[m i a o w] the cat

Why oh why did I not take a picture of last nights dinner? I am drooling into my keyboard as I type…
The obvious reason is that it was way too yummy to even pause and get the camera. M’s mother lent us an indoor bbq thingo and we had seared prawns and mackerel with steamed vegetables in satay sauce. To die for. Our house guests excelled themselves yesterday (their first day) when they asked if there was anything they could do (poor naive creatures). M immediately and shamelessly suggested that if they wanted to pull down the ruin of the old shed out the back that they should feel free. Now we have no shed. It was kind of like one of those DIY show moments when I walked out the back and looked at where the shed was and instead saw a neat pile of wood and corrugated iron. They also discovered a nest of cane toads- ugh. They have been proliferating for the past two days - until then I’d only seen one in the last four months. In the past two nights I have seen about ten - they are very cocky and don’t move when you shine the torch on them. I have a horror of them and walk out to feed the cats by stamping my feet very hard on every step to make them hop away - and I can hear them scuffling off to hide. Yuck.

For those people who aren’t familiar with cane toads;

Cane Toads were introduced to Australia to eat French’s Cane Beetle and the Greyback Cane Beetle. The ‘whitegrub’ larvae of these beetles eat the roots of sugar cane and kill or stunt the plants. The Australian Bureau of Sugar Experimental Stations imported about 100 toads from Hawaii to the Meringa Experimental Station near Cairns. The toads bred quickly and more than 3000 were released in the sugar cane plantations of north Queensland in July 1935.

They are also highly toxic and we have already heard of people who have lost their pets who have licked one. The Queenslanders we know encourage you to stamp on them on sight, but I can’t. I need to employ a toad stamper as I’m scared some little ones might get into the cat home - the cats would love to play with anything that hopped.

It is v.windy today, which is casting a pall on my plan to have my first proper swim of the season - the others went for a dip last night, but I didn’t go. Bother.

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COMMENTS / 4 COMMENTS

RE:
Cats Are:
Waking up the guest by miaowing tunelessly at odd hours of the night.

I know it’s the orange one, I know! Grab its ratty little head, combine it with a food blender and maybe, just maybe, it will understand that making annoying pigeon sounds in the midnight hour brings nothing but pain.

…..and stroke the one that is nothing but fur.

Tom typed this on Sep 25 03 at 12:59 am

I feel your pain. Cane toads are my greatest phobia, followed closely by snakes. I shouldn’t be living in Queensland. Don’t worry about the cats. I think they’ll be smart and leave them alone. Dogs on the other hand… *rolls eyes*

Leonie typed this on Sep 25 03 at 3:08 am

OK OK!! So it is the orange one. I compromised and as much as I love it, I did stand at the window and throw water at it in an effort to make it stop. Evil evil. The one that is nothing but fur is stroked and I attempted also to try and cut of some of its self-made felt wads.

beTh typed this on Sep 25 03 at 6:55 pm

Death to all things orange and pigeony with hooks in their tails and one less toe on one hoof than the other three!!
Demon orange pigeon things!!
Rant, rant, rant!

Tom typed this on Sep 26 03 at 5:48 am

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