Tuesday 10 May 2011

Here kitty, kitty!

Three weeks ago, this year’s abandoned kitten was unceremoniously dumped on me by one of the local children, wrapped in paper as it was hissing and spitting like a little fireball.  He was about 2-3 weeks old and had obviously not been handled by humans much.  Poor kitty had apparently been thrown into a garden by a man, not an unnusual occurrance here unfortunately.  I summised by it’s lack of fleas and clean fur that he had probably been indoors in somebody’s shed or garage and that their pet cat was his mother.  When the owners decided they’d had enough they had dumped whatever kittens she’d had.

As I am a complete soft touch and can’t let an animal suffer, I put him in a box in my en-suite bathroom (which doubles as a kitten nursery) until I could get something for him to eat.  As it was a Sunday and he was too young to eat the food that last year’s abandoned kitty (now a strapping big shiny boy) eats, I had to make something for him.  I did some googling and found a recipe for kitten glop.  I will share it for you here as it worked very well and he thrived on it.  It’s also cheaper than buying kitten formula from the vet and he seemed to prefer it as he wouldn’t drink the vet’s formula when I bought some the next day.

Kitten glop recipe:

1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon mayonnaisse
1 tablespoon plain live yoghurt
1⁄2 teaspoon vegetable (olive or sunflower oil is fine)
1⁄2 cup evaporated milk (NOT condensed milk)
1⁄2 cup boiled or bottled water.

I found that by mixing the yolk, mayonaisse, yoghurt and oil together first and then adding the evaporated milk and water that it made a lump free glop.
Store in the fridge and warm small amounts to body temperature before feeding.

I had to be careful whilst feeding him for a couple of days as he was pretty wild but within a few days he settled down.




Here is a photo of when he first arrived:
We named him Nero because of his fighting spirit!



And here he is now, 3 weeks later sitting with my youngest son



 
And sleeping with his adopted big brother!

He's not quite used to Reggie, our monster dog but I'm sure that will only be a matter of time!!

Save herbal medicine in the EU!!

The EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) is now in force, effectively banning herbal remedies which have not been in use within the EU for 30 years.  This includes Chinese, Ayurvedic and African medicines.  Many other herbal remedies will not have been licenced due to the prohibitive cost (£50,000-£120,000) and therefore small manufacturers will also go out of business.  The full effect of this ban will probably not be realised for a few months yet as existing products are allowed to be sold until their expiry date, but after this date many will find that the product they have been using to keep healthy is no longer available.

One of our European Human Rights is to be able to choose which form of medicine that we wish to use.  This is now being taken away from us, meaning that many will turn to pharmaceutical products which have more side effects and are not necessarily safer or more rigorously tested.

My fear is that this ban opens the gateway for organic produce to be removed from sale to be replaced by GM foods.  Next we will be unable to grow our own produce meaning that there will be as high a price to pay for growing mint & rosemary in the garden as marijuana.

Please sign the petition to protect our right to choose here:
Avaaz petition