Rearing Kittens

I once lived on a plot.  We had a lot of dogs, cats and birds.  My mother and father loved all animals.  No animal was every turned away when it needed a home.  The plot was big enough for all.  


First my father passed away and then my mother.  The plot was sold.  I had to move and the cats came with me.  Later on I bought a place of my own.  People told me that it would be better for me to live in a complex, it would be safer. 


They were not young cats and one by one they passed on.  I hated living in a complex and with the complex came a whole number of different problems.  The one was that the municipality account had not been paid and so there were times there was no electricity.  


The body corporation did not do very much and then the other owners decided to form their own body corporation.  The problem with this, still none of the owners really wanted to do much and most of the things fall on my shoulders.  The one day something made me go out and an estate agent was showing this young woman a flat.  I approached the estate agent and when she asked me if I was interested in selling the place I said yes.  The young woman, that just seen the other flat, took one look at fall in love with my flat.  Three months later I moved into a house, with the most beautiful garden. 




During my stay at the complex, feral cats would come to the complex and I would feed them.  When I noticed that the one black female was pregnant, I put out a bed for her.  One night I heard something strange and on investigating found that the black female was giving birth.  It was cold that time of the year and I was worried about the kittens and what chance of survival they would have.  I managed to get her as she tried to escape with the kitten in her mouth.  I did not know at the time, I would be doing a lot more than just taking a mom cat and her kittens in.  The mom gave birth to 2 more kittens.  My daughter found homes for all three kittens. 

I never regretted moving.  It was the best decision that I made in a long time.  Not to long afterwards I heard a cat meowing outside my front door.  I opened the door to find a very wet calico cat.  She must have been around 4 months of age.  Calico cats are beautiful cats and very loving.  They are cats a person can own to fill in the gap of being alone. They also bring luck.  She filled that empty space in my heart.   

I was watering the garden the one day and I heard a kitten cry.  On investigating I found a very young kitten, by that time soaked to the skin.  I brought the kitten and dried him.  I hand reared him.  He was so beautiful and he found a home quickly. 

The one day I was out in the garden when a black man passing asked me where the SPCA was.  He was carrying a bucket that had three kittens in it.  My heart went out to them.  I took them in.  Two of them have semi long hair and the other is short haired.  All black.  People don’t like black cats because they black cats are supposed to bring bad luck.
 

My cat family was growing ………………… 

Again I was out in the garden, when I noticed this flower pot I know I never had.  I took a look in to found a cat there.  She was not alone she had kittens.  I put something over the opening of the pot and took it inside.  The cat came out and then I removed the kittens.  There were two.  They were a creamer colour.  This cat never minded me touching her kittens but she certainly minded me removing her bowls for cleaning.  She would attack me.  Later on she adjusted and did not mind anymore, but she suddenly bite me for no reason or attack my feet.  I was becoming a bit afraid of her until I decided enough was enough.  When she did this, I would smack her on her back side.  She soon quieten down and did not do this anymore. 

I forgot all about the birds and bees.  I forgot her kittens could impregnate her.  What a fool I am.  She gave birth to two grey kittens.

Hysterical cat meowing, am I hearing things?.  I go out and don’t see anything.  Even though its daylight.  That night I hear it again.  This time the crying is even more desperate.  I found the kitten and brought it in.  This kitten could eat and drink by itself.  The kitten had long hair.  It was white and grey.  People love fluffy kittens and my daughter got him a home straight away. 

About 7 months ago, I was watering the garden and heard kittens crying.  I find five kittens.  These were the youngest kittens that I ever found.  The dilemma – should I leave them or take them in.  I decided to take them in and hand rare them.  Hand rearing takes a lot of time and the kitten milk is expensive.  One was a tabby, and another black and white and the rest were black. 

Young kittens are licked by their mother to stimulate the bowl movement.  My calico cat was amazing and accepted them and would help with the bowel movement and clean them.  My calico cat has never had kittens but her maternal instinct kicked in, she even tried to feed them and that was not possible.  She let them suckle at her teats and it must have hurt her.

My story does not end here.  This time I heard a kitten frantic crying on the other side of the house.  This time I only found one.  I tried to bottle feed him and he would not suckle.  I had a problem.  I went onto the internet and watched a video of a man, that had the same problem with a kitten not suckling.  He showed one how to do it but the kitten ended up being afraid on him.  I could not have this kitten being afraid.  I worked out a method whereby I put the teat in his mouth and squirted the milk.  It worked.  He is also a black haired kitten and so different from any of the other kittens.  He is a little monster and plays rough.  He grabs at my hand and kicks with his back legs.  It can be very sore at times.  I was worried that he could not suckle and after a very expensive visit to the vet, I nearly lost my monster.  The kitten seemed to go into a diabetic comma.  My friend helped me over skype and told me to wet the kittens gums and tongue with a sugar mixture.  Thank God.  Thank my friend that this little kitten survived.

Have a minion laugh

 

 

 

God created evolution

My mother raised my sisters and I in the Protestant faith.  Let me tell you a little bit about my mother.  As a little girl she contracted polio that lead her later to be confined in a wheel chair.  My father did not follow any religion.  My mother had no means of getting to places or going to church.

It was a priest from the Roman Catholic church that showed any sort of caring.  As a result my mother converted and became a Catholic.  This priest came once every week to talk to my mother and had mass with her.

Before she did my sisters and I went to a Catholic school .  Our parents wanted us to have the best education possible and my parents thought that we would get that from a Catholic school as it was a private school.

My sister's and I all had to be converted to the Catholic faith.  My sisters were older than me and at the time I never gave it much thought.  Later on I did and at that time I had made a choice not to go to church anymore.  There were a few people that came into my life that encouraged me to go to different churches as they thought this would give me a purpose in my life.  A few things that happened in my life lead me to this choice.

The first one is that I fall pregnant and I was not married.  I wanted my daughter to be baptised in the Catholic faith.  I went to the church to make arrangements for my daughter's christening.  The priest was apologetic as he was booked with christening  for a few weeks but on hearing that I was unmarried it became a matter of urgency that she should get christened as soon as possible.

According to the church my daughter was born with the sins that was the legacy that Adam and Eve passed down to us all.

I could not accept that and will never accept it.  According to the church I had sinned.  I had a child out of wedlock.  This I could accept but could not accept that my sins or the sin of Adam and Eve should fall onto  to my daughter.

I wanted to do the right thing for my daughter and she was christened in a private ceremony that was held that coming Saturday.

This did not endeavour me to the Catholic church and as my daughter got older I began to think that I was withholding something that could bring comfort and support to her in later life.

I particaly like the story in the bible.  Mathew 19:14 Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

I really took this so literally that when I took my daughter to church and when we had to go up to the altar for first holy comune.  I took my daughter with me.  My daughter must of been 18 months old at the time.  The priest ignored my daughter entirely and this shattered the believe that everyone was important in the eyes of the church and God.

I was extremely upset and after the mass I blasted the priest.  He just shrugged it off and went on amongst the church goers and greeting them and shaking hands.

The priest that came every week to see my mother was a compassionate man and not because he was a priest but because he was that type of person that generally cared for others.  When he passed on the priest that took over his position did not bother to visit my mother.

When I had my second daughter she was never baptised I decided when the time came she could choice any religion that she wants to follow.

Today I don't consider myself a religious person.  I don't attend church.  I believe very strongly in God and I am inclined to have discussion with him.  I come to the believe that church goers can be the worst people for they seems to have this attitude they can do as they please even if it is wrong.  Most of them can't be counted on is because the only person they really care about is themselves.  I believe that one can pray to God anywhere it does not have to be in a church. I believe that God did create the earth and everything on it, including us but not in the way the bible tells us.

I believe God created evolution so that all could evolve as circumstances dictated it.

I believe that God gave us the intelligence to solve most of life's  mysteries. That is our scientists and they have made remarable discoveries and advances in so many fields.
So many discoveries that are saving people's lives. Not only that they are finding out things that gives us answer to where man originated from. Also how other species have evolved.

To date is like a huge puzzle with many of the puzzle pieces missing but I am confident that one day there will complete this puzzle.  Maybe not in mine or your life time but ........

I believe that science and religion serve our different needs.

A couple that has a very sick child needs the advancement and discoveries that scientists have made in order to save  the child life.  The couple also needs religion so they have faith to support them through this very difficult period.

I have no faith in the church or religion.  I don't try and influence others that do.  I believe that we all should live our lives a certain way.  We should be good people and have compassion and understanding for others.  We should always be wiiling to help out others when they require it.  That we should not deliberately hurt others.  For any reason that we hurt another we should try and make amends and ask their forgiveness. That we should believe in others as we would like them to believe in us.

Believe me I am no angel.  I have said and done some nasty things which I later have regretted but most of these times I have apologised and asked for forgiveness.

Most of all I never make promises to God.  With God all things are possible and with this believe I have overcome many problems.  With each solved problem I always remember to say thank you.  When things don't  pan out accordingly I keep up the struggle to a find a solution and eventually that does happen but takes a bit longer for it to happen.  Neither do i blame God when things go wrong.  We all know that shit happens.

Conflict between religion and science - part 4

Geocentrism
He has fixed the earth firm, immovable. (1 Chronicles 16:30)

The idea that the Sun orbited the Earth – rather than the other way around – was the common position throughout antiquity. The Bible, in verses like the one above, seemed to support it.

While it made intuitive sense – the Earth feels solid, while the skies seem to move – close observation of the heavens raised serious questions. The ‘wandering stars’ – now known to be the other planets – periodically seemed to change direction and travel backwards, rather than continuing on a smooth orbit.

Copernicus and Galileo, using new technology like the telescope, suggested that the Earth went around the Sun. The Church, angered, condemned Galileo to lifelong house arrest on “grave suspicion of heresy”.

By 1835, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the Church had dropped all opposition to heliocentrism, and in 1992 Pope John Paul II gave an official apology for his treatment. There are now plans to build a statue to Galileo inside the Vatican walls

Conflict between religion and science part 3

The greatest split between the church and science since Galileo  was with the publication of Charles Darwin's book called On the Origin of Species in 1859.  Many Christians were shocked by the idea that man evolved from the ape.  That they were not created in God's imagine as interpreted from the bible.

Again the bible is take very literally.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Adam was flesh and blood and the bible tells us that God is spirit and exists without a body.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

In Latin the image of God is imago dei and that refers to the immaterial party of humanity.  It
sets humans apart from animals.  It helps humans to estables a bond with God.  The likeness is mentally, morally and socially.

Genesis  1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Mentally, humanity was created as a rational, volitional agent. In other words, human beings can reason and choose. This is a reflection of God’s intellect and freedom. Anytime someone invents a machine, writes a book, paints a landscape, enjoys a symphony, calculates a sum, or names a pet, he or she is proclaiming the fact that we are made in God’s image.

Whenever someone writes a law, recoils from evil, praises good behavior, or feels guilty, he or she is confirming the fact that we are made in God’s own image.

Every time someone marries, makes a friend, hugs a child, or attends church, he or she is demonstrating the fact that we are made in the likeness of God.

Part of being made in God’s image is that we have the capacity to make free choices.

Adam’s body did mirror the life of God insofar as it was created in perfect health and was not subject to death, until Adam and Eve made an evil choice to rebel against their Creator. In so doing, they marred the image of God within themselves, and passed that damaged likeness on to all of their descendants.

Romans 5:12 Sin came into the world through one man, and his sin brought death with it. As a result, death has spread to the whole human race because everyone has sinned.

The argument still rages to this day, although the weight of evidence is overwhelmingly in favour and very few biologists now question the basic idea of evolution.

However, some Christians - those who believe that God created the world as described in Genesis – have called for Creationism or “Intelligent Design” to be taught alongside evolutionary biology in school science lessons.

The Church of England issued a posthumous apology to Darwin last year, saying that it showed too much “anti-evolutionary fervour” when his book was published.

Conflict between religion and science 2

Man's quest for knowledge is timeless. 
 where man came from.  How the earth was created.  How the animals and plants came into existence. There is so much that is not known.  It would be so simple just to believe what the bible tells us.  God created earth and everything on it and on the 7 day he rested.

The problem is not in the believe that God created the earth in 6 days but how people take the bible so literally. For example that each day was 24 hours.

The bible in fact does not mention the age of the earth.

How the bible was used to date the earth.

James Ussher a Bishop took the genealogies of Genesis and used it to arrive at a date for when the earth was first created.  That was Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C.

It was taken for granted that the genealogies was completed. Recording the entire course of human existence and that the days were exactly 24 hours.

If this was so then it would mean that the earth came into existence  a full thousand years after the domestication of the guinea pig.

If we look at Genesis 1, there are two days of the 6 that stand out.  This is what is said in Genesis for the third day.

Then God said, "Let the earth sprout, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11-12)

God did not plant fullgrown  plants.  God created seeds which he planted.  This we can gather from the word sprout.  Since fruit trees take several years to mature and produce fruit, the third "day" must have been at least several years long.

The sixth day was also a very busy "day." On the sixth day, God created the nephesh (soulish) animals, including the wild animals (carnivores), cattle (herbivores) and "creeping things" (rodents?) (Genesis 1:25).

Then God created Adam, the first man (Genesis 1:27, 2:7). He placed the man into a special garden that He had planted (Genesis 2:8). Again, God was playing farmer by planting the garden and letting it grow (Genesis 2:9). Adam was placed into the garden "to work it and take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). We don't know how long Adam worked the garden before God gave him another assignment.

However, it wouldn't have been much "work" if Adam was there for less than 24 hours. Next, God had Adam give names to "all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air" (Genesis 2:19). The process would have required Adam naming tens of thousands of species (minimum). Even naming one animal every ten seconds would have taken Adam several days, at minimum.

Then God put Adam to sleep and created Eve from part of Adam's side (Genesis 2:22-23). Adam's response to Eve's creation is also telling, since upon seeing Eve for the first time, Adam said "at last."  This is not exactly the response one would have expected from a man who had waited for less than one day (or else Adam was the most impatient man in the history of humanity). So, we must conclude that the sixth day was much longer than 24 hours, and probably took at least several years, based on Adam's response.

Besides the biblical evidence that at least some of the Genesis "days" are long periods of time, Genesis 2:4 refers to all 6 days of creation as one day:


Scientists
Radio dating using lead ores suggests the Earth is around 4.54 billion years old, while the age of the Universe has been put at around 13.7 billion years. This has been established partly by looking through powerful telescopes at distant stars; the Hubble Space Telescope’s Deep Field Image shows galaxies over 13 billion light years away, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

Scientists never wanted to threaten religious believes.  Scientists look for evidence to support their theories and religion believers look for things to support what they think are the true answers.  As a result scientist have provoked hostility and panic from the religious believers.

When Edwin Hubble proved the existence of an expanding universe, the evidence was so convincing and the conclusion so irrefutable that it became the domain of common sense.

When Charles Darwin recognized evolution through natural selection, the unambiguous utility of its application to all facets of the natural world gave us a tantalizing avenue to pursue our origins.

With the Big Bang, evolution, and a wealth of other knowledge-based advances, science has inadvertently forced the reinterpretation of religion in places where its dogma is in conflict with overt truth

Religionists believe that God created earth in 6 days without sufficient evidence.  All they actually got to work with is the bible.

Religious people find it difficult to  believe in anything else that proves a contradiction in what they have been lead to believe.  It's in the bible so it must be gospel.

God, religious believers and scientists - the conflict

I have read that science and religion cannot coexist and I don't understand this.  Why the hell not. God is all powerful and he created all, therefore he created the scientists also. God gave us the intelligence to think and question.  Why is scientists and religious believers in conflict over so many things?  Evolution for instance.  Is God who was supposed to created everything not strong enough to create evolution?

Are the conflicts due to the fact that man gets so comfortable with how they were taught to think, so when new discoveries are  found by scientist it shakes the foundation of everything that they were taught.  Is this not a condratiction in the believe that with God all things are possible?

Mathew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

I went to a Catholic school for most of my schooling and religion is based on blind trust.  To question things is a sign that one is not very devoted to ones religion. I must say something for those few Nuns that taught at the school.  The Nuns never forced their religious believes on their students and as a result there were students of other religions attending that school.

Jesus taught in parables.  He taught in such a manner that all that heard him could understand.  Is the bible also not written in this fashion?

A parable is like a riddle written as a story that compares two things one of which you understand and the other you're trying to understand.

The Bible has plenty of parables, mysteries and riddles waiting for you to discover in the way that you learn best.

When the disciples asked Jesus why did He talk to the people in parables this is what He said:

Matthew 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Some people believe this means only the chosen can understand the mysteries of God.

I have read that science is thought by some that it  is a religion. There is no blind worshipping in science just a life time didication  to find out why and how.  Many break throughs in science has saved many lives.

Francis Collins is the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In a 2007 book about the intersection between science and faith, Collins described how he converted from atheism to Christianity and attempts to argue that the idea of a Christian God is compatible with Darwin's theory of evolution.

"I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.

If people are so accepting why are there so many different religions out there.  The bible is open to many different interpretation and if people did not like how religion was taught they just changed over to another religion.  Just like to day if we not happy with our cellular provide we can move to another and even keep the same cell phone number.  Move over to a new religion and still keep the same God.  The thing is we accept things as factual only if it suits us and confirms what we think its right but if it should challenge our believes we bail out and find something else that supports our believes.

The question that I have asked and nobody can answer.  What religion did God follow?  God did not follow or create a religion.  God created man and man made religion.  In fact God hated religion.

Isaac 1:13 It's useless to bring your offerings. I am disgusted with the smell of the incense you burn. I cannot stand your New Moon Festivals, your Sabbaths, and your religious gatherings; they are all corrupted by your sins.

In the story of Adam and Eve, it was a snake that intised Eve to eat the apple  from the tree of knowledge.  Man already not taking responsibility for his own actions?  This part of the bible teaches  us how sin first originated.  What is so bad in eating the apple?  It was a direct command from God not to eat the apple.

Another verse in the bible which was taken very literally and therefore does not fit with evolution.

Genesis 2:22 Then the LORD God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

Extracts taking from this site
http://discovermagazine.com/1995/sep/darwinsrib561

I challenge them; tell me how a human female skeleton differs anatomically from a male.

The male and female skeletons I display are exemplary in their difference, and since most students should be able to guess what that difference is if they don’t already know, I usually feel confident that the final answer is a giveaway. I say usually because seven years ago, the first time I taught the course, I got a surprising answer that still crops up with
 alarming regularity. Five minutes into the lab period, a young woman announced that she could answer the question without even examining the human skeletons.

I waited silently for her to explain that the female pelvis is shaped slightly differently from the male’s, with a larger opening for childbearing. That part was the giveaway. The real purpose of the exercise was to make her prove her conjecture with measurements--to translate the theory to practice. I also wanted her to explain why this sexual dimorphism--that is, this sexually determined physical difference--is not nearly so pronounced in nonhuman primates, such as chimpanzees.

She spoke: Males have one fewer pair of ribs than females.

I was totally unprepared for her answer. My mandible dropped. After a moment’s reflection, I realized she must be referring to the biblical story in which God creates Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. My student was someone who believed in the literal truth of the Bible, and it was her religious belief, not her previous knowledge of human anatomy, that made her so sure of her answer. This was going to be a challenge.

Nobody knows for sure how many ribs that God created Adam with.  It is a know fact that ribs comes in pairs.  That a normal human is born with 12 sets of ribs but humans have been born with an extra pair of ribs or even born with less ribs.  Is this to be taken as another parable.  Told in such a way that it was easy to understand?  With discoveries made by scientist humans have been around much longer than the 6 thousand years, according to the bible.

Scientist have not yet proven the exsistance of God and at the same time they have not proven that God did not exsist. 51% of scientist do believe in God which is more than the rest of the population all over the world.  More people are not believing in God these days.

The age of God
In fact, the Bible is clear that God has always existed. There has never been a time when He didn’t exist and there will never be a time when He stops existing. “Before the mountains were brought forth…Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God,” the psalmist wrote (Psalm 90:2).