Technical difficulties

I am in the process of moving my blog from Blogger to Wordpress which has proved more painful than I ever would have anticipated. So unfortunately for the time being, none of the images are visible and I've had to remove a lot of widgets from the side bar to try and import my blog. Hopefully I can get things up and running before too long but I could equally get completely fed up and just restart my blog at Wordpress.

Eventually I will be moving to http://moggie-madness.com so stay tuned for further details :D

NaBloPoMo

Well October is over so I'm getting rid of the pink. :P I will go pink for a cause but as a general rule, I really don't like the colour at all so I am more than happy to go back to my favourite blue. :D

November apparently is National Blog Posting Month and I would be more than happy to be in it. But the long weekend away next week is going to interfere with that unfortunately - and yes Leigh I am gloating about that aren't I? But if I can't be in this year's NaBloPoMo then I will definitely be in it next year.

It can't be that hard to write a post a day. Can it? :P

Update on Rosie

I posted a while ago about Rosie and her hot spot. She's now finished her course of antibiotics and it has cleared up quite nicely. The skin has all grown back and the fur is starting to come back too. Hopefully she will be good as new soon and we don't get another recurrence for the rest of the summer. She and I will both be glad when she no longer needs a weekly flea bath.

Just to add insult to injury, here she is not enjoying her weekly tub. I don't know about you but there's something about a wet kitty photo that I find so cute. *hehe*

I'm sure she would vocally disagree if she knew the camera was on her at the time though. ;)

The moggies have the microphone again

Are you hip, blogging cat?? Well no matter if you're not. Hip or unhip, blogger or no blogger, the Antman still wants you at Cre8Buzz. He has place for us kitties there....sadly we only has a few furry friends to play with!! The Crazy Meezers are already there but we wants more moggie friends too! Hey no matter if you moggie or meezer or even if you persian with good sense of humour....specialy lolcats we defnitly want lolcats!! But all kitties welcome and we wants you there k? So yous told already, hop to it!

You has to excuse our human tho....she always takes over the pooter and we not get to blog much. Something to do wiz our bad spelling and pitiful....what was it Mojo??? Oh tis right. Sentence structure....the way we cats talk tis bit noying for her we tinks. But hey....we not whinge when she tries to spek cat....we jes lol at her *hehe*

I feel like such a hypocrite!

I have been an advocate for keeping cats indoors only for many years. For two reasons:

1. Being allowed unrestricted outdoors access can be dangerous to the cat - cars, diseases, fights with other animals and malicious neighbours who might leave out bowls of milk and aspirin. Keeping your cat indoors or at least restricting their outdoors access will ultimately keep them safe.
2. Cats are born killers, it is in their nature so keeping them indoors also keeps our wildlife safe.

We have two bird cages in our house, one for peachfaces and one for budgies. The peach face cage can be easily wheeled inside and outside but the budgie cage we cannot shift outside because it does not fit through our door (long story that). Anyway, the budgie cage initially I thought was great because it allowed them heaps of room to fly around, was very sturdy and secure from cat curiosity. There is only one problem with it - the door you lift up to change water and feed has a little door inside it and sometimes the little door sticks on the bar above it. This morning, operating on perhaps two brain cells after having worked all night, I changed the water and checked the feed and closed the door.

I didn't notice that the little door was still open. Apparently neither did the budgies, until just after I woke up. I heard a strange noise from Mojo and saw Rosie with her hackles up. I went outside to find Mojo with something in his mouth....he had just come in from the cat park so I assumed it was a small lizard. When I went to retrieve it, I was so shocked to find a budgie in his mouth....I thought perhaps it had gotten in the bars of the cat park. It was already dead, neck was broken and then I noticed the budgies were very very quiet. I looked on the top of the budgie's head and noticed a small yellow spot. Shock turned into horror and overwhelming sadness when I realised this was one of my dearly loved budgies, Spot. :(

I know that Mojo is a cat and this is what cats do so I cannot really get angry at him. I am very angry with myself for not making sure the door was shut properly. More than anything, I just feel so sad because it was just so quick and there was nothing I could do - I didn't even hear Spot make a sound. It just proves to me the point that even if your cat is well fed, they will still predate for sport. The other budgies are still safe within their cage, but it's almost like they know the fate that has befallen their comrade and holding their cheerful chirps for a little while as they mark his passing. :(

I have laid him to rest in the herb garden underneath the bottle brush with one of the balls he used to play with in the cage. I'm so sorry Spot....I can't tell you how much. :(

Playing with macro take #2

A macro shot of the frangipani plant outside my house. It is now flowering thanks to a healthy dose of fertiliser :D

Hide and seek??

This is one of my favourite moments captured in time. It was taken Christmas last year when I had the dubious task of looking after Max (my sister's cat) and Mischa was staying with me while mum went on holidays. I was working on a scrapbooking project in my study when I heard a small thud - so Mischa went to investigate with me close out her heels. The photo was exactly what I saw when I walked in the bathroom door.

Now I'm not sure exactly what Max was trying to achieve here but I think maybe he was playing a little hide and seek with Mojo. Mojo wandered in, busted him perched on top of the shower recess and when he jumped down, he jumped the wrong way and ended up on the inside. Surprisingly, there was no barking, meowing or hissing. Just the three of them staring at each other waiting for someone to make a move. *hehe*




As you can see, Rosie hasn't quite mastered the art of hide and seek - you're supposed to hide Rosie! :D

Mojo is just a little more creative....if he's playing with humans, he becomes even more expert at hiding himself away!

This is why we need our "wild" spaces...

A few years ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to tour South Australia and Victoria with my partner, his friend and my sister. We flew into Adelaide, hired a 4WD and spent the next two weeks travelling through to Melbourne, stopping in at Kangaroo Island, Warrnambool, Werribee and Melbourne city itself. Photography is one of my interests and my favourite subjects are wildlife and landscapes, which South Australia and Victoria both have in spades. It was a very memorable trip and one that I will always remember fondly.

Environmental issues are a central focus of my study with wildlife and ecology being my specialties. With the exception of the sealions which were photographed in the wild, all the other animals you see in this post were photographed within conservation parks such as Monarto and Werribee - both of which are open plains zoos. Seeing the animals in large open spaces like they would be in the wild was such a thrill for me.

But conservation parks and zoos cannot replace the real thing. For these animals to survive in the wild, they need somewhere to live. Habitat fragmentation is a real issue, particularly in Australia, which threatens survival of endangered and vulnerable species.

Some people might wonder what the value of wildlife is.....but how do you place a dollar sign on these animals? To me, wildlife and the places they inhabit have intrinsic value that is beyond reasonable estimation. For purely existing and enriching our world, surely we do not need to put a price tag on conserving our world as we know it for future generations.

These kind of furry (and not so furry) kids need our protection just as much as the ones we share our homes with. The next time you drive through a wildlife habitat, ease off the throttle and take a moment to immerse yourself in their world. :)

Part of the All Women Blogging Carnival, hosted 29 October 2007 by Mad Goat Lady!