Thailand

Just got back from ten days in Thailand. Amazing holiday......

We saw some animals that you don't see in Europe much. Like elephants. And tigers.

The elephants were fantastic. We went for a ride first of all, somewhat slower than the horses, with a swinging stride......

......but that wasn't the best bit.
They took off their saddles and we got back on.....to take them for a bath in the river. Brilliant fun!!

Here's a video. The elephant Ali was on was trained to get rid of its riders!

Then the next day we went to see some tigers. They are kept by the monks in a temple and are raised by hand so are very tame, although you still have to be careful around them and follow the rules! We got to take one for a walk

Then the kids went off to play with the baby tigers and feed them.....

There's a lot of controversy about this place, I have read that the tigers are drugged, not fed properly, left out in the hot sun for hours........I have to say that we saw no evidence of this. Apparently it all started because some abandoned tigers ended up at the monks' temple and they took them in. Now they breed them and hand rear them so people can get close to them. We spoke to a couple of volunteers who work there and they had no concerns about the welfare of the animals. Yes, the tourists pay to see them but the money goes on taking care of them......

In fact I was pleasantly surprised how well animals in Thailand in general were cared for, I was expecting far worse. It's a Buddhist country though, so maybe not surprising. There are lots of cats and dogs around, they all follow the food for scraps, even on the beach but they were never agressive and a couple of times I ended up with a cat on my lap!

Oh NO!!!!! A Dog!!!!

My friend Jane has gone off to the UK for a week or so and we are looking after her dog, Ruby. Aliénor is delighted of course and poor Ruby has to suffer being dragged over a series of makeshift jumps in the garden (Ali wants to do dog agility, the fact that we don't have a dog is neither here nor there.......mind you, she's pretty good over the jumps all by herself).

The cats, however, are NOT impressed one little bit......

More new arrivals......

The latest cat, Umalali, has been getting fat of late, and not that kind of squidgy fat that Cocktail has but the lumpy, containing babies fat that she shouldn't be able to have, as I had been lead to believe she'd been spayed........

This morning, she started following me around miaowing, which is unusual, she didn't even run away from Éowyn, which is VERY unusal, then at lunchtime I was just sitting down to me fishfinger sarnies and she starts having contractions......out pops a small black bundle, Éowyn finds the whole thing fascinating........

Bit more time goes by, another little black creature arrives, then after that a ginger one. How many, I'm wondering, thinking how am I going to find homes for a load of kittens? but thankfully she stops at three. And very cute they are too......

More snow......

The cats are none too impressed........

I love the way Noisette is so well insulated the snow doesn't melt on her back.