Animal week

Hi,

Long time since I’ve written.

This week I came across many animals and I’ll be writing about all of them.

Wheat eating Squirrels

 To begin with last Tuesday, my mother had bought some 2 kg of wheat. Since there was lot of dust, she had to dirt free it. She had soaked it in water and kept them in a cloth. Then she had kept it in terrace for the wheat to dry. After some 15 or 20 minutes, she had gone to the terrace to dry the washed garments.

There was a shock. Some 7 or 8 squirrels were sitting there and eating the wheat. They had no problems with heat, since the day was chill and also the cloth was damp. Stunned she has set the squirrels off and she also sat there for some more time. But some squirrels still came. So she took the wheat and came down. Almost the squirrels must have eaten 250 grams out of the total 2 kg. A good feast for the squirrels and a good lesson for mom (and us too).

Squirrel in our Garden

They always eat the fruits that r present in our garden like custard apple and sapotta. Anyway I love the squirrels. They r pretty, minute creatures. Normally mom would give food to them each morning. They would be wandering all round the garden. They would eat the skins of the fruits, vegetables that we peel off. They would hardly ever come into the house. So normally they cause no big troubles. On the whole, they r smart, peace loving creatures.

Problem with Seals

On Tuesday afternoon, I was watching a program about seals in Nat Geo Wild. Actually I was changing channels simultaneously since all the programs in Tamil channels were unexciting. It was a wonderful program. Seals r animals that mainly live in sea, but they come to beach to mate with each other and to give birth. Newly born seals live long time in coastline (about 9 months). Once they enter the sea, they r alienated from their mother. They wander around the entire world. They mainly feed on small fish. They r hunted by sharks. They travel as much as 1500 miles.

The show specially concentrated a male seal. It went up from Queensland coast in Australia to Cape town in South Africa. It was 6 years then, being in its adolescence, it came back to Queensland to mate. But already the male seals had divided the territories and chased this away.

Sometime in between the program my mother came there. Seeing the seals she said “what creatures r these? Pakkave aruvarupa iruku… odambellam valu valu nu irku”. Then she went.

On Thursday, I was showing her my brother’s photos in Orkut. He uploaded his recent tour photos. He has gone to Punta del este, a seaside town in Uruguay. One of the photos showed the seals resting on a board in the coast.  Seeing that she was taken aback. She told that it was disgusting and told me to change it. But net crashed and the system remained in the same screen for a few seconds.

This was the picture that my brother took in Punta del este, Uruguay

But personally I enjoyed looking the seals.

A cute little Dog: Where did it come from and where did it go?

This was on Wednesday. Morning, after my father started to office, my mother slept. I was preparing for my exams that afternoon (apa than padikave arambichen. That was quite an easy subject). I was hearing some moaning sounds outside my house. In order to check it, I went outside. A small puppy was there trying to come into my house through the gate holes.

The atmosphere was cold. The puppy was trembling. Its appearance made us feel that it was 10 days old. It has somehow lost its mother. We tried to chase it out shouting. But it didn’t hear. Moreover its one foot was injured too. Then we touched it with a tiny stick. It went and slept nearby. Then I went to college by 11.30 am. When I came back at 6 pm it was still sleeping. Night too it was sleeping. Then by 10.30 pm there was the same moaning sound.

The next morning I found that it had slept at the neighbor’s house. Morning it was in the street again. Luckily its mother seems to have found it. Another dog (it might be the mother) was searching for something in the other end of the street the previous day. It was also not seen. So there is a lot of likelihood for union of the mother and the puppy.

Leaf Biting Worms: A problem yet Again

In our garden, there is a plant known as Nandhiyavettai. It bears beautiful white flowers daily. The plant (or a mini tree) would appear attractive. But often some small worms would come and eat all the leaves in it. Today I and mom found that they have come again. There was lot of worm’s excretions below the plant. So I and mom set out to look for those worms in that plant. Finally we found out 4 huge worms. We plucked the leaves and threw them out. I took some pictures. They will look so beautiful. But they r also very hazardous to the plant.

The picture of a leaf eating worm

U can see 3 of the 4 worms that we caught today

Totally, it was a fantastic week for me.