Of cats and monkeys

Well, this week seemed to be a week of throughfare for animals in my house.  The first time a huge male Vervet Monkey, hopped past me, as if I wasn't there, and proceeded to walk through the lounge as if he owned the place. Well, I lost my temper, and all sense of fear of long, sharp, possibly diseased teeth, and chased the creature through the house. The worst part was that my chasing did nothing to scare the animal. The sheers I was carrying (I was gardening at the time of the trespassing) were lobbed at him, which only slightly increased the arrogant speed that he was moving. Amazing how protective one becomes when you're little angel is in a room, and there is the potential of attack on her. It was only after the fact that I realised what I had done. The most annoying part was that the animal tried another two times to come back inside, like he owns the place. Paul's blow pipe (aka monkey deterrent) seemed to get rid of him. I didn't use it, but they know what it is, as he uses it to shoot them with blunt "darts", which makes them think twice about coming around our spot.

~~~

There are a whole lot of cats in our complex. Now, our neighbours have a beautiful cat called Mitsy. (Pictured above) According to Mitsy apart from their garden being her territory, our garden is part of her greater territory. However, the cat from Unit 18 feels that it is his duty to antagonise Mitsy and encroach on her territory. Mitsy is a gentle cat (till the claws and teeth come out, when she is suffering from some form of cat PMS, in which case she can deliver quite some pain) and doesn't like to fight. But, on the fateful day, she chased Cat 18 (so named due to its home) right through my lounge. Now, again I'm not usually one who will get involved in fights, especially when there are some very sharp claws involved, but, they were getting a bit close to my baby. Anyway, my just standing up, made Mitsy stay one one side of the lounge, and then back out slowly, while Cat 18 stared at her through our back door, as if saying "I dare you!", so to solve that problem and calm my dear Mitsy down, I closed the back door, instantly ending the rivalry. Thank goodness, I have never seen Mitsy so riled up. I have chased Cat 18 away a number of times. Just this morning it was in Pat's garden tormenting Emma, her cat. The problem I have with all the cat fighting, is that when they are howling at each other, it sounds very much like a baby crying, and unless I am right by Chloe, there are moments when I think that she is crying so I bolt through to her, and it's the stupid cats!

~~~

Then, just to vent!  The children from our neighbours (next door, not below us) have it in their minds that I like having them staring at me, and trying to come into my house, while I am trying to settle Chloe down, during her grizzly time of the day. They think that it is a big game. The other day, I thought, I'll close the door so they get the message that I don't want them around, so they start banging on the door. I was very annoyed. Paul was here as well, and he was also getting irritated, and was going to sort them out when they decided that the game was over and moved off. Some days I don't know what to do, you're stressed out because your child is crying and there is no consoling her, and then you have a 2 year old and a 9month old trying to invade your territory, and make a game of it. Every time you look at them, they run away laughing, thinking that it is a big game. Argh!