Feral freeding fenzy

.

No reader, the title of this post does not refer to the conduct often witnessed during sale time at Dimmy's and Forges in Footscray, but rather to the host of animals that come and eat the cat food left out each night for my favourite Ferals, and a couple of gourmet cat chow loving Wilds.

Robert Mugabe was the first on the scene. Once the word got out, Dame Judi Dench the Racoon and Barry the Opossum started showing up for little Bobby Mugabe's left overs.

Robert Mugabe hiding from the Papparazzi.

The kitty brood has grown. Danny Quinn soon started showing up. The ginger cat was named after the character on BBC's 'Primeval' played by Jason Flemying. Both are gingers, a bit 'rough' looking, (that's the lite way to say a bit ugly), and both are very plucky characters indeed.
.

Jason Flemyng/Danny Quinn.

Image from http://www.contactmusic.com/photos.nsf/main/jason_flemyng_5091750

.

There's a plucky chap!

.

The feral Danny Quinn, looking directly into the camera, he's got pluck!

Recently it was thought Mugabe had done himself a mischief as a black cat was out the front, with a missing ear. The name change from Mugabe to Chopper was considered. It turns about little Bobby is running around with both ears intact and the unfortunate earless feline is a new addition to the fold.

The new cat is camera shy, but we are calling him Gorgeous George, from the character in 'Snatch' of that name. Both are a bit mashed up and would appear to be fighters!

.

Gorgeous George, too ashamed of his looks to show his face for the camera.

All things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful the Lord He made them all.

Cane toads however, will be chased off with a broom and beaten mercilessly when caught.

.

The Cane Toad invasion grows in strengh, they are going to take over Tampa!

.
High Drama here in Tampa. The cane toads have discovered the food I put out for the feral cats and are eating it all. Not only are my precious feral kitties being robbed of their dinner, the hideous toads are growing fatter and bigger from their stolen fare.

I don't mind the Opossums having some, am quite happy when Dame Judi Dench the racoon pops over for a spot of tucker on the front porch. They are all God's creatures, great and small as James Herriot would say. One must make clear though, that the hand of friendship does not extend to the evil cane toad

.My evening was spent out the front chasing the bigger one and three smaller ones away from the kitty food with a broom, looking like a lunatic. I wacked one pretty hard, managed to squish another. It's a really awful business, but I simply will not allow them to make Robert Mugabe go hungry, or his urchin mate, Danny Quinn.

Die Cane Toads, DIE!
.

Hell called, they want to know why Tampa is hotter than Hades.

.

What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.

.

Jane Austen

I have been neglecting my sad little blog for too long. The past week I had the painters working inside the house everyday, some days I had no access to the computer as they were painting the study and all the furniture was piled up in the middle. Then we spent the weekend getting things around the house ready for viewings. A new week has begun, there is still so much to do and the painter was back today to fix up some things. I'm over it and the house has not even been listed yet. The agent arrives this afternoon to take photos so I had better get the washing down. No one wants to see a picture of my nanna grundies when they peruse house pictures online. It's not so much like an episode of 'Cribs' around here, as it is a version of 'Lifestyles of the dull and unknown'.

I have spent so much time, 'de-cluttering' the house over the past couple of weeks. Boxes and boxes have been filled and taken down to the storage unit we hired for the this purpose, there is still so much more to do. The Colonel is what I would call a clutterbug. It seems that most of the military types are. We have a whole room dedicated to storing army stuff. He also is a born horder, collecting a vast array of bibelots from his travels around the world and even from his childhood. I found an old rock which I was about to throw away until he said it was actually a part of the Berlin Wall that he had acquired while serving in Germany.

The temperature here in Florida is unimaginably hot. Just walking outside and sitting on the deck makes one start to sweat. Having to do anywork outside the house is unbearable and can be fatal. People drop dead all over the place in this humidity when they go outside and start potting around. I saw on television yesterday a chart showing that heat is more likely to kill people than other weather conditions. They showed a graph which demonstrated a ten year average of death rates from weather related conditions. These included hurricanes, tornados, floods and heat. Now in America hundreds of people die each year from hurricanes and tornados. Thousands died after Katrina. Despite this staggering and very sad fact, more people died in the past 10 years from HOT weather. I have long whined and complained about the heat, much to the annoyance of the Florida locals, but here I have proved my point, this heat is downright dangerous as well as oppressive.

www.wrh.noaa.gov/psr/general/safety/heat/

We have a plague of little tiny frogs at the moment. Often green tree frogs are around so I thought the little baby froglings were tree frogs. Yesterday I tipped a bucket of ice onto the garden and these little frogs were hopping on the ice cubes and getting stuck. I was distrought, and was carefully picking up the cubes and picking off the little frogs that were stuck and feeling very happy about saving them.

My neighbour came over and told me that these darling little froglings were in fact, baby cane toads. Crikey! They are everywhere, hopping all over the place. No problem now, but these things will grow up to be vile, ugly cane toads. I stood outside, without a hat or sunblock, (horror), saving baby cane toads. Oh Flori-duh, the heat has well and truly addled my brains. I guess that accounts for such a drab blog post as well as the cane toad mercy mission. :(