s Chocolate-box Kitten”
These three kittens fell through a loose ceiling board into the computer room in an office block at a factory. Efforts to reunite them with their feral mother failed. Fortunately, they were of weaning age and we fostered them and when they were old enough we found them homes, saving them from the hard life of a factory cat. Continue reading “Feral foundlings”
Beloved by our hand-reared cat, Nougat, ever since he was tiny, are two soft toys: a teddy and a dog. When he was a kitten, these toys became his surrogate siblings and should one of our adult cats not be so obliging, his reliable sleeping companions. Continue reading “Beloved cuddly companions”
Stowed away in a storeroom that got flooded in a storm, this old valve radio suffered some water damage. It is now silent and awaits repairs. Continue reading “Silence from the radio”
letting nature back in 