All Creatures Great and Small
The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11
I apologize for my absence in posting last week. I have no excuse other than life got in the way. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw pictures of the new fur babies (yes, plural) that we welcomed into our family over the past week.
It all started with rats. Since moving here last July we've had a pretty consistent rat problem in our house. We probably have one hanging around somewhere in the house at all times and every other month or so we start seeing signs of it inhabiting a kitchen cabinet or one of our closets and we begin the laying of traps and cleaning out of all crevices in the attempt to catch it. After several nights of uneasy sleep we do always eventually catch them and they are always much bigger than I expect them to be. This is nothing major by African standards, but I am not a fan. At all. After relaying the story of how we caught the last one in my room, my mom (I think jokingly) told me we needed a cat around here. I talked with Joseph and after doing some research about African cats and rats we decided it was worth a try. Now while there are many stray cats wandering around the streets here, we needed to find a baby cat. First of all because we have chickens. We didn't want a full grown cat coming and trying to disturb or even eat our chickens. Also, adult cats are so independent and have already established their familiar environments and sources of food. We needed a baby who would grow up around us and become comfortable with our home.
We asked around town for places that we selling baby cats and after not having much luck I decided to ask my students at school. Of course, they knew exactly which students had cats and which ones were pregnant or had babies recently. Annes, a girl in class five told me she had many cats and one had just had two babies. She told us we could come to get one the next day. But when we went to retrieve the baby cat she told us that the mom had taken them next door and she wasn't sure where she had hidden them. She tried giving us an older cat who, upon realizing she was going to be put in a box, immediately ran away. We told her we would come back the next day to try again. Day two was a fail as well. She still hadn't found the babies and all of the smaller cats she had ran away. She even tried to give us her sister's full grown cat as a consolation (the look on her sister's face when she told us was priceless) but we told her we really needed a baby. So day three we returned hopeful, but not expecting much. To our surprise, Annes told us she found where the mother had taken the babies. We walked next door and sure enough, under a pile of leaves and debris were two baby kittens. One was pretty feisty, but the other allowed Joseph to pick her up without clawing or crying. Annes was so happy that she was able to find us the kitten. I thanked her and said, "Today we got lucky." "Then that's what we should name her." Joseph replied. And that's how we got Lucky.
When I was making my inquisitions about the baby cat, a boy from class seven told me that his dog had just had puppies. I told him that I really just needed a cat, but maybe another time. However, the week following that conversation, we had two attempted thefts around our home. Nothing dangerous, just noticeable signs that someone had tried to open the windows at night to see what was inside. Nothing was taken either. But it was enough for me to consider having a dog to sleep outside on the porch. Dogs are not kept as pets here in the same way they are kept in the U.S. They are kept for security. They sleep outside and wander around free. Most people here are really afraid of them. I asked the boy from school to bring the dog to my house and last Tuesday evening he came with a sweet 3 month old yellow lab mix. It was obvious that she was afraid as we pet her and removed her from the small cardboard box she was carried in, but she didn't nip at us or cry or try to get away. As the boys were getting ready to leave we started to examine her more closely and found that her ears were full of ticks and as we continued to look we started to see them everywhere. We spent over an hour that first night removing ticks one by one. She just laid still the whole time, letting us pick and poke, trying to remove them all. After a good bath, we brought her in the house where she hunkered down in a corner, terrified. Baraka, Anitha, Joseph and I all had different names that we wanted to call the sweet puppy, but after testing them all, the one she responded to immediately was Daisy.
It only took Lucky a couple days to get comfortable with us and our home. She ate well immediately and is a professional at using her litter box. We've had Daisy for a week now and she is still pretty scared of most people. She's eating and likes to be held in her blanket, but her potty training is not going nearly as well as Lucky's. We are building her a house this week so she will start sleeping and spending most of her time outside soon. As far as their interactions together, it took Lucky some time to adjust to having another girl in the house, but now she loves Daisy. She wants to be with her all the time, even if that means laying outside in the dirt. They have both had flea and tick baths and have received heart worm medicine and we will take them to get vaccinated soon.
Never did I think that my time here would include taking care of a kitten and a puppy, but these two additions to our house have brought me, and those around me so much joy. Anitha who at first was so afraid of both, now loves them just as much as I do, and the neighborhood kids stop by every afternoon to play with them. God has blessed me with a community here in Morogoro. He has guided me and provided for me and made a place for me among the amazing people here in a way that cannot be forced or manufactured. In spite of my struggles and humanness God has continued to meet every need in the most unexpected and wonderful ways. Last month it was chickens, this month it's dogs and cats. I can't wait to see what next month brings!
Mungu akubariki,
(God bless you)
Allee
Isaiah 58:11
I apologize for my absence in posting last week. I have no excuse other than life got in the way. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw pictures of the new fur babies (yes, plural) that we welcomed into our family over the past week.
It all started with rats. Since moving here last July we've had a pretty consistent rat problem in our house. We probably have one hanging around somewhere in the house at all times and every other month or so we start seeing signs of it inhabiting a kitchen cabinet or one of our closets and we begin the laying of traps and cleaning out of all crevices in the attempt to catch it. After several nights of uneasy sleep we do always eventually catch them and they are always much bigger than I expect them to be. This is nothing major by African standards, but I am not a fan. At all. After relaying the story of how we caught the last one in my room, my mom (I think jokingly) told me we needed a cat around here. I talked with Joseph and after doing some research about African cats and rats we decided it was worth a try. Now while there are many stray cats wandering around the streets here, we needed to find a baby cat. First of all because we have chickens. We didn't want a full grown cat coming and trying to disturb or even eat our chickens. Also, adult cats are so independent and have already established their familiar environments and sources of food. We needed a baby who would grow up around us and become comfortable with our home.
We asked around town for places that we selling baby cats and after not having much luck I decided to ask my students at school. Of course, they knew exactly which students had cats and which ones were pregnant or had babies recently. Annes, a girl in class five told me she had many cats and one had just had two babies. She told us we could come to get one the next day. But when we went to retrieve the baby cat she told us that the mom had taken them next door and she wasn't sure where she had hidden them. She tried giving us an older cat who, upon realizing she was going to be put in a box, immediately ran away. We told her we would come back the next day to try again. Day two was a fail as well. She still hadn't found the babies and all of the smaller cats she had ran away. She even tried to give us her sister's full grown cat as a consolation (the look on her sister's face when she told us was priceless) but we told her we really needed a baby. So day three we returned hopeful, but not expecting much. To our surprise, Annes told us she found where the mother had taken the babies. We walked next door and sure enough, under a pile of leaves and debris were two baby kittens. One was pretty feisty, but the other allowed Joseph to pick her up without clawing or crying. Annes was so happy that she was able to find us the kitten. I thanked her and said, "Today we got lucky." "Then that's what we should name her." Joseph replied. And that's how we got Lucky.
When I was making my inquisitions about the baby cat, a boy from class seven told me that his dog had just had puppies. I told him that I really just needed a cat, but maybe another time. However, the week following that conversation, we had two attempted thefts around our home. Nothing dangerous, just noticeable signs that someone had tried to open the windows at night to see what was inside. Nothing was taken either. But it was enough for me to consider having a dog to sleep outside on the porch. Dogs are not kept as pets here in the same way they are kept in the U.S. They are kept for security. They sleep outside and wander around free. Most people here are really afraid of them. I asked the boy from school to bring the dog to my house and last Tuesday evening he came with a sweet 3 month old yellow lab mix. It was obvious that she was afraid as we pet her and removed her from the small cardboard box she was carried in, but she didn't nip at us or cry or try to get away. As the boys were getting ready to leave we started to examine her more closely and found that her ears were full of ticks and as we continued to look we started to see them everywhere. We spent over an hour that first night removing ticks one by one. She just laid still the whole time, letting us pick and poke, trying to remove them all. After a good bath, we brought her in the house where she hunkered down in a corner, terrified. Baraka, Anitha, Joseph and I all had different names that we wanted to call the sweet puppy, but after testing them all, the one she responded to immediately was Daisy.
It only took Lucky a couple days to get comfortable with us and our home. She ate well immediately and is a professional at using her litter box. We've had Daisy for a week now and she is still pretty scared of most people. She's eating and likes to be held in her blanket, but her potty training is not going nearly as well as Lucky's. We are building her a house this week so she will start sleeping and spending most of her time outside soon. As far as their interactions together, it took Lucky some time to adjust to having another girl in the house, but now she loves Daisy. She wants to be with her all the time, even if that means laying outside in the dirt. They have both had flea and tick baths and have received heart worm medicine and we will take them to get vaccinated soon.
Never did I think that my time here would include taking care of a kitten and a puppy, but these two additions to our house have brought me, and those around me so much joy. Anitha who at first was so afraid of both, now loves them just as much as I do, and the neighborhood kids stop by every afternoon to play with them. God has blessed me with a community here in Morogoro. He has guided me and provided for me and made a place for me among the amazing people here in a way that cannot be forced or manufactured. In spite of my struggles and humanness God has continued to meet every need in the most unexpected and wonderful ways. Last month it was chickens, this month it's dogs and cats. I can't wait to see what next month brings!
Mungu akubariki,
(God bless you)
Allee
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