Poison!

We learned last week that the Kigali City government has decided to address the stray cat problem. I was unaware of a stray cat/dog problem, but evidently, it needed to be resolved. The solution is to lay out poison at night for the animals. As a pet owner, I see an immediate and horrifying problem with this plan. Tchoup, as a result has been on lock down at night since we heard about this. During the day he mostly naps and patrols, but stays in the compound, so we let him outside during the day (I also couldn't imagine trying to deal with him if he was couped up all day everyday).

Of course, there are some other things besides pets that I see potentially negatively effected by this: children, ground water, and anything else that might eat it, like the occassional monkey and the birds. They're laying rat poison, I've been told. I hope we don't lose all our lovely birds.

Lying on the couch

Tchoup squinting
Originally uploaded by l'exterieur

Collar Update

Well, the safety collar worked, in that evidently Tchoup got stuck on something while out cavorting and it came undone and now he's collarless. That lasted, what a month, maybe? He might not be one for collars, which may pose a problem if we move to a place where we need to worry about fleas...

He is not a groomer - the hair that was pressed down by the collar is still pressed down - he's not bothered to tidy that area up. Or maybe he slyly has left it there thinking we wouldn't notice the collar was missing? Hmm, clever is not his strong suit...