h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, I'm really tired right now ... I'm going to bed! See you again tomorrow!

Okey-doke!

My mum just picked up a sleeping hamster, and it kept sleeping in her hands! Normally they wake up and bite you if you try to do that... but this one only woke up when she'd been wandering round showing us all this silly little hamster sleeping in her hands, and she was putting it into a new cage...

¦M¦

That sounds really cute! Hamsters are *all* very cute, if they're clean and healthy and happy!

The only *rodent' I've ever owned was a white mouse called Roppie, which I got when I was about five! It did not last very long. It kept escaping from its cage. We were able to find it each time until the last time ... But it was a cute little white mouse, and I enjoyed having it!

What you said about the hamster made me think of a really weird thing that happened over here. We used to keep rabbits (actually, it was my father, not me) in our back yard. Some of them were Netherlands Dwarf rabbits. Well, our neighbours' kids were all quite interested in the rabbits. Later, though, we got rid of the rabbits because they were too much of a hassle to care for. Rabbits don't really make good pets.

But anyways. You may know we have three cats. You've seen Kadoefie on my website. One night very late ... maybe two or three o' clock ... I'm awakened by Kadoefie coming in by the window. I look at her, and she has this round, fluffy white thing in her mouth. I go and grab her and take the white thing from her ... I couldn't believe my eyes; it was a baby Netherlands dwarf rabbit! It was perfectly unscathed and did not even seem to be frightened at all!

I found that quite incredibly surreal. I was still in a very dreamy state of mind. It was just the weirdest thing, our cat bringing me this fluffy white baby rabbit, in her mouth! It took me quite a long while to realise that I was awake, and that it was really happening!

After taking the baby rabbit (Kadoefie gave it up without a fuss) I awoke my parents and gave the rabbit to my father. I'm not sure if he put it in a box or a cage. Then we all went back to sleep. The next day our neighbours asked us if we maybe saw a little white rabbit ... they got one for *their* kids, but it escaped from its cage. We gave it back to them.

I still find it quite incredible that out cat found that rabbit and brought it to me without harming it!

Wow! Kadoefie is some cat! How cute...
She's had kittens hasn't she?

¦M¦

Yes! She had kittens in 1996. My sister got Kadoefie for my father in the beginning of 1996. My father had just lost a cat he was very fond of, called Flooi. He was really sad about the loss of that cat. A bit later, though, a cat showed up who was *extremely* similar to Flooi. We called that cat Petoors. He came and accepted us and stayed with us for a while ... and then someone shot him. He came and leapt against my parents' bedroom window, and collapsed in front of it. My father carried him inside, and he died in the bathroom. My father buried him in our back yard. My father missed him as well.

After that, every time my father walked past the pet shop he stopped and looked at the kittens there. So one day my sister decided to buy my dad a new cat. We went to the petshop and there were many very cute kittens, but there was this one really tiny one that mewed extremely plaintively ... she was white with darkish reddish brown markings on her back and sides, but she looked *dirty* ... there were what looked like black smears over the reddish brown, mainly on one side of her body and face. My sister decided to buy that kitten for my dad. He was *very* surprised ... he said he didn't really want another cat (we then still had our very first cat, Katix, whom we got in 1980). But we kept the little kitten and named her Kadoefie because of the noisy way she ran around. She was always a very tiny little cat. In the middle of 1996 we went on holiday as a family, to the Kruger National Park. We thought it was okay to leave Kadoefie in the care of friends of ours. On the *very day* that we were leaving, though, we saw that Kadoefie was behaving in a way a tiny kitten such as herself should not yet be behaving in ... and we thought, 'uh-oh.' When we came back, the damage was done ... we did not think of fixing her because she was *obviously* much too young to be able to fall pregnant ... yeah, right.

Her children were born a while later: Spook, Poplap and Felix. They were all very cute kittens. That brought the sum total of cats in our home to *five*, which was a bit much. However, we grew very attached to them all. When they passed the 'toddler' phase we briefly tried to find another home for them ... but then my mother decided that they had a home - ours - and that they could stay.

Well, a bit later, Katix died ... and a bit later than that, Felix was run over by a car. We have three cats buried in our back yard now: Katix, Petoors, and Felix.

We now still have the three cats - Kadoefie, her daughter Poplap, and her son Spook.

I will soon put pictures of all our cats on my site ... except Petoors; we never got to the point of photographing him.

Awww. Sounds a long, upsetting history...
But I look forward to seeing the pictures.

¦M¦

I'll tell you when they're on! I will put some time aside for that during this coming week.

Yay! Excellent.

How's the painting going, btw?

¦M¦

The painting is going quite well ... I've finished three paintings of scaly-feathered finches since coming out of the clinic, and I'm busy with a fourth. I'm going to try and finish it tomorrow or Wednesday ... Tuesday my friend is coming to visit (he's changed his name again ... now he's Johannesburglar!). Then I have to finish one more finch, and then I'm on to another bird species ... I still have to decide which one!

Soudns like it's keeping you busy!
How many paintings do you do of each species then?

¦M¦

At the moment, five! That's to give me practice ... I'm trying to do every one better than the preceding one, so after five tries, for every species I oughta have at least one *really good* painting!

Aha! Good idea.

¦M¦

Hello!!! I am now finished with my *fourth* painting! And I uploaded a large number of cat piccies ... which will go onto my site TOMORROW!!! AND ... I had a visitor last week! FROM BRITAIN!!! I met him *here*!!!

Excellent, excellent and excellent!
I will try and remember to go over to your site tomorrow.
And yes, how did the meeting go?

¦M¦

Need you ask? *EXCELLENT*!!! What else? I'm an excellent host, I am! Anyways, read all about it in my latest journal entry!

And how are *you* doing?

I just have! Yay! I'm glad it all went brillinatly!

How am I doing? Fine, mostly. Although I am afraid I'm stopping doing homew*rk again...

¦M¦

You know, I hope to have *many more* visitors from overseas ... I've been on h2g2 for a bit over a year now, and this is the first person I've met here that I meet in real life. I would *love* to go to Britain one day ... there are *many* people over there that I would make a point to meet!

Do you get a lot of homework to do?

*sigh* I'd rather like to meet people as well, but my parents won't let me... still, only a few years and I'll have left home.

No, not really...

¦M¦

Yes, for you it's probably only about two years, and you're out!

Well, good!

Yep, unless I take a gap year to work...

Well, hopefully.

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