An ironic tale, for anyone who has visited this Indian holiday state of Goa, where the first impression on arrival is inevitably, the masses of discarded rubbish visible everywhere. There is effectively no efficient system of collection and disposal in place, so most households and businesses just dump it from vehicles, anywhere along the road sides. Our local town has actually now installed several collection points, where it can be left, and council vehicles will collect and clear these piles. With most of our rubbish, we drive it to the official district dump, some distance away by the van full, weekly. To reduce the amount and odour of this rubbish we have to store here, on my four trips a week to the town for monkey food, I also take a bag or two each time, to leave at one of the designated town sites. This week, when dropping off one such bag at the collection point, we were stopped in our tracks by an official “jobs worth” and our number plate recorded, photos taken of me and the staff member, as well as of the rubbish bag we were trying to leave! I was then told that this evidence would be taken to the police directly, and we would receive a summons and a subsequent 5,000 rupee fine. When I asked what on earth for, I was told it was for transporting rubbish from one town to another! The full irony of this story can only be appreciated by those who have seen the masses of rubbish here, openly just dumped anywhere, and by everyone! I await my summons and fine.
Sasha Cools Off
Two call outs to baby Langurs, one, its mother had been attacked by dogs, and it had also been badly bitten. The householder picked it up and took to a vet for stitching. The next day we were contacted and dashed to distant Vasco to collect him, but by that time, it was comatose and past help. The second was a local troop, again dogs, and this baby was sitting in shock, at the base of a tree after the attack, and the mother was right above, watching out for it. With only minimum stress to its mother, we were able to give it water and wait until it slowly recovered enough to rejoin its mum. Hopefully it will make a full recovery from this experience.
This is Sasha, enjoying her turn for a trip to the swimming pool, in the present hot weather they are all keen on cooling off. Sasha is a great swimmer, having been kept originally at a beach side restaurant. Here she got relief sometimes, from her life on a chain as an “attraction”, from some regular holiday visitors, who persuaded the owner to let them take her for walks on their Goa trips, this is where she learned to swim in the sea, and enjoy at least those very brief spells of a better life.
New cat comfort yet another market rescue cat has joined us, she had been dumped there because she was pregnant, although not much more than a kitten herself. When I found her, she was sitting on the busy road side, with her 5 dead kittens, lying in a filthy puddle, probably prematurely aborted, due to the stress of being transported and dumped by her owners. Comfort, as she has been called, is already settling in well with all the animals here, and even stands up to any nonsense from the two young dogs, Spats and Squidge.
More interesting visitors to the Tree House with this beneficial and harmless to humans, rat snake, taking up residence in the house walls, and after many attempts, a photo of the very elusive and exotic male Asian paradise fly catcher, with his extraordinarily long white tail feathers, flitting about the garden.
We have all been saddened by the recent death in hospital here, of Barry Sarson, a long term Goa visitor, volunteer, and supporter of the primate trust and the local children’s home. He and his wife Dee have been visiting and helping us for many years, and we hope that Dee will be able to return to us as a volunteer, next year.
