News and mews from Portugal ...

14 Dec '06 3:00 am

This looks like a nice area for my family. Let me introduce Magic Sam (Boo), who is English and 11 years old and Candida (Candi) and Calvos (Cal) who are Portuguese and five months old ...

14 Dec '06 4:50 am

Ab-so-lu-tely, adorable creatures! Gorgeous! I guess, they are quite loved, too, because they look so happy! Have not passed into the...soul-mates stage, yet?

14 Dec '06 5:42 am

Hello, Liza. They are very much loved and spoiled rotten.

We got Magic Sam when our then pair of white cats, Skwij and Puschka (brother and sister) were four years old. Magic Sam and Skwij were soul mates but Puschka just couldn't take to him, flying and helicoptering around the room all the time. They were very well travelled cats as at the time we lived in Buckinhgamshire and would go down to our apartment at weekends and holidays on the Isle of Wight (both England). Then in 2001 we moved to Portugal for the winter and they came as well on their Pet Passports.

We to-ed and fro-ed a couple of years spending more time here than there (2001 7 months here / 5 there, 2002 8/4, 2003 9/3). But then Skwij took ill, he just suddenly stopped eating and he was a boy he liked his food. We took him to the vets but after tests they could pinpoint anything but put him on Fortekor but after a few weeks he stopped drinking as well. We couldn't bear to watch him suffer so gave him a Valium before we took him to the vet and he was peacefully asleep when they adminstered the shot that put him to sleep forever. That was April 2003. Magic Sam was lost without Skwij. Immediately Puschka seemed to take ill (although with hindsight perhaps we should have seen something). She was put on medication five times a day for heart and lung problems but she was a happy girl. Unfortunately she had a stroke a year ago last Saturday and died lying on my pillow with me holding her. They are both buried here together. He had just turned 13, she would was nearly 15. Now Magic Sam was on his own and we hmmm-ed and haaa-ed about getting more but Magic Sam seemed to develop a new personality on his own. His nickname is Boo because he has always been spooked by everything and everyone (barring us).

Then, on 13 July we were at the bottle bank/rubbish bin in our local hamlet and I could hear a funny noise. My husband said it was birds in the bottle banks but I said no .... then our worst nightmare was realised as I found two newly-born kittens still with their umbilical cords attached in a plastic carrier bag. The Calico one was almost out of the bag screaming its head off and I thought there was only one but decided to double check the bag and there was a black and white one stuffed in a corner. I retrieved them both and we immediately went back home (we were on our way at the time to feed some abandoned dogs nearby). We didn't know what to do so quickly found an eye dropper and almost drown them with milk ... it was 34oC that day! I called our vet who said to bring them in and they would put them to sleep as they were too young to survive without their mother. We both burst into tears. My husband had always fancied a Calico and we were being told to put them to sleep! I then called an animal sanctuary who said to bring them there.

At the sactuary a young French girl immediately took a cat who had just had kittens and put her with them but she had just been neutered a few days before and there was no milk, so Valerie took them home with her to hand feed them. The next day she also took a day old puppy home who was found in the same situation but her siblings didn't survive. Against all odds, all three survived and at five weeks old we relieved Valerie of her "duties" as mother and brought them home.

It's been very difficult for Magic Sam as he no longer has our undivided attention. However, I devote special time to him doing all the things he and I always did ... sitting in my swing chair in the outdoor living room (Baffa, we call it) with him on my lap, his evening brushing, special treats and cuddles. He hisses constantly at Candi and Cal and swots them. Candi heeds the warnings as he is Alpha Cat but Cal just won't have any of this Alpha Cat nonsence and flies at Magic Sam at any opportunity, tries to stick his head in Magic Sam's food bowl (a real no, no!) and anything else he can think of to get Magic Sam to like him. We think he is full of E-numbers or autistic due to being stuck in the bottom of the carrier bag! Shocked

However, tomorrow he is having his jewels removed so maybe that will calm him down ... I seriously hope so! We will have Candi done next month.

In saying the above, we sleep five in a bed. My husband has one half and me and three have the other half with Magic Sam curled up to my tummy under the covers (or sometimes on the top at my feet) and the two little 'uns in the middle, sometimes on top, sometimes under the covers. Candi does go and curl up with her Poppy at some point in the night ... he uses her as a pillow, just as Puschka used to let him do.

Anyway, that's the story of my three babies. Any advice / thoughts regarding a more amicable arrangement to integrate them would be greatly appreciated.

Here are pictures of Skwij and Puscka, still dearly missed, and their grave here ..

14 Dec '06 6:39 am

Vicky, thank you so much for this! Welcome to the ....Crazy Animal-lovers Club, as people like you are called in Greece, my birth place...Of couse, I belong to this Club since I was born...

Vicky, while I was reading your narration, I was deeply moved...You don't imagine how many times I found dead or alive little animals in plastic bags, or thrown in the ...garbage bin....And they call us-humans "Animals!", as being a disgrace...being an animal and not a human...

But I don't want to discuss further the sad part of your amazing animal-soul-mate, deeply humane, involvement...I just found the new photos equally adorable with your first ones ! How lovely your snow-white beauties used to be...But don't worry with your new babies; they will have each other as best friends, and little by little your ...magically beautiful Sam will get used to them and will accept them as family members. It takes a little time, like with us-humans in similar situations. You handle your Sam boy in the best way, in order not to feel jealous or deprived from your love. You are a great, loving cat-mum!! But , if the younger ones are not operated (jewels!), you will have problems among the three boys , when they become ....teenagers in love...

Thank you , for taking the time to share with us this touching, humane involvement of yours with your dear animal companions! Stay in ...animal-loving touch!

14 Dec '06 6:52 am

I have submitted this post twice and wish to delete one but cannot find the facility to do so.

14 Dec '06 6:57 am

Thank you, Liza, for your comforting words. Just to mention, it's not three boys I now have ... whoa, Candi is her Poppy's little girl!

I forgot to put the "at rest" picture up in the previous post, so here goes ...

14 Dec '06 7:50 am

...after dinner... I was glad you replied so soon! And glad you have a little lady among your babies! Two boys is much better.... But beware of new babies...Your mixed border is so heartwarming! I love the terracota pots , they all make a very harmonious whole. The white lovelies are Anthemis daisies? Here I cultivate white Anthemis in a big terracota pot , that enters the glass-house during winter. I have some nice light yellow varieties out in the garden, though, which are truly frost-hardy.

I forgot to tell you before, that I visited the Island of White in the summer of '96, when I was 7 months pregnant to my third child, Nicholas. I loved every little bit of it, but the sea was rather cold -- is it because I am Greek? People were so nice and caring! The countryside so special! So many flowers !

14 Dec '06 8:23 am

Hello again Liza!

I have just finished my dinner now and came to look on the computer.

There will be NO new babies as Magic Sam cannot father and Calvos will be relieved of his duties tomorrow. Candi will have her op mid-January (they say here six months for a girl).

I am very fond of the resting place with my terracotta pots. They were put there especially for Skwij and Puschka. The one lying on it's side is filled with mini roses, twelve of them! (I'll see if I can get a close up picture of it on here.)

The daisies are pink Margaritas and I have now removed them only recently and replaced it with a Callistemon, Flaming Fire, as the daisies go out of control here very quickly. Your Anthemis is Chamomile.

How lovely that you have visited the Isle of Wight ... our apartment (which we just sold last week!) was in Bonchurch, between Ventnor and Shanklin ... a very beautiful part of the island. Yes, the water is cold there because it is on the English Channel!

I visited Belgium twice, once in 1962 on a school trip to Bruges and again in 1989 when I worked for a diamond mine in West Africa and our headquarters were in England but we had an associate company in Brussels on Rua de la Loi (that's probably wrong ... road of the law). Can't say I was terribly impressed either time but the hospitality was wonderful!

As you and I are on the same time, it's easier to talk straight away!

14 Dec '06 9:18 am

Why, it is great you have visited Brugges and its channels, which is called by the Belgian people "The Belgian Venice"! Concerning Brussels, it is much more beautiful during Spring and Summer, with its beautiful parcs in bloom , and its Forests so inviting . But , I guess, you have also visited Corfu, my birth island in Greece,near Italy, so much praised and loved by the English people ( many live permanently there, like you live in Portugal)!! You can see some recent photos of Corfu in my post in the Garden Tours topic, called "From the Alpes Down to the Mediterranean Sea (and vice versa)".

And I have just realized , that the mixed border is the grave of your cats you reffer to in the previous post. It is really so sweet that you did this! And the last photo is even more beautiful ! But my frost hardy Anthemis are, Anthemis Tinctoria "Sauce Hollandaise" the one , and Anthemis, "Mrs Buxton" variety the second, about 60-70cm height each! Chamomilles are lovely, tiny, short, scented, wild daisies in Greece, also used for the preparation of an excellent, beneficial tea! Here in Belgium are a little taller...

14 Dec '06 9:25 am

This is something that has to do with our Webmaster's responsibility and expertise !! I really do not know why my identity was not shown in my previous post! Well, the guest was Liza!

News and mews from Portugal ...

News and mews from Portugal ...

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