Saturday, January 08, 2022

Family news: The latest lockdown, and the Kitty-opcolypse

 The plaza downtown is still full of folks trying to get their vax/boosters. The cook, whose original vax is over 6 months old, will try to get it again if the lines aren't too long. Yesterday, they ran out of card, so we'll see what happens today.

Lots of retired elderly in town, and lots of folks who will need a vax card to work....

I will wait til next week since I am still on Prednisone taper for my asthmatic bronchitis, although I am completely well otherwise.

But the latest change in our area is the question: Where did all the cats go? 

Yesterday, Mama Cat, who had four kittens ten days ago, was found convulsing in the garage and died before we could get her to the vet. Illness? Pregnancy related problem? Poison? She was semi feral (walked in and adopted us, became an indoor cat but doesn't cuddle).

and now I have four tiny unweaned kittens on my hand: and from past experience I know they won't survive even though I feed them because when they are this small, they need mama's milk and care.

But this brings up a puzzling observation: in the last month, all the feral cats have disappeared from the area: not just our four outside cats that live in our bodega/garage and eat the mice/lizards and the dog food we leave outside the house, but there have been no "visitor cats". These are feral cats who come in off the street to eat but sometimes get killed by the dogs who know they don't belong here.

But I haven't seen the visitor cats for about a month, and I haven't had to bury any dead cats either. So where have the cats gone?

Indeed, for the last month we have seen fewer feral cats on the street (who eat garbage and mice). Now, it's holiday season, so a lot more garbage and food dropped by the locals going to and from the plaza or the nearby shops and palenke.

So where have all the cats gone? so why no cats wandering around? I wonder if there is an epidemic going around killing them, or if someone who put out poisoned food to get rid of them.

Don't live here if you are an animal lover. Cats can usually take care of themselves, but we frequently see discarded kittens in the vacant lot. Many of these kittens I try to bring home and nurse until the can eat and join our outdoor cats, but most die because they need mother's milk, and if they do survive, when they start to roam outside the spare bedroom (i.e the "cats room") usually the dogs kill them: we save only about one out of ten of these kittens.

But the really sad cases are the discarded dogs, who either are puppies of feral dogs, or who, in the epidemic, were thrown out of the house because their owners can't afford to feed them... They wander around eating the scraps and garbage, get thinner and thinner, get mangy, and then die. Sigh. We don't dare adopt them because rabies is a problem here, but the city does try to catch and presumably discard these dogs, especially if they are reported after biting someone (usually a kid). 

Rabies is treatable: 3 shots at 7 dollars a shot, which they mayor will give you free at the local clinic if you are poor.

No, I am not going to set up an animal rescue shelter: when people are going hungry, people frequently come here to ask for rice or money for medicine, and kids roam the streets to forage extra food, one can't feel too sorry for the animals.

we had hoped the epidemic was over, but now the 4th wave has hit, and although we are not at high level of shut down, one does need the vax cards for some shops and the ban, and the cards are becoming necessary to visit Manila or even nearby Bulacan or Pampanga, which are under level three shutdown, and the cops check you when you travel to these areas.

the reports say most of the cases are of the moderately serious delta variant, not the omnicron variant.

The gov't hopes the epidemic will stop if the omnicron variant goes around, since if you get this variant it gives you immunity against the other, more serious strains of covid...and the O variant is a lot less lethal, especially if you had a vax in the past... that was what they are seeing in places like South Africa, a semi developed country that also has a lot of low grade malnutrition etc. that makes people more vulnerable to the virus.


.but in the meanwhile it's back to isolation and vaccines.

this is a good discussion with a priest/physician who discusses the epidemic in clear language, and includes observations by grass roots priests and health care workers.

He points out that ordinary Filipinos are not hysterical because we face risks in life, and have a religious point of view toward life: ( I would summarize that point of view as the idea that God, not ourselves is in charge)




Nearby, including Manila, are at Level 3: Not complete shutdown, but at limited capacity, masks etc:


and the isolation/ shutdown of the economy is the real problem in the long term, as people's savings are gone and fewer are getting money from overseas workers or our seamen.

UPDATE:  Essay on USNIblog about how rising food prices cause revolutions. 

A big problem few seem to be worried about....(Yes, I saw this when an increase in the price of rice led to the revolution in Liberia, which then sank into 20 years of a bloody civil war).



Sigh.

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update: StrategyPage has an essay on the Philippines, but mainly about military security (china, insurgency, crime fighting) not covid.


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