Koi

March 13th, 2008 at 21:50 · Filed Under Animals, Gardening, Holidays, Malaysia, Penang, Photography · Comment 

The koi pool at Kek Lok Si. These koi fishes may worth hundreds of thousands or a million ringgit if they are of pure Japanese breed. Looks like they are not the pure Japanese breed. The kids enjoyed feeding the fishes very much.

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Tiger

January 25th, 2008 at 20:20 · Filed Under Animals, Blogging · 1 Comment 

TigerPreviously, I wrote an article about a story of keeping tiger. Tiger is among the big ferocious cats I like. The tiger’s face is the main attraction, especially its captivating eyes.

Due to its beautiful fur, tiger has become an endangered species. Poachers hunt tigers for their beautiful fur. In some places, development activities have invaded tigers’ natural habitat forcing tigers to hunt for food near human settlement. Not all tigers hunt human. Most man hunters are old tigers which can no longer hunt like a young tiger and turn their hunting target to human. Many species have already extinct, like, the Javanese and Balinese tigers.

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Tiger

January 19th, 2008 at 10:21 · Filed Under Animals · 3 Comments 

I love tiger. It is so beautiful, especially the head. Tiger is the largest of the four big cats in the panthera genus. Tiger is native in the southern and eastern Asia. It is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore. I like to watch tiger in actions. Their movement is so light, stealthy but powerful.

Many years ago, there was a family at Sinn Hoe Garden, Bukit Baru keeping some tigers in their house compound. It was a hot topic and main attraction in this housing estate as well as in the town. Many people flocked to that house to see some tigers running loose in the house compound.

I was no exemption and joined the crowds. The house owner appeared to be the parent of a St David’s students. He was my junior and he knew me. So, I got the chance to be invited into their home and had a close encounter with their tigers. There were a few young cubs too. They were very playful. Their fur was so nice to touch.

Later, a news broke out. The owner was attacked by one of the tiger. Instantly, the news spread and haunted everyone especially people living at the estate. Soon, under social pressure, the owner had to give up his tigers and sent them to the zoo.

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Snake!

December 29th, 2007 at 23:04 · Filed Under Animals, At Home, Days in My Life, Family, Gardening · 2 Comments 

I like snake but I never touch one before. Today, I came to a close encounter with a snake. My telephone and DSL fritz again. I could not make a call from my house telephone so I went to mom’s house to report a faulty line to Telekom. When I arrived there slightly before noon, I saw a snake sliding on the electrical cable on the wall of the neighbor’s house. I saw its tail moving and sliding into the crevice between the wall and electric cable. At first glance, the color of the snake was black. It could be the venomous cobra. I could estimate it was about 3 to 4 feet long!

Without further delay, I called the Bomba (Fire Department) to help capture the snake. I waited at the front of mom’s house to keep an eye on the snake while waiting for the Bomba to arrive. After some minutes, they came in a fire engine.

They checked the crevice but could not find any sign of a snake. I told them that I really saw its tail about 2 feet long and that could not be a lizard’s tail. One of the guy inspected further under the crevice and he saw something and confirmed a snake was hiding in the crevice. He used a thick cable to reach into the crevice and the snake fell out.

I was right! It was about 4 feet long. Black but with some green and black cross hatching. They said it was “ular daun” (literally translated leaf snake).

The photo (click for larger view) is not so clear to confirm the species of the snake. But it could be Chrysopelea ornata or Chrysopelea paradisi (paradise tree snake). This tree snake could fly and often called flying snake or flying tree snake. Watch the movies how the snake “fly” here. This is a website of Jake Socha, a hepatologist from The University of Chicago. Very interesting.

Back to the snake. We thought it was dead or passed out because it was not moving. That’s why I went closer (but not too close) to take the photo. After a while, it became lively again and moved swiftly under my car. The Bomba men were trying to surround it but it moved too quickly and finally it found an exit and disappeared into the bushes in front of mom’s house. I saw it moving swiftly into the bush and I was closest to it. I could have picked up its tail but I did not have the gut to do it. Not like my karate grand master who is so quick that he can catch an Okinawan Habu snake with his bare hand. The Okinawan Habu snake is a very venomous snake on Okinawa.

The incident also brought two schoolmates to meet again. One of the Bomba guy, asked me if I was from St David just before they left. We exchanged some information and he appeared to be Khalid from 5A2, same year as me. What a happy ending. The snake did not die, two ex-schoolmate met again. Really happy ending.

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Victim of Human Negligence

December 3rd, 2007 at 23:26 · Filed Under Animals, Blogging, Critiques, General, Medical, Social · Comment 

Mimi “Qoink” Mae, a beautiful dog suffered from human negligence at the Veterinary Hospital of UPM (University Putra Malaysia). The careless, irresponsible, lazy attitude and negligence of the hospital staff caused a life of this lovely dog.

Qoink Dog

Visit her memorial website here and sign the petition to pursue accountability at UPM.

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Anna the Queen

July 27th, 2007 at 12:05 · Filed Under Animals, Okinawa, Photography · Comment 

Anna is one of the 22 cats the Breyett family loves. She is the only cat allowed to be in the lounge. I made some photos of Anna while she was sleeping nearby the stairway.


Oh no! Run! She is going to eat me! No… She is just yawning…

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