Monitor Lizard Spotted!

I had a laugh the other day reading Channel News Asia that some Seng Kang residents had mistaken a monitor lizard for a crocodile.

Can't really blame them for mistaking a monitor lizard for a crocodile, isn't it? Singaporeans are mostly city dwellers and it is not like we get to see a monitor lizard everyday.

Anyway, I spotted a similar monitor lizard during a hike. It’s cute isn’t it?

What makes us human then?

This incident almost slips off my mind until I was reminded of it recently. It happened during the Lunar New Year holidays. 

I had wanted to get papers from the near-by 7/11 when I saw a few stray dogs roaming around the neighbourhood.

They all appeared thin and bony and they were poking around. I had the feeling that they were looking for food.

I didn’t pay much attention to them and continued my journey.

At the shop, my conscience was pricking. We were so well-fed during this festive season, to the point of overeating but these poor stray animals were hungry to the bones.

I couldn’t bear the thought and so went on to buy them some food.

Not sure why, but that particular 7/11 didn’t stock up pet food. The next best meaty canned food was spam.

I know, I know. Spam is salty and they aren’t good for dogs. But I rather see them full than being hungry for the rest of the night. And a can of spam aren’t cheap either. It came from Dutch and cost a whopping $6.

To reduce the saltiness and to bulk up the food, I bought some bread and milk to feed them.

It feels almost like a picnic when I sat down at the bench laying out all the food stuff.

I did sacrifice a lot for doing this. You never know how many dirty looks and murmurs I had to endure when people walked past me.  Who can blame them? I also think I looked like a freaking lunatic who is trying to stuff self silly with bread and spam in the middle of the night.

And if I didn’t mention, I had a phobia of dogs since young. I get very nervous and panicky when a dog comes near me. This feeding dog operation wasn’t really easy for me. 

Armed with a pair of wooden chopstick and big cups, I mixed the expensive spam, milk and bread to form a comforting mushy paste.

I carefully place the mash on a near-by grass patch and retreated to a safe distance to observe them.

Minutes later, one of the dogs came by. It moved faster and faster as the nose picked up on the savoury meaty scent. I was so excited when it finally found the food.

The dog smells a bit more and took a few bites. To my surprise, it flee off immediately after those few bites.

I was quite sad, thinking what is wrong with the food.

Isn’t it hungry at all?

Just as I was puzzling away, the dog came back and this time round with a companion.

It had then became clear to me.

The first dog had ran off to alert its partner about the food! It even let the partner eat first, while it waited hungrily at the side. The other one took a few bites, then moved back to allow his partner to take a few bites as well.

I was so touched at that moment looking at them.

All these while, science has taught us that human is human because we have compassion and humanity, but animals don’t.

At that point, I am not sure if this is still true.

I have seen a lot of times of how animals have more compassion and humanity than humans.

From body language and everything, you wouldn’t see a fake thought or feeling from them. They are always genuine and they treated others like so.

And then you looked at how we communicate with our own species. We are supposedly more superior than the animals. We have our own languages and some of us bilingual even but it is so hard to communicate clearly with one another. Worse, people lie literately and sometimes undermining others as if the other party couldn’t tell apart…

That is why it is in fact easier to “communicate” with animals than with humans, I sometimes find.

So what makes us human then?

I think we should take a good moment to ponder over it. Who know, it may be time to redefine humanity or find out what lacks of it.

Lion hugs and kisses its lady rescuer

My eyes turned red when I saw this video. This lady rescued a malnourished lion six years ago. She managed to nurse the lion back to health and eventually made an arrangement with a Zoo to take it in.

When she visited the lion at the zoo, it remembers her. Like a cat (ok a giant cat), it gave its rescuer a big hug, trying to rub some scents onto her. Awwww… Mimi does that too sometimes. She will react very excitedly when I visited her after a long while.  

That is why I always have a soft spot for animals. I never believed theories that argue that animals are not conscientious. On the contrary, they are aware of human feelings and sentiments. But unlike humans, they are much more genuine.  

While searching the video on YouTube, I chanced upon another video of lion remembering its owners. I felt very touched watching these videos.

Love knows no limits. True friendships last a lifetime... How true! 

News clipping of the lion and its lady rescuer.



Another story of a lion remembering his owners.

C is for Crabs!

It is time to know your ABCs.

 

The letter of the day is C.

 

C is for Crab!

 

What is crab? Well, there are many types of them, I learnt from Sheng Siong Supermarket. They ranges from different prices.

 

 

Starting from the Cheapest, we have flower crabs. These are sea crabs and they cost pretty cheap at $2.50 per piece.

 

 

Usually, when I saw them in market or supermarket, they are dead. Amazingly, Sheng Siong sell alive ones… Hmm. Do be more careful with these crabs, apparently they can cause allergy more readily than normal crabs. Some poor quality one have ammonia taste too…

 

 

Hoho, next up Indonesia meat crab. They cost slightly more than the flower crab, at $3.50 per piece.

 

There they are. They have greenish gray shell. If I am not mistaken, they are mud crab and they do not live in the sea. I am not sure why they throw them in aquarium like the above.

 

 

Well, moving along the prices going further north too. Here we have Candian Jumbo King Crab. They cost a whopping $52.80 per KG. My god…

 

They looked the cousins of the flower crabs, but I reckon they should taste better. If not, how do they justify the price? Anyone tasted them before? Are they any nice?

 

Yes, we are now at the battle of heavy weights!  The Alaskan King Crab cost $148 per piece!!!

 

Remember Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch documentary? Well, they are fishing for these Alaskan King crabs at the Baltic sea. In my opinion, they looked like some creatures from outer-space…

 

While I seldom eat crabs (couldn’t bear to kill live animals for food), I do want to try these someday!

 

Da dah! You have reach the most expensive crab. The Australian King Crab cost a staggering $400 per piece!  Wow…

And the above photo shows the most expensive crab at Sheng Siong supermarket. It looked meaty. I supposed it tasted quite nice too. Anyone knows why it is so expensive?

It looked mean too on second look…

That’s all kids. Now you know your ABCs…

Video: Cat gives a cardiac massage to an injured cat…

I was saddened by this video. This incident took place in Turkey.

A tom-cat tried to give a cardiac massage to another who was knocked down by a car. It was so protective of the injured cat that it prevented people to get near it.

Two hours later, vet came and tried to save the injured cat, but it was too late…

Sob Sob… I always say this – animals are sometimes more humane than human. Hur Hur…

May the cat rest in peace…

Percy came back? Not exactly ~

 

For a moment, I thought Percy, the Pigeon who had recovered from his wounds and decided to come back to visit me. Alas, it was not him…

 

It was another bird, a female one, I reckon from the size and the dark coloured feathers. Let’s name her Phoebe, shall we?

 

Perhaps, it got lost with its mates thus decided to seek shelter under my miniature peach blossom tree for warmth.

 

I hope she will make herself comfortable there, fly away at the glimpse of the first sunlight tomorrow. Most importantly, may she be like Percy, find a partner and set up a lovely family too in future…

 

Sidelines: Just as I was searching for some food to give to Phoebe, my brother jealously remarked that I always treated animals better than human beings. Well, I am not apologetic for that – I find animals purer, more innocent and sincere as compared than humans beings. A friendship with animal is for life. They responded to you sincerely and never expect your kindness for exchange. More importantly, they don’t judge people accordingly to some ridiculous social caste system or whatever images you project.

 

You are just you…

Pigeon Flew Away This Morning!

Yup! As per the header, "Percy" the pigeon, who was wounded by the cat had finally recovered and flew away this morning. I did not get to see him go, but my dad saw him on the window still (instead of inside the box) and flew away moments later.

A satisfying ending, but somewhat disappointed as for the five days that he was with us, he was very afraid of human contact. I had a hard time putting medication on him.

I hope that he would live its life to the fullest and start a family even after this scary ordeal! Maybe in its limited memory, he would remembered that a strange being, maybe as terrifying as the cat, had captured it for five days.

A Fated Intervention – Took Home A Wounded Pigeon to Nurse

Not that I am Lim Dai Yu or I am relating an ancient story where the gentle (Not me definitely) female lead character took home a wounded animal to nurse on behalf of the male lead character, but I just took a wounded pigeon home (out of my own accord) to nurse. I believed it is all fated.

Was on my way to work this morning when suddenly I heard some rustling sound coming out from a nearby bush. Out of curiosity (what’s new…), I went to the source of the commotion to take a closer look.

It turned out that an adolescent orange-fur tabby cat managed caught a pigeon and was trying to tug it deeper into the bush to eat it. Luckily for the pigeon (and too bad for the cat), the cat was distracted by my presence and the pigeon took chance to hop off. Worried that the cat would pursue it, I shooed it off, hopping that the bird would have a chance to survive.

I went off hurriedly to work as the cat ran off, putting the incident behind me. I was only reminded of it as I was walking home in the evening. I saw a man squatting near a bird, cooing it. Something is wrong with the bird, I thought to myself. The sky is almost dark and it did not fly off with its friends…

As I walked closer, I noticed that it was a pigeon and that it could be the pigeon I saved this morning! Usually, I would struggle with thoughts on whether my mum would kill me if I bring it home , but strangely I did not even betted an eye lid this time round and told the uncle that it was wounded by a cat and that I am going to bring it home.

Honestly, I couldn’t really catch the pigeon even though it was wounded. My god, it could run really fast. Luckily, the uncle volunteer to catch it for me. I was a bit scare at first at the thought of holding the bird as it kept flapping one of the wings, but somehow I got hold of myself and just took over it from the Uncle nonchalantly. I remembered walk home at usual speed.

Mum was watching TV at the living room when I reached home. I hold the bird for her to see and told her the story. (Surprisingly) She did not scold me and even urged me to bring it to a vet. Not sure whether veterinary clinic would still operate at this hour, I decided to nurse it myself. Since it cannot fly, I conveniently put it into a cupboard box.

The pigeon was in good condition despite it cannot fly. The nasty cat took a big bite out of the bird’s breast. The wing was also slightly scratched by the claws. I applied some antiseptic cream on the wounds and even managed to feed it water. It could still drink by itself.

(Didn’t manage to take a picture as both of my hands were occupied)

I really hope that it would survive. Will try to feed it with some food tomorrow morning and see if the conditions improves.

I will update everyone about it again. :)

Ps: For easy remembrance sake, I have decided to name the pigeon – Percy!

German Zoo Keeper Drowned in 200 Pounds of Elephant Dung

This is a sad but freakly true story.

A German Zookeeper named Friedrich Riesfeldt wanted to help a constipated elephant named Stefan to relive himself, ended up dead in elephant dung.

Apparently, Zookeeper Friedrich fed the animal 22 doses of animal laxative and various concoction of fresh fruits, hoping that the animal could relive itself. Little did he expected that the animal would start reliving himself while he was standing directly behind it, trying to administer an olive oil enema.

I guessed the elephant had been suffering from constipation for quite some time as it excreted 200 pounds of dung that day. Without warning, Friedrich was pinned violently to the ground by the load. In course of action, he slammed his head against concrete floor and was knocked unconscious. Sadly, the elephant continued to excrete on him and Friedrich eventually suffocated beneath the dung.

Friedrich was discovered an hour later, dead.

http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/volume01/022/435.htm

There's Something Unusual about This Cat...

It was very late, rather cold and windy that fateful day. I was out, preparing to start my nightly hour walk when I noticed this strange animal. Just as I was warming up, out of no where, I saw something with stripes hopping past me. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me and took a closer look and had a shock... Immediately, I wiped out my camera phone and took photo.

My first thought was that somebody had lost their rabbit and it was wandering around in the neighbourhood carpark... But no, it was a cat! Did you noticed what is unusual about this cat?

What? Eyes?!

Nah, the eyes looked like it emited lights because the eye lens reflected flash lights from the camera.

Look closer again and see if you noticed what is unusual about the cat...

To clarify, I did not photoshop the photo.

The cat has only three legs!!! One of the fore-legs was missing but there were no visible wounds or healed cuts. It looked like it was borned with three legs. I hope it was not a victim of human abuses. Because of missing limb, the cat could not walk normally, but rather hopped it's way around. Surprisingly, it can hopped rather fast...

Also, looking at it's condition - clean fur and sturdy size, I supposed someone else had adopted it and is taking good care of it. I hoped it would live to a ripe old age and not let it's disability affect it's life.

Stay strong, Kitty! I hope you would have a good life ahead!

The Cat and I (III) - She vomited blood!

Something happened to the stray cat which I often feed last Saturday.

As usual, I was walking around the neighbourhood trying very hard not to attract Mimi (I have recently named the cat - Mimi as in 猫咪’s mi) to walk with me. After the third round, she saw me and was following me from behind. I wanted to finish my fourth round before feeding her, thus shoo and signal her to wait at the particular spot. She walked with me for some distance before stopping at the spot.

Minutes later, I was on my way to the spot to pick her up when I saw her running towards me. I called out to her as usual and she was pretty excited. As she moved closer to me, I noticed something wasn’t right with her. Patches of her fur was covered with blood. I had thought she got into a fight with other cats and felt rather bad about it. I petted her on the head and she responded back rather excitedly then, thus thought she is fine apart from the wounds.

We walked back to the usual feeding spot together. Usually when I was emptying the food from the can, she would be pacing excitedly around it, but that day she did not. She moved away instead. I signal her to come over and she did. I noticed her mouth was red and blood was dripping from it. I had a scare and was so shocked. She did not seem to notice what was wrong and started cleaning her furs with her bloodily tongue. The blood started to tint her white fur which explains the patches of blood on her fur earlier on.

As she cleans, the fur becomes dirtier and she cleaned the area more furiously. Blood was still dripping while she did that. I started tearing. I was so afraid that it is dying. I repeatedly called out her name, trying to gage whether she is fine. But as cats get into “cleaning fur” mode, they would just ignore calls. Then as suddenly as the blood came, she lied down, looking tired. She closed her eyes. I panicked and called 100 to see if there was any emergency veterinary around. The officer gave me a number to the Animal hospital at Mount Vernon which I called immediately.

Animal Hospital: Hallo, Mount Vernon Animal Hospital.
Me (sobbing sound): Hallo, I found a stray cat vomiting blood. Can I bring it over?
Animal Hospital: Sure, Mdm. We opened 24-hour. But just to let you know mdm, the consultation fees is $321 dollars excluding treatment…
Me (stopped sobbing briefly): Huh? $321 dollars?
Animal Hospital: Alternative Mdm, you can call the SPCA. (Gave me the numbers).

Throughout the conversation, I shook the cat hopping that it would response. It did after some shake. She had closed her eyes briefly because it was windy… (WTH)

SPCA: Hallo, SPCA.
Me: I found a stray cat vomiting blood.
SPCA: Is it still alive?
Me: Yes.
SPCA: Our driver is away at the moment. You might have to wait for one hour before we can pick it up.
Me: Huh? Where are you all located? I will send it over.
SPCA: You want to send it over? We are located at Braddell.
Me: Ok

All the while, Mimi is only used to me petting her and has never allowed me to carry her. I tried very hard to try to carry her, but she did not want me to lift her. Going back to “fur cleaning” mode, she sat at a corner continue to clean her fur. Occasionally, she will still vomit blood. I tear up even more seeing that. I cried even harder when I see her so indulged in cleaning her fur. How can God make animal so innocent that she is not even aware of her serious condition ? I feel for her.

Mimi is not just another ordinary stray cat to me. I was very much attached to it because she responses to my call and the sight of her cheers me up. I was feeling very down some time back and she is the only thing which I looked forward to seeing everyday…

I had no choice but to call SPCA to pick her up, but stopped eventually. I got worried. She looked and behaved fine, though a bit weak. If I sent her to SPCA and the test returned bad, she might be put to sleep… I could not bear to send her to die like that. That night, I stayed for a few more hours with her before going home.

The next morning, I woke up and went down to check on her. She looked tired (guess like me, she wasn’t a morning cat) but generally fine. She managed to clean up her bloody fur which signifies that she has not been vomiting blood in the night.

I am somewhat relieved, but still worries that her condition will turn bad. I have genuine concern about her and am willing to fork out some money for her to see a vet. However, I did not realize veterinary clinic charges so much for consultation. I am now trying to find a cheaper veterinary clinic so that I can send her there (that is she would let me carry her…)

In the meantime, I hope God would bless Mimi and keep her healthy!

Pet Goldfish Just Laid Eggs!

My goldfishes have become Mum and Dad!!! I am so proud!They were so high this morning, splashing around and there are water everywhere. For a moment, I had thought they were crazy. That turned out to be their mating rituals.

I just did some research online. A goldfish can spawn 500 to 1000 eggs per time. However, the adults including the mum and dad will eat up most of the eggs. They should take 2-4 days to hatch depending on water temperature. Eggs that are fertilised should be clear and unfertilised eggs are opaque.

See the eggs upclose! They looked opague, thus are not fertilised. I am not so sure though, thus will not be removing them yet. Anyway, if they really hatch, I might not get to see them too as they will be eaten by the rest of the adult fish... I hope some will survive.

I supposed this might be goldfish mum. She is still guarding eggs laid on the filter. There are only a few left. The rest are hidden behind the filter. I am still considering whether or not to remove them. The water turned chalky after all the action...

An auspicious start for the Lunar New Year!

See Shrimp Running on a Treadmill !!!

See video below - Anything is possible in the name of science! A Scientist wanted to know how shrimp would behave when they are infected with disease, thus invented and built a treadmill to measure activity of an exercising shrimp! For full explaination on the Science experiment, click here.

It is amazing to see a treadmill so small. Also, it is funny to see shrimp "running" in order to keep up with the treadmill. By the way, the video has started a cult followers in YouTube, dubbing it with various background music. If it was me, I would probably dubbed it with Madonna's "Don't Tell Me". Hee Hee. What about you?

The Cat and I (II) - More amazing feats~!

I just have write this down.

Remember the cat which I wrote about earlier on? Something amazing happened again. I do not think I can treat her like a stray cat anymore. She's such a darling. I mean how many of you can summoned a cat? If you have pet dog at home, how long must you train to get it to respond with a call? Even when it does, it's normal for dog to do so, but a cat, a stray cat, what are the odds for it to do so?

I just did it almost with any difficulties... and I am just as surprise as anyone that I can do that. I must have done a lot of good deeds in my past life to deserve her responding to me like that. I am really very touched by it. Which is why, I always stressed that people should really treat animals better. They have instinct, they have conscious, they react to love, so don't just look down on them because you think they are animals, they cannot communicate with you, they are lowly. Please do treat them better!

With that special ability, I can't help but to flaunt my relationship with the cat to my family members. I showed it to my mum one day while walking home and my mum was so amazed. She said that I must have such a strong affinity with the cat thus she would response back to me like that.

Today, I went down to feed it again. I saw her from afar that she was eating someone else's food. I closed in and saw her chomping down the nasi lemak fish quite fast. A bit disappointed and jealous that she was fed, I made the call and walk away. Guess what? She gave up the food and followed me. See, she chose me rather than food~!

Anyway, I thought I played with her a while before opening up the canned food to feed her. Leaning on a low wall, I was petting her head. Then suddenly, I thought I saw she had that preparing to jump body language. I wonder if she had wanted to jump up onto the low wall, thus tried by moving to the side, giving her some space and point my finger on the wall to signify "here, jump here".

Guess what? She jumped on top of the wall where I pointed~! Shocked! I petted her more and then think will she response if I want her to come down? Therefore, I point my finger on the ground and asked her to come down. She did the same!!! Seriously, has she been to the circus before? Unbelievable, I tried the act twice to confirm she responded to my command and she did!!!

Then just now, I thought I showed my brother what I can do with the cat. He was so shocked and amazed that I could summon her with a call. However, that is not all. I then walked over to the low wall with her followingly closely behind and showed my brother the wall trick. He laughed and was dumb-struck.

It is just too bad that we lived in very small HDB flat and that we cannot have a pet cat at home. Otherwise, I am more than willing to give her a home which she so much deserved...

How can I not love her?

The Cat and I

I adopted a stray cat recently. I don't mean that I bring it home, cause my mum would probably break my leg. I feed it occasionally and we have bonded quite well. I don't remember when the feeding started, but it was probably one of those things that caught my eye.

It has a magnificant coat of pale golden coloured fur, a pair of round and big eyes (think they looked like Faye's...) and has a very curious desposition. I have seen it patroling around my block sometimes and thought it looked very beautiful. I supposed, that fateful day, it was hungry by the way it poked its nose at every corner. Unbearable to let it starve, I went home and open up a can of tuna (soaked in water kind) and feed it.

I made this clicking sound with my tongue while I was trying to attract its attention. The cat took it as my call to her and would respond to it whenever I made it. Cats are just natural pleaser. To get my attention , she would brush herself against my leg playfully, so that I would feed it or pet it. Sometimes, she would hit me with her tail. Of course, I would take a shower after all that touching and brushing.

I could remember the first time I saw her sprinting towards me when I made the call. She was not at her usual resting place and I made the sound several times trying to get her to come and get food. There was no sight of her anywhere and I almost give up, just then I heard some russling from the back and saw her spirinting towards me. It heard me and responded. No words could describe my feelings then. I felt so touched and accomplished. At that moment, I understand why people with pets are likely to be healthier mentally... I was so happy when interacting with it.

The best thing with animals is that it does not judge you , it will be there when you needed them and will respond to you sincerely. Wouldn't the world be nicer place to live in if everyone is like that?

Perhaps, I should get a pet at home to de-stress.

Fried Fish While It's Still Alive... (Cruel! Cruel! Cruel!)

Warning: Not for the faint hearted...

I saw this video in news years ago, but managed to find the footage from YouTube. Similar to Lobster Sashimi in Japan, but Chinese gone a step further, the chef scaled, gutted and fried fish while keeping the fish alive... Apparently, the fish will stay alive for sometime and worse the fish was subjected to excruciating pain before dying....

I can only wish that the fish had a better after life...

Gold Fish Living in Deep Fryer (Cruel!)

I really take my hat off the Japanese, to think they can come up with this idea. If you ever fry food, you would know that crumbs might break off and would sink to the bottom of the pan. When not removed, they would cloud and pollute the oil. That's why restaurants like MacDonald etc has to change their frying oil very often, almost at a daily basis.

So, the Japanese think of a solution. Yosh~! Wakaramasu~ If the crumbs are removed automatically, then the oil will stay fresher for long period of time and less often to change it. This is what they thought of:

For the benefit of those who are unable to view the video, Japanese reared goldfish under the deep fryer. How is this possible you asked? Well, water has a higher density than oil, thus oil will natually float above the water. The heater installed near the top will heat up the oil to at least 160 degrees celcius for frying.

If, that is if, the goldfish somewhat forget and swam upwards, they will be fried alive... As a goldfish owner, I condemn this act as it violates the goldfish living rights and it is a very cruel way of treating living things!

I will never eat at restaurants that uses this kind of fryer!

Big Sucker Fish Left Us...

Don't why, anything related to us is BIG. The same goes for our goldfishes and the sucker fish. I guess the sucker fish has reached the end of its' time and left us on Monday night. We had it for years and it grown from like 2 cm in length till about 16 cm in length. All we ever feed it was normal fish feeds.

I remember it was pretty aggressive when it first came and would chase around my small small goldfish as they were young. I threatened by telling it that if I find him trying to eat any of the goldfish, I would steam it. Somewhat, it got the message and got tamer after that. Like my goldfishes who would splash around trying to alert me to feed them, the sucker fish would swim to the surface when I got near for feeding time... It has been a very diligent fish keeping the tank clean.

I promised all my fishes that I would bury them when their time is up, thus in the middle of the night, armed with a shove, I frantically dug a hole at a grass patch trying to give it a final resting place. Then, the stray cat which I would sometimes feed, spotted me. Yes, the cat recognised me. I was trying to avoid it as the last thing you want is to see a cat with a dead fish in your hand.

Luckily, I bought with cat food with me, thus lured it far away from the hole I was digging.

May the soul rest in peace and had a better next life if there is really one.

Porker in Boots

This is interesting story. Pig has no sweat glends, thus would they would roll themselves in mud to cool their body down. Guess what, there is a piglet in UK who has mud phobia ! Oh goodness, pigs also got complusive disorder too. So funny. Whoever thought pig is dirty, think again.

The farmer first noticed the piglet as it did not join the rest of the brood in exploring the surroundings. They had thought it wanted to be close to its mother, thus did not move far. However, the piglet appeared to be uneasy and even shaky (can you imagine, so funny!) standing alone at the rim of the muddy ground. Farmers finally suspected that the pig might have phobia against mud as it explore normally when place in grounds without mud.

To help the piglet to overcome the fear so that it can explore around, they tried to slip on small weillingtons boots for it as shoes. Amazingly, it began trottled on mud as soon as the boots were sliped on. The piglet was given an apt name too - Cinderella.

Because of its special behaviour, piglet will not be killed for meat. It will front a campaign to support the plight of pig farmers. This story kind of reminded me of the pig character (Wilbur) in Charlotte's web. I feel kind of bad to eat pork. In case you do not know, pigs are actually very smart animals. They ranked top 10 in animal kingdom for cleverness, thus I think it is somewhat hard for them to accept that they are reared to be eaten.

See picture of the pig in the news here. (It's cute!)

( Warning: Don't read on if you still intend to eat meat.)

In fact, I read another heartaching story in newspaper about how a cow escaped from slaugter house in China. Cow panicked when saw companion being slaugtered around him (who would not...). In bid to escape, cow struggled free and dashes out of the slaughter house. The survival instinct was so strong that it even jumped over one metre height wall to break free. However, it was not meant to be, cow was recaptured soon. To prevent it from running free, the butcher cut its' tendon on the spot while the cow was still alive and kicking.

I saw in the picture that the road was red with blood spilling out from the cuts. The cow cannot even stand and hooves were hanging loosely from the body... The picture showed three to four people hauling the half dead cow up a lorry.

I feel very sad for the cow that it had tried to escaped, but yet people cannot let it off to roam free. It is the few minutes of freedom it gained, but still comes to a pathetic ending (I think it has a worse ending in this case) that greatly saddens me. How unforgiving and cruel human is to the cow and what has it done to deserve all this. The sense of helplessness must have been through its mind and how frightening it must have felt.

Luckily I do not eat beef, I can say that I do not owe this cow a life. However, I am guilty of eating other meats as well. I feel for them after reading the story above. Pigs, Chickens, Ducks and very little lambs must have felt horrible in the slaugter house...

Give me some time, I will try to be a full time vegetarian. I pray and hope that God bless all animals whose lives are sacrified in order to support us.

Photosophize Discovery - It's a bird ! Big one!

After work, I saw this big bird loittering at ground level of my block. It didn't move when we approached it, thus I think it might be injured or something. Yes, which is why I managed to take quite a close shot picture of it.

I remembered reading on news that there were wild birds trapped in a HDB flat recently and authority was called to removed them. I couldn't remember which authority and the number and therefore called 100 to ask in order to move this poor bird back to where it belonged.

The 100 hotline lady heard my story and was clueless for a moment who to direct me to. Then, sound panicky put me hold before informing me that NEA would be the appropriate authority to call. I then called NEA 24 hour hotline,

“Hallo, erm there is big bird that is not moving at my block near the lift lobby. The bird looked like a stork or something... It didn't fly... " (Nervous, thinking how to explain the situation to the officer

"Bird? What Bird? " (Didn't get what I said at all)

"Stork-looking bird...Looked like Stork or something..." (trying hard to pronunce stork)

"Mdm, you should call the town council..." (pushing the responsibilities to town council)

"What? Town council don't handle birds what... This is not their responsibilities! I thought NEA would handle birds !" (Getting mad...)

"Mdm~, we handle dead birds" (she sound slightly irritated...)

"Huh? Then who should I call?" (Puzzled)

“Call AVA, they handle live animals. Here is their numbers" (Quickly give me the numbers)

Called AVA hotline, hotline are only opened from 8 to 5.30 pm... (WTH) Angry, she would have know their operating hours, but still give me the numbers when they are not working. Such service standard, my god.

If you encounter similar situation, here are their hotline:

NEA 24 Hour Hotline - 1800 2255 632
AVA - 1800 476 1600

To help you remember which line to call, Alive Animals - AVA, Not Alive - NEA.

The bird was longer there when I went to work this morning. I hope it has fly away to somewhere safe. :)