For some time now, I’ve been warming up to the idea of only writing about animals and plants. I’ve always believed that those who like animals also enjoy flowers—even though they might find it hard to take care of one or the other, or both.
Having become an expert in raising cats (I have 43 on my resume) and having explored the cultivation of plants (I have 88 potted plants at home, a number that grows by the day), I can say that I’ve learned a few tricks.
Throw a slipcover on your sofa in order for animals and humans to live in harmony. Put a papaya on your window sill to attract thrushes. Spray water mixed with cloves on your garden to keep the dogs away. Sprinkle salt on your flowerbeds and get rid of snails. In the summer, water your Jaboticaba tree every day to get sweeter fruits. And be patient with orchids because one day they’ll start liking you and give you beautiful flowers.
These and other tricks are available on the newly launched Whiskers, Snouts and Roots blog. It was supposed to be named Whiskers, Snouts, Roots, Antennae, Paws, Feathers, Furs, Horns, Leaves, Flowers and Roots, but the marketing people said I was having delusions of grandeur and asked me to go a little less crazy.
Since I am a little disobedient, I warn you that this will be the coolest blog on animals and plants that I have ever written. And if that is not enough to convince you to check it out, let me tell you that Whiskers, Snouts and Roots, will have promotions for books, products, and related items for chlorophyll, feather or four paw-bearing species.
Check it out, will you?
It took Grafite less than three minutes to destroy what it had taken me three weeks to create. I woke up at 3:47 in the morning to the unmistakable sound of his scratch echoing down the empty hall. I got up ready to commit a cat-icide.
— GRAFITE!!! Do not scratch the door! Mommy is sleeping, RONNNNC, ya hear? Sleep-ing! I mean, was, before you tore down the door. Do you see this? I spent sleepless nights designing this so that you WOULDN’T scratch the door! So, how about doing your part, huh? Do not scratch the door, Grafite!
My anti-scratch strategy was to devise a gadget that consisted of a hen-house wire fence attached to a little wooden frame. I went for the most discreet size possible, in order to prevent the gadget from becoming too heavy. After all, I would have to set it up and take it down from the door every day. Everything was perfect. But, to avoid damaging the doorpost too much, I only placed two little fixing hooks to the upper part of the frame, in the hopes that Grafite would understand that I clearly didn’t want him to scratch the door.
The problem is that cats are cunning. They learn fast, much faster than dogs—but they only do what they want to do. And Grafite wants mom to pet him in the middle of the night. It’s as simple as that. So, he used his paws to pull the bottom part of the fencing down, eased himself between the frame and the doorpost, raised his arms and scratched the door obstinately until I got up.
— ENOUGH!!! How can mommy sleep, Grafite?!? You are going to wake up the whole house! Stop scratching now! Don’t you see the fencing? It means do not scratch! No, do you understand? Go sleep with your brothers and let me rest!
I put a weight in each of the lower corners of the frame—they would have to do until morning when I could use the electric drill to fix two more supporting hooks. I went back to my room and laid down praying for sleep to come quickly. I dreamt that I was riding a lilac winged horse. The wind swept through my hair going róc, róc, róc… RÓC?!?
I’m gonna kill that cat.
(Deforestation moves 12 mil km2 forward in Amazon. / The water is coming over us. You stay, you die.)
Saturday headlines. And they are related, yes, sir.
And Santa Catarina’s pets also need our help.
Via Contraditorium:
ItajaĂ
The appeal of the NGO Viva Bicho makes us notice that the animals can’t ask for help and can’t help each other by themselves. A lot of them are isolated, without food, with fear, cold and expecting help. Surviving dogs and cats wander around the streets in search of their families and food.
There’s an appeal for all dwellers to try to feed the animals in the street.
There’s no pet food available to buy in the town, so it’s necessary to send from other places.
Any donation will revert in the immediate help to rescue and treat the surviving animals.
Contact: Bianca - Ong Viva Bicho - (47) 8425-1459 / 9903-5441
Banco do Brasil
Ag. 1489-3 cc 20793-4
Associação Viva Bicho
CNPJ 06 156 776 / 0001 - 81
Blumenau
As APRABLU – Animals from Blumenal Protective Association informs, there are lots of isolated animals and missing animals around the city and the NGO asks for the dwellers to try to feed and comfort the animals they find. The association asks, with urgency, donations to buy medicine, food, to improve hostage conditions, buy ropes and jars.
Contact for donation:
e-mail: aprablu@terra. com.br (Bárbara)
Caixa Econômica Federal (ou lotéricas)
Ag.411
Op. 013
C/C 187-5
Simone Ruth Stoltz
FlorianĂłpolis
Less hit than the interior cities, the capital of Santa Catarina, by means of GAE Floripa and É o Bicho members, organize the sending of pet food stock to ItajaĂ, counting on a way of transporting it on Saturday.
Contacto to support with donations:
e-mail: ordepdarc (@) gmail.com (Pedro)
Via Gatoca:
FlorianĂłpolis
Centro de Zoonoses de FlorianĂłpolis
send to: Coordenadoria do Bem-estar Animal (Coobea)
End.: Vila Ivan Matos, ao lado do Cemitério do Itacorubi
Itacorubi - Florianópolis – Santa Catarina – CEP 88032-005
Deliver hours: 8 to 18h
Contact: Maria da Graça Dutra
Phones: (48) 3234-5677/ 9619-8878/ 9114-2537/ 9977-0342
E-mail: bemestaranimal (@) pmf.sc.gov.br
Site: www.pmf.sc.gov.br/bemestaranimal
Blumenau
APRABLU - Associação Protetora de Animais de Blumenau
Contact: Bárbara
e-mail: aprablu (@) terra.com.br
Caixa Econômica Federal (ou lotéricas)
AgĂŞncia:.411
Op. 013
Conta Corrente: 187-5
Simone Ruth Stoltz
Site: www.aprablu.com.br
Itapema
ONG Amigo Bicho
Contact: Rosele Fatima Perozzo
(47) 3368-4758
Banco do Brasil
AgĂŞncia: 3164-x
Conta Corrente: 7525740-8
Site: fotolog.terra.com.br/aamigofiel
ItajaĂ
ONG Viva Bicho
Contact: Bianca
e-mail: vivabichobc (@) yahoo.com.br
(47) 8425-1459 / 9903-5441
Banco do Brasil
AgĂŞncia: 1489-3
Conta Corrente: 20793-4
Associação Viva Bicho CNPJ 06 156 776 / 0001 – 81
Site: www.vivabicho.org.br
Joinville
ONG Abrigo Animal
e-mail: contato (@) abrigoanimal.org.br
(47) 3416-0734
Bradesco
AgĂŞncia: 2150-4
Conta Corrente: 20445-5
Site: www.abrigoanimal.org.br
Are you dying to adopt a pet, but don’t have the space or time to take care of it and, worst, your son is allergic? No problem at all. If you can’t have a cat or a dog close by, stay close to them, at least in your heart: adopt one virtually.
There are lots of ways of being responsible for one of the million abandoned cats and dogs. You can act as a godfather to one of them and deposit an amount, periodically, in order to have a NGO or a volunteer maintaining it healthy and happy. It is also possible to donate pet food, pet beds and medicine that the moustaches and snouts need to be ok.
There’s an easier way of making difference to those guys. You only have to go to one of the various “garage sales” that the NGOs of adoption organize in the end of the year and buy something. This Sunday (11/30), there’s the meeting of Adote um Gatinho (Adopt a little cat), one of the most serious and committed entities with the rescue and care of cats (and sometimes dogs!) dumped on the streets.
I’ll be there from 15h to 18h. The Bazar de Natal da Adote um Gatinho, will be on Desembargador Ferreira França, 40, in the parties saloon, of the block B (really close to the Pôr-do-Sol square, in Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil). Maybe we can meet?
Ketchup and Mustard have always been very close. First born from a birth of five females, the two cats were practically identical in their fur, so spotted that we could barely distinguish the spots. Ketchup was blonder, Mustard was browner. Them both were sweet and warm, the true liquid-cats, of those kinds that sprawl in a single caress.
Because of some genetic problem, Mustard’s clutches were smaller and smaller. Days before labor, exploding of fatness, the cats disappeared of our sights. They loved to give birth in the dark of the quilts closet, for my grandmother’s despair. Ketchup was always the first, followed, three or four days later, by her sister.
We used to separate the boxes, in order to have nobody enraged by their nephews.
Unsatisfied by having two puppies less, Mustard went to her sister’s box and took, in her mouth the first little ball of fur that found ahead of her. When Ketchup missed one of the babies, went to her sister’s lair and took one of the kittens…. any kitten…
With the difference of the days that the clutches had, it wasn’t unusual to see in one box three fat little cats, with eyes opened and a little one, still blind, mistaken in the intense cat game.
One day, I went to the service area and caught a forgotten kitten… it was too heavy to be dragged by the scruff from a side to another.
Meowed begging for someone, mother, aunt, anyone, that took it back to its brothers’ heat. I took it in my arms; it was tender and shaky, like its little heart, pulsing crazily behind little ribs, of toothpick thickness. I took it to the clutch and arranged the first empty teat I found. Looked for a bigger box and put the two females together, with the eight collective puppies and the eighteen milk faucets. I never found another lost kitten.
Until today, I carry with me the responsibility of having touched that little being that was so fragile. To hold a newborn kitten in our hands change something inside us.
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