It might be true that some animals are enemies by nature but
it does not always have to be like that. Back in Holland, we started keeping
chickens in our garden. They were quite big and during the daytime I let them roam
around the garden. One day I noticed my cat behaving like he had nice prey in
mind. It got me worrying when I saw the prey: one of the eight chickens.
Worried or not I did not want to interfere hysterically and waited for things
to happen. Ramses attacked with a few giant leaps, the chickens hit the alarm and
before I knew it all sisters were there to defend her. Now the roles were
switched when they started attacking Ramses. One of the chickens jumped up high
in front of Ramses and tried to kick him with her claw. Never ever in my entire
life have I seen a cat running that fast as Ramses did then. He then climbed
into the highest tree and we had a good laugh as you might understand. Chicken
in Dutch is kip. So we now had our own “Karate kip”. What was remarkable however was that ever
since Ramses and the chickens walked together and by chance ate together as
well.
Chickens themselves are not that inviting. The first
chickens we had here were given by a friend. We started building a big coop and
when it was finished I decided to buy some more. The salesman told me to place
them at night in the dark in the shelter. “The next morning the ‘old’ chickens
will think ‘hmm, I guess they slept here last night so it must be OK’ and you
will have no problems”. He was right. Here in the Philippines in San Juan, we
had chickens and my housemate came back one day after visiting his mother. She
had given him a chicken. He let it go in the garden and the poor thing was chased
by all the others. She then was never allowed to sleep with the others and
lived her own life, separated from the others. Hens protect their chicks like crazy
but don’t let other chicks approach too near. The hen can kill them.
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One of the 3 pups and the adopted kitten playing like brothers
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Nature is beautiful yet cruel at the same time. There is not
much we can do about that. But we as well thinking and civilized people do have
choices. If we want pets it means we are responsible for them. Most people I
know treat their dogs and cats like they are their own kids. The pets definitely
are part of the family. Last week I wrote about cruelty done to animals. The
blog was barely posted or I heard a young kitten somewhere in the back of the
compound. The very next day the sound came from the front side where I saw our
neighbor busy with his dog and her puppies. He started talking to me so I went
over there. He told me that they had found a kitten that was thrown into the
gutter in a plastic bag. The young doggie mother now took care of it. “Look,
the kitten is her favorite kid now” the man said and sure enough she was taking
care of it. It was amazing to see. Dogs and cats often do not go very well
together but everybody who loves pets undoubtedly knows stories of them
becoming best of friends. This shows that our friends have more compassion then
some of us. If you cannot take the responsibility to take care of your pets
then do not even start keeping them.
Love the ones you’re
with and be loved in return.
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