Sweety and Matilda continue with their friendship, indeed Matilda is very protective of her and will not now allow Sweety out, without her.
She pulls her back until she has her own collar on, and knows they are going together. This is not entirely helpful for us, as Sweety is a much easier monkey to handle, where as she needs a more experienced person, who can read her moods and whims. Hopefully she will relax when she realizes that Sweety isn’t going to be taken away.
We have made some adaption’s to their pen, to make it easier for the one armed Sweety to get about, although she adapts, copes well, and manages to work out the best way to get where she wants to go.
Following the many restrictions of the monsoon, comes the festival season, almost as restricting for the animals, as the problems of staffing and getting some jobs done continues.
On top of this, is the daily sporadic letting off of the celabratery, ear splitting, explosive, thunder fireworks from first light to midnight. Our own animals and those in the neighborhood, of course, mainly live in fear at this time. For some 2 weeks, these window rattling explosions go on, and our monkeys crash round the cages in fear, or annoyance ! the dogs all hide trembling under the furniture, and the cats are in panic.
Although I try to shut the more timid cats away during the worst spells, I do not have enough safe places for all 20.
One I have carefully put in a cage at the first sign of trouble was always Comfort, who after her experiences when dumped, has remained a little wary, but an unexpected BOOOM, from the adjoining church yard in the early afternoon meant she took off before she could be put in safety.
Impractical Nest, Bird On LeftWe haven’t seen her since, and it is likely that the street dogs attacked her as a fleeing strange cat, or if she went into the forest to escape, that is no safer, with the large Indian python, monitor lizards and even birds of prey, all looking for snacks. Driving and calling to her around the neighborhood has been fruitless, and simply proved to the locals how mad these foreigners are, especially when I asked them to please look out for her, A CAT!
Many local pets go missing at this time, and a few people do even look to find them, we were called out by a family, for their cat, that had jumped down into the well in fear, unfortunately, she had already drowned when we arrived.
Kochi showed that he does not approve of the staff having these holidays, after a couple of days without his usual swims and walks in the garden, he was so keen to come in for his evening cuddles and food, that when Hersha went to get him, he took the collar from her , and tried to put it on himself!
The local populations of sun birds that I help sustain with humming bird feeders, I can testify are not so intelligent. The crows and parrots that I have rescued over the years, always proved to be as bright as any dog.
This bird decided to build a new nest, 2 foot from the ground and on a potted plant, 2 foot from a busy door way too. It didn’t take long for the cats to spot it and pull it down; luckily he made a getaway. But within hours he was back doing it again, with the cats lazily watching, in exactly the same spot. I had to move the plant temporarily out of sight, to stop his efforts, at suicide.
Nissa , a young female langur has been enjoying her walks, in between the rain and the explosions, and likes to get up high as a look out. If she sees any wild langurs even in the far distance, she bolts back for the safety of her friends and her pen.
