It was Tabby's Day Today

"Tabby, will you come out of that new bag that Mr. Human bought"
"But Mr. Human must have bought it for me" answered Tabby. "He knows that I like sitting in places where I am completely protected from all sides"
"No Tabby" I answered, "Mr. Human bought that bag because he needs it for carrying things and not for you Tabby."
"But Mr. Human put it on the table and opened it which is an invite for us cats. After all I am now the boss around here".
I looked at Tabby wondering what had happened. Up to now it was Nera that gave out the instructions, got the best sleeping place, was always first one served at the tuna fish dinners and Tabby always sat patiently on one side waiting. Then something suddenly came to my mind.
"So, Tabby out with it, I noticed that Nera your litter sister doesn't boss you around so much any more. Does it have something to do with Roschti the new cat in the neighbourhood. The one that you and Nera always run away from when you see him?"
"Well, sort of. I have decided I will no longer be bullied by a fat, smelly tom cat. The last straw was when he spent the night sleeping on our cat centre. I decided it was time for action"
"So what happened Tabby?". Now I was really getting curious. I saw Tabby in the garden yesterday and today and Roschti walked past. Tabby just sat their on the edge of the garden watching. Usually she would make a dash for it, so fast that she would overtake the fastest cheetah, but there she was just watching Roschti. Roschti just walked on straight ahead, although she must have known that Tabby was watching her.
"Well" said Tabby "it's just a matter of feline intelligence really. I just told him that either he disappears from our territory and stops showing off, or my human will take a photo of him and write about what a stupid cat he is on her blog and everyone will laugh at him."
"Yes, but why does Nera still run away from him when she sees him coming?"
Tabby looked at me with her big green eyes and I think I saw a small smile on her face.
"Well, Nera is ok, but now and again she gets a bit of star allure. Thinks she is a sort of feline gift to the cat world. Since you made that close up portrait of her, it just went to her head.

So between us two, we don't have to tell Nera everything do we? She might be the best looking but who has the brains around here?".
"OK, Tabby you can surprise me sometimes, but I would say it is time to get out of Mr. Human's new bag, before he sees you".
"Did I hear my name mentioned, Tabby what are you doing in my new bag, That is definitely not the idea." Mr. Human arrives on the scene.
"I was just telling Mrs. Human that it is a comfortable bag and shows good taste to buy such a bag. I always wanted one like that. Couldn't we put a nice comfortable cushion in it."
"Tabby, I did not buy that bag as a sleeping place for the feline race, but to carry a few things I have to take with me some times." Mr. Human was slowly getting annoyed with Tabby.

"So Tabby, I really think it is time for you to leave that bag alone." I said. We want to unpack it and no, it is not a new bed for you. The sun is shining outside, so I think it might be an idea to get some fresh air. As it seems that you are king of the garden again, there is no problem to take a walk outside."
"Do you mean she has solved the Roschti problem." Mr. Human was very surprised so Mrs. Human told him how clever Tabby had been.
"But Tabby" said Mr. Human, "that still doesn't give you the right to sit in my new bag. This evening you get an extra portion tuna fish, but in the meanwhile I think it would be a good idea if you really go out a bit as Mrs. Human said."
"Ok, Ok, I am on my way. You can have your shopping bag to yourself again. Who wants to sit in an old bag when the garden is teaming with interesting things to play with. I might even give a few hisses in Roschti's direction if he walks past."
"Tabby, I wouldn't overdo it if I was you. Just leave Roschti to his thing and you get on with yours. You never know Roschti might talk his human into writing a blog about a little tabby cat living next door that used to run away when she saw him".
"You humans are funny animals, always have an answer to everything" and with that remark Tabby jumped out of the bag and went outside into the garden.

RIP JJ3

The bears in the photo live in the bear pit in Bern, which is tradition in the town of Bern. This bear pit has grown old and no longer meets with a bear-friendly environment, so it is being re-built on the shores of the River Aare in Bern. The bears will be able to swim in the river in a special enclosure.

The bear JJ3 did not live in such a friendly area. Further to my blog yesterday about our Bear JJ3 which was killed, here is a translation of an article in our local newspaper today. It was on the front page with the headlines "The Bear risk was too Big".

Grisons JJ3 was killed near Thusis on Monday morning
The bear JJ3 is dead. For many weeks the Grison (Eastern part of Switzerland, very mountainous) population were holding their breath because the bear was not afraid of people. On Monday he was killed by rangers.

The shooting was the end of an inevitability, that we all knew would come" said Reinhard Schnidrig, commander in chief of the rangers to the media in Chur (capitol town of Grisons). After his hibernation the bear JJ3 plundered again and again refuse bins and containers in villages in the area of Lenzerheide-Albulatal-Savognin. The several efforts to get rid of the bear with explosions and ribber bullets did not impress the bear at all. According to the Grisons president Stefan Engler he became more and more impertinent. The cantonal authorities did not want to risk an accident involving humans. On Monday evening JJ3's fate was sealed.

He earned more chances
Environment and animal welfare organisations condemned the shooting as a course of action which jumped to conclusions. From their point of view JJ3 hat earned a further chance, the scaring away of the bear should have been carried further. The animal had never been aggressive towards humans. "We are of the opinion that the authorities should have developed a clearer strategy before they classified JJ3 as a risky bear and condemned him to be shot" said Kurt Eichenberger, Project chief for WWF in the interview. "The potential danger was at a minimum and in our eyes would not have grown. JJ3 had never shown himself to be aggressive. And also in the expectancy of the immigration of further bears the shooting was no solution." The WWF are now examining further legal steps, also to make adjustments to the "Bear concept".

The responsible persons of the Federation and the Kanton resisted the accusations that they had not done enough and referred to the other bear in Grison, MJ4, that was causing no problems. They had seen no possibility with JJ3 to influence his actions. To catch the bear and put him in a bear park was no alternative for the Grison hunting inspectors out of animal ethical reasons.

That JJ3 would become a problem must lay in the family. 2 years ago his brother Bruno caused panic and havoc in Baveria before he was shot.

To keep bears away from human settlements the Kanton Grisons had decided to introduce a bear proof disposal system."

So those are the facts in Switzerland at the moment. There is a movement against the local government decisions. When I came home from work today, Mr. Swiss said when he heard the bear had been shot it shocked him. He was listening to people speaking on the radio today and many are against the shooting. It seems to me the Swiss just don't know how to deal with the problem and have had no experience with this sort of thing. Bear JJ3 was a bit cheeky and was sitting outside the front door when a mother went out in the morning to take her children to school - Why, because she had left the dustbin outside. Or there is the bee keeper whose complete bee hives had been destroyed by JJ3 because the bear was after the honey. Here again the Grison authorities are going to give help for the bee keepers to be able to protect their bee hives with barbed wire and an alarm system. Slowly people are waking up to how to deal with bears. It's just a shame that a beautiful bear had to die first of all. The Swiss wanted the bears to return and now they are here they realise they just don't know how to cope.

I am for preserving all animal life and there are always ways and means to do it, sometimes the decision makers just don't seem to be able to see the forest for trees.

Bits and Pieces

This was early Monday morning in the office. It was early because we were dealing with details before the daily work began. What do we see - on the right and left two of my colleagues and in the middle a third colleague concentrating on some important work. I did mention on one of my last blogs that the Panini sticky photos for EU2008 had now arrived in Switzerland. Over the week-end my colleagues and I had been sticking our photos of footballers into the album and had managed to sort out the photos that were double. I even took time to make an Excel list with filter, so that I did not have to take the album to work but just the photos. We were then busy exchanging our double photos - after all for one franc for a packet of five pictures, it is not a cheap hobby. I seem to have the Turkish team complete and quite a few Swiss, but the Italians are few and far between.

I was reading in a magazine under the title "Panini fever hits Switzerland" that the Swiss are buying the most and even 83% of the infected are over 15 years old - is this possible?. The biggest problem that Panini had was to pick the 20 footballers from each team to put in the album. Yes, Panini are very sly. In the 2006 world cup they apparently chose the German goalie Oliver Kahn as being the goalie for that team, only to find that Jens Lehmann was the chosen goalie. No problem, they quickly issued a sticky of Jens to replace that of Oliver Kahn. They even brought out a special edition to accommodate the new photo with information about Jens Lehmann.

Well I have about 300 pictures to go, so I am sure I will get there in the end. Even Mr. Swiss offered on Saturday to go half way with the pictures I bought. Yes, although the Swiss team have zero chances of winning anything the fever is there.

And now for something a bit sad. Now and again a bear finds its way into Switzerland. Not very often and it still gets into the headlines. The photo is bear JJ3 (we give them names) who has been drugged before being shot. There is of course a big uproar in certain groups of the population, so what did this bear do wrongly. He has been around for some time and decided why hunt for food when the human population leave enough lying around, so he started going too near to the villages. People living in bear countries know the problems with bears, basically they are scavengers taking what they can, but the Swiss do not realise this and leave their rubbish in bins outside. JJ3 thought this was meant for him and was getting too near to civilisation. To make sure that he didn't take any humans with him on his food hunting trips, it was decided that he days should come to an end. I was listening to a radio report where one of the wildlife keepers said that the trouble was JJ3 was getting too intelligent and was avoiding the wildlife keepers and going more to the houses where people were living. The authorities found that this was getting out of hand and shot JJ3. There is a bit of a discussion in Switzerland about this act of "terror" as the WWF found that our hunters should have waited a bit before making such a decision (wait for what - the first dead cat/person/child?). He was even offered a roof over his head at the bear pit in Bern, but this was turned down. Anyhow JJ3 will be preserved for the following population of the Swiss. He will be stuffed and exhibited in one of the museums.




Further to a blog I once wrote about politics in Switzerland and a lady, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, that was elected into the government of Switzerland as a minister, things are not going so good, or perhaps they are. Her own political party did not want her in the government as there was a strong fraction still supporting the minister that had to leave. This party, like any other, has rightwingers, and moderate wingers. The politician that had to go was extreme right, and this lady is more moderate. The situation was sharpened up last week. Her party said she no longer had their support and should quit the parliament immediately. The rest of the government were sort of split ideas, and she herself said she would stay. Well one thing must be said for the women of Switzerland. There was a bit demo in Bern (over 10,000 people which is a lot for Switzerland) came together and made their thoughts clear that the lady should stay. She came herself eventually, accompanied by loud applause and said "You came here not only for me, but because doubt has been cast on our democratic institutions". More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition in support of the justice minister (that is her department). Her party has said (i.e. the right wing) that they will expel her from the party, but I don't think this will go that far. You see we even have a bit of wild west in Switzerland from time to time.

A Walk around the garden

There is not much going on in the garden at the moment. We had a spell of cold weather which seems to have turned the brakes on the growth. These are so-called Christmas roses, although the proper Christmas ones are white. This is always the first plant that flowers in the garden.

I then found these flowering away. I don't know what they are called, but I planted them in a border a couple of years ago.

Even found some tulips that had started flowering. Funny the things I discover and don't even remember planting it. Then there was these two rare objects.

Roschti had decided to pay our Fluffy a visit in the garden. Actually he charged on into our place, but I soon managed to turn him in the other direction with a loud command. Fluffy felt quite secure outside as I was near bye. They just sat there looking at each other.

What was Tabby and Nera watching? They suddenly came out of their sleeping places and stared at the window. This time it was not Roschti, the red enemy, but Bobinette from next door. She was looking in through the window and this did not suit my two cats. It's funny how they notice something like that. Bobinette didn't even make any noise, but was just sitting there. I think cats do have a 6th sense somehow.

In the meanwhile Fluffy decided to have a lick to prepare for a long sleep and Nera amused herself in a place where she shouldn't be.

I told her to find somewhere else and with a hiss she went off in another direction. That was the day more or less in pictures. Oh I saw that the snails are also back in the garden.