Of Tree-cutters and kittens

Just a short note before I leave for the second of my worlds.

Interruptions take a myriad of forms. This past couple of weeks has been extraordinary it seems. One day was managing the tree cutters. We had 5 guys come to cut our gigantic talisay (tropical almond) tree. They came prepared with giant machetes and lots of strong rope. Two of them spent the day about 25 feet in the air patiently chopping, tying and lowering branches.

It was awesome the way they were able to lower all the branches without destroying any of the nearby huts, houses, walls, etc. And awesome too seeing grown men climbing up and down in their bare feet like, well, like monkeys! They were all exhausted by the end of the day and definitely earned every bit of their wages.

Of course our poor garden took a beating. So our next project was getting some netting to protect what’s left of our shade-loving plants from the fierce sun for the next few months until the tree grows back. Then plants need watering more often because they dry out in the sun.

Another interruption was when a friend showed up with a 4 week old kitten she had rescued from te street. It had been in imminant danger of getting run over and she couldn’t stand the thought and so rescued it. Of course she couldn’t take care of it herself as they have 3 dogs who hate cats so she brought by unannounced to us. Sigh! Kittens that small need a lot of attention as they need to be fed often, protected from falling into drains, protected from the elements and from other cats, plus they aren’t house broken. I did not need the interruption. It was cute and very friendly though, and we managed to get it introduced to the wild cats without incident. We made it a little house out of a box. It ate well. We were starting to get used to it. Then Saturday I found it refusing to eat, vomiting, and later copius diarrhea and then I knew it wouldn’t make it. It died before noon. Sigh.

Well, I could go on about banks, computers, tickets and having to micromanage by text message in another country, but you get the idea. In between interruptions I kept plugging away trying to get ready for my trip. I will probably not update this until I get back in November and by then I am sure there will be plenty more interesting things to write about!