WordPress Daily Prompt: Menagerie

Do you have animals in your l ife? If yes, what do they mean to you? If no, why have you opted not to.
Bonus points for adorable animal photos and double bonus if they're taken with your phone. I have a Nikon camera as well as a Lumix so definitely do not need to use my phone.

"Look Tabby, Fluffy, the daily prompt, it is just for us."

"Yessss Nera, we have our chance at last to get a blogger award for our writing talents."

"We will start with our portraits, before talking about the animals in our life."

"Agreed" said Tabby and Fluffy and unison. The felines were quite excited, at last a prompt they could do on their own.

"To start with I will show one of my portrait studies, I even signed it with a paw print and sent the original to Garfield. Am still waiting for an answer" said Nera the chief cat.

 

"Note my voluptuous curves, my silky fur and my shining eyes. I am sure Garfield fell in love with my portrait. I wonder why he has not yet answered my letter with the photo?"

"Perhaps he wasn't interested Nera, you know he might have had the same operation as we three felines, then the opposite sex just seems to lose its attractivity" spoke Tabby and continued "but now it is my turn to show my photo. I am more the intellectual type, not so much fat, sorry fluff, but I invest more into my feline brain."


"I was really concentrating in this photo,thinking about the meaning of life in connection with mice and birds and why the ideal tin opener for cat paws has not yet been developed."

"Yes Tabby, dream on, as long as we have our slaves, aka humans, there is no need for a feline friendly tin opener" answered Nera.

"Now it's my turn, my turn, let me put a photo on the prompt."

"OK Fluffy, stay cool, you will get your photo. Which one do you want?"

"Choose one of my dreamy photos where I am sort of swaying between Nirvana and corn chambers in Egypt. I do not see the photos so I will let you choose Nera. Mrs. and Mrs. Human say I am blind, but I still don't know what that is."

So here is the photo Nera and Tabby chose for Fluffy.


"I think you have done a good job Nera" said Tabby and Fluffy. "Mrs. Human will be proud of us and she does not have to bother about writing anything today on her daily prompt."

"What did I hear felines about my daily prompt. What are you doing on my computer?"

"We saved you some problems with the daily prompt. they asked if we have animals in our life and what they mean to us, so we just have to write that and then we are finished."

"But felines the prompt is for me to write about the animals in my life."

"Forget it Mrs. Human, Humans are also animals, homo sapiens, but do not expect us to use that phrase. To continue, you and Mr. Human are the animals in our life and mean a lot to us. Without you our cat tray would smell and never be emptied. Our twice a weekly ration of tuna fish would not be prepared, due to the fact that our paws cannot use the tin opener. We also need you both for your credit cards, so that we can order online on our pawpads various feline essentials such as catnip filled toys, a new designer cat play center and of course the diamond studied collars, although they have delivery problems at the moment. Not to mention that when we have a hairball moment, you are both ready to clear it away. Yes, I would say you both mean quite a lot to us felines, so now I think it is time for a plate of tuna fish, laced with liquid and Tabby said she would like some yogurt as a desert today, it helps with the digestion.

And to finish this epic blog, we also have our own site on WordPress. I am sure you would all love to read it, so here is the link The Cat Chronicles.

Mrs Human, Mrs. Human, where has she gone?"

"I think she is having one of those hissy fits in her sleeping cushion, talking about ungrateful felines and all that rubbish. Just leave her, she will soon recover. Fluffy is going to have a hairball moment. He is already preparing for it and then she will come running to clear the mess away like all well trained humans." So Tabby had the last word.

The Swiss Zoo

Don't worry, this is not a photo taken in my back garden but a few years ago in the bear park in the city of Bern, right in the middle. Since then the bears have spread out to a new revere along the banks of the River Aar, also in Bern. The town emblem of Bern is a bear and hence the local animal population. They do quite well, have enough to eat and drink, can even go for a swim and multiply once a year when the baby bears in Spring are shown to the local population. Someone did get too close once to their park and fell in, the bears were delighted to have a variation of their diet, but he was rescued. Anyhow these bears are in captivity and you don't meet them on the streets.

On the other hand, in the Balkan states, they do tend to take a walk now and again, commonly known as wild bears and they might stray over the Swiss border, the first one being sighted in 2005, taking a holiday from his home in Italy. Unfortunately he was shot, there was an outcry in the Swiss population "poor little bear" etc. and now the authorities are more careful with their bullets.  Before the bear arrived a few wolves did visit us, they were not welcome, living on the farmer's grazing sheep.

Anyhow this is all very well and interesting. Our local animals are cats, dogs, ascending to fox and cows - no big deal.

Now we have a new immigrant known as Jackal, yes, now who would have thought that. Mr. Swiss drew my attention to an aricle in our local Sunday newspaper this morning. apparently it is a golden jackal, having a goldbrown coat. Actually the first one arrived some time last year and our naturalists were a little overstrained not recognising what it was, but now it is clear. Apparently because of the climate getting warmer, they are straying into colder areas, as they do prefer the sunny side of life.They originate in Africa and Asia, but found their way to Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy and Austria some time ago and have now decided to try Switzerland. So here he is.




Not a photo from me but the newspaper He has not yet been seen in our area (although they did see a panther in the local forest last year, and he has not been seen again).

So life can be interesting in Switzerland. I think this one might leave when Winter arrives.

Autumn Fair Solothurn - Animals and children

To continue - I revisited the fair on Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours. I actually wanted to buy a cat comb/brush that they were selling on the Hills pet food booth. Our long haired black fat cat Nera is very sensistive about being combed, especially on the tummy. We have tried everything up to now (even a full aneasthetic at the vets as her fur was slowly resembling an insectarium) so why not invest twenty-eight swiss francs in a comb for her. Did it work - well sort of, but she didn't actually say oh yes I love it, can you do it again.

In any case whilst I was at the fair I decided to see what had been done for the kids. They have a small zoo each year with some farm animals, called a "stroking zoo" so the kids can get near to the animals and have fun. I wasn't exactly so sure if the animals were having fun. These dogs seemed to have given up entertaining and made the most of a straw bed.

Actually the first animals I saw were the white geese - at least I think that was what they were. They are a bit stupid I noticed. When one goes left (probably the leader of the pack) the rest just follow him. They were kept in a nice big green part and seemed to be enjoying theirselves. Now and again they did a group cackle just to let you know they were there.

I then walked around the corner and found some cows. They weren't exactly available for a stroke and if I had a kid I don't think I would have allowed him to touch one of those cows. However they were having a peaceful lay down and let me take their photo.

Just nearbye there were some sort of goats. Goats are no problem really. There were sharing their enclosure with about 20 children, but it didn't seem to bother them. I quite enjoyed walking around the animals taking photos and the youngsters really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Naturally no local animal show would be completed without chickens. They were mostly hiding in their coup, but a couple saw me with the camera ready and decided they wanted to appear on my blog. The one on the left is an ordinary farm hen, but the one on the right seems to be something special.

There were a couple of pigs laying around with the goats, although funnily enough I didn't see any children trying to stroke them. Some rabbits were also wandering around looking for something useful to do.

All in all there was a fair selection of animals shown. Although we are a farming area, so you don't really have to walk far to find the next farm with some cows. I quite enjoyed the animal visit myself. Eventually I made my way home, sort of tired but happy. It was the last day of the fair, but it will be at least a week until everything is cleared away. There follows a photo of the tractor, probably bringing some food for the animals, and I also managed to get a photo of the train. This runs especially for the visitors and their children as a sort of fun thing. I was actually planning this to be my last news from the HESO, but on Sunday there was a special exhibition which I was surprised to see, so I will bring short report about that tomorrow.