First day of May bought in a tiny orphaned Langur baby. She had been found on the road side, and although we cannot know the fate of mother, she was I would suspect, a victim of the ever increasing traffic, how the little baby avoided a similar fate, is pretty amazing. Although only a few weeks old at most, she is taking a bottle readily, and in many ways, tiny babies fare better at this stage, as they are pretty oblivious to the change in circumstances, where as the older babies will spend at least the first 3 days, just calling and looking for mum, and refusing any help from a human substitute. It is early days yet, and there are still so many hurdles for her to overcome, 2 to 3 hourly feeds will be needed, day and night for the near future, so a lot of hard work is involved.
The weather here is no longer an attraction to holiday visitors, and few whites faces are now to be seen in the local towns. As the temperature climbs pre-monsoon, the relentless heat night and day becomes a trial, even for the monkeys. A cool off in the pool is their favourite, and in between they will even sit in their water pots for relief. Luckily this year we have two hardy young men as volunteers, and they are coping with the heat, and still able to help with all the needed jobs, including the exhausting trips to the market 4 days a week, for the monkey’s supplies. With the mango season in Goa now imminent, the monkeys are again getting a good supply of the damaged fruits, which to them are a welcomed addition. Jack fruits are also in season, and these extraordinary fruits can be seen on the trees locally. They grow straight out of the trunks and weigh as much as 35 kilos each. The only edible part is the yellow flesh which is just around each seed inside; it is similar in taste to peaches, but with the texture of rhubarb and popular with humans and monkeys alike.
Another cat rescue in the fish market, this time of a young white female, so pathetically thin, that she was falling over as she walked. I had imagined that there must be an underlying illness for her to be in such a state, but the vets could not pinpoint anything, and indeed, Pearl, as she is called, is now putting on weight and moving around, without falling over at last. Why and how she was starved almost to death, before being dumped, is a mystery of course, but perhaps due to an elderly owner unable to care for her, white cats generally are given some value here, and if she had had access to catch wild food, she could have survived, even if not fed. Again, we cannot know her story.
