We'll Miss You, Axl!

My birthday is coming this week, but this is not kind of gift I've ever wanted for my day.

Axl left us when I was out of town. My brother stayed to nurse him since Axl had been sick for two days before I went. That day, my brother took him to the vet, but it was a national holiday, the vet was closed, and Axl has gone forever that night.

To me, it's a great loss that I couldn't stop my tears that night, till now. Axl was a generous fellas and friendly to cat-mates in our house. He always followed me anywhere, snuggled my feet, and stared me with love in his eyes.

So long, my dear fellas.. I know, your memories will always remain in our heart. I love you, may peace will always be with you.

Rest in peace, Axl..

Sukun Pie

This is my second time in making pie. The first time was apple pie,.now I tried with sukun or breadfruit. The idea came through when the fruit was too ripe for frying. Yes, we usually eat fried breadfruit or Artocarpus communis in botanical term (Are you kidding me.. I've eaten a communis? :D).

Crust:
- 1 cup flour (all purpose)
- 1 cup fat
- 1 tsp salt
- water

Toping:
- 1 whole ripe breadfruit, peeled
- cinnamon

Direction:

1. To make crust: combine flour and salt in a large bowl, stir in the fat, add water until dough. Place the crust in a pie plate.
2. Fill in with breadfruit, spread it with spoon, and sprinkle with cinnamon.
3. Pre-heat the oven and bake the pie for about 1 hour.
4. Serve while it's hot.

Chili Eggplant

When you fry the eggplant, no need to put much of cooking oil. It's not a deep fry anyway, just as long as it can avoid the eggplant to get burnt. Also remember to set in high heat, unless it will be too oily. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
- 2 eggplant medium-big sized, sliced into 5x2 cm
- 6 cayenne pepper
- 4 cabe rawit (or you can replace it with tabasco pepper)
- salt and sugar to taste
- cooking oil as needed

Direction:

1. Fry each 2-3 sliced eggplant in a frying pan with high heat. Turn aside the eggplants when the bottom side get brownish and fully cooked. Set aside.
2. Combine cayenne pepper, cabe rawit, salt, and sugar in a food processor.
3. Pre-heat cooking oil in a pan, add processed peppers and spice, stir through until it cooked.
4. Add fried eggplant to the pan, stir through for about 2 minutes.
5. Serve with rice.

Tofu Soup with Lemongrass

This one goes best with plain tofu, usually in white color. The taste of ginger, lemon grass, and soy sauce is originated found in our Sundanese traditional food. Love it bite to bite!

Ingredients:
- 5 fresh tofu (250 grams), dice chopped into bite size
- 1 cabe gendot, or 1 habanero chilli, sliced
- 1 cm ginger, chopped
- 1 stalk lemon grass
- 3 tbs soy sauce
- sugar to taste
- 2 tbs cooking oil
- 1 tbs corn starch, mixed with 1/2 cup water


Direction:

1. Pre-heat cooking oil in a sauce pan, add sliced chili and stir.
2. Add chopped ginger while continue stirring.
3. Add soy sauce and lemongrass.
4. Add chopped tofu.
5. Pour corn starch mixed with water, continuously stir until coagulated and all spices are absorbed.
6. Serve with rice.

Vegetarian Chili

I love Mexican food soooo much! Its spicy and red makes me go hmmm... yummy! So my first experience is vegetarian chili. Since we don't have habanero chili here, I go with cabe gendot, the most dreadful chili I could find here.

 Ingredients:
- 1 cup kidney beans, soft-boiled
- 6 fresh tomatoes, chopped
- 1 once textured soy, sliced
- 1 tbs chili powder
- 1 bay leaf
- salt, sugar, pepper, and cumin to taste
- for hotter taste, add 1 cabe gendot, or you can replace it with 1 habanero chili, chopped

Direction:

1. In a large pot, put chopped tomatoes in medium-heat to produce tomato sauce. If needed, add some water.
2. After tomatoes are cooked and become saucy, add sliced textured soy.
3. Add chili powder, salt, sugar, pepper, and cumin to taste. Stir.
4. Add bay leaf and chopped cabe gendot or habanero chili. Stir.
5. Add soft-boiled kidney beans, low the heat, simmer and cover it until fully cooked and served.

Pardon Me

Ok, here comes again another story about cats. For the millionth times, I always learn something new about this amazing creature. This time is about Topeng, the one who always touches us in the heart. A weak feral though he's definitely a nice fellow to hang around. So, we decided to look after him, feed him, and once I de-wormed him, I bathed him, and gave him ear mites medicine. And yes, he seemed to be healthier now. Then comes the hardest part, asking him to stay with us.

As the time flies, he's more into me and willing to be cuddled. Sometimes he came with his sibling, but mostly he's alone. Our backyard was his favourite spot to wait for the food or to play with Billy. They were getting to know each other. Sometimes the cuddling turned to be a serious wrestling games,and it's the signal for me to stop them. Playing, cuddling, meowing, and anything else you can imagine of how this two companion cats were becoming my daily routine.

And last week, my project about the side fence on the backyard is coming to reality. At first, the idea is to stop Billy from roaming around my neighbour. Why do I bother so much? Cats know their way home. Yep, that's true. I believe you, guys.. But my problem is, this is not a safe environment for a domestic cat to roam freely. Especially the kinder garden behind our house where Billy loves to hang around. Nope, I don't trust any of those cute kids going there. Beside, always remember rules number one here: don't let your pet roaming outside without your supervision, ok? So, I started the project with positive mind. I guessed this would be a great too since we're going to take Topeng home for medical treatment before adopting him to a friend of mine. Yes, I finally found a trusted adopter for Topeng, isn't it great?

We love you, buddy!

But the things didn't work so well. Topeng was so stressful on the first day. He doesn't like to stay in a locked building, and neither in the backyard. He can't go anywhere, and the fence made him more uncomfortable. Though Billy seems to be upset because of the fence, he's more adjusted than Topeng. He keeps busy catching butterflies or anything that attracting him. Well, yes.. sometimes I caught him looking sadly at the wire fence, and I felt guilty to see him upset. Back to Topeng... I decided to let him free as he used to be. I don't want him to feel like a prisoner. So now he mostly hang out in the front yard. Playing, napping, and meowing at us when the feeding time comes. And the more important is, he can go roaming any time he wants. I know he'll be back to us the very soon he gets hungry or demands for cuddling. I know he's not going anywhere. He's always with us, he just prefers to stay outside the house. ***

The Controlling Games

I could never think of such things. I found a dead kitten last week, attacked by senior cats perhaps? Is it some kind of population control in cats society? Or the night was just too cold for the poor baby to bear. I haven't known it for more.

It reminds me of Koneng, which the name derives from her yellow-brown stripped fur. She just gave birth for the second time, to three tiny cute kittens. She lost all of the previous babies that seemly similar case to the dead kitten I found lately, male senior attack. Now she is a mother again. But my mind can't stop thinking. I was too late to have her spayed. To be honest, she is too young to nurse. Her body is so tiny that I doubted myself when her pregnancy comes. Regarding this, my sisters and I plan to spay her as soon as her nursing is over. There's enough homeless cat roaming around in this world.

The proud mother and her cutie babies

Koneng roams around my parent's neighbour and usually spend the night at my parents' garden. My younger sisters usually take care of her. For mostly custom here in Indonesia, people sometimes ignored that cats are carnivores. And it happens to Koneng as well that mostly she's fed by left-over food, meaning: cooked rice and food. Well yes, she hunts. But cats were born as carnivores thus they prefer eat flesh meat. In the world crowded with people and civilization, what do you expect them to catch for dinner? So sometimes I collect money by myself to buy fresh fish for Koneng and Putih, her sibling. I need to manage my spending wisely, because I have Billy on the other hand and Topeng needs some extra for the vet, medicine, and his food. In this regard, I thank to Fanny, a very nice friend of mine who helps me to support Topeng's food.

A week before the labour day, look at her belly!

Some of you must be wondering. why should I care so much about Koneng? She's a feral cat and she can manage to survive. Well, the thing isn't that simple, folks! This is Indonesia, the land of miracle can happen with a blink of an eye, if you've got money in the pocket for sure. Imagine yourself as a cat. Here, you're dead unless you're born as a pure-bred. That's if you're lucky enough because pure-bred doesn't guarantee you'll be happy ever after. People are encouraged to spend money for high price pure-bred thus made breeding as a promising industry. A friend of mine even said that my city is the most successful home industry for cat breeding among others Indonesian metropolis. She often found abandoned pure-bred kittens around her rented pavilion. And among other things, we have poor law on animal protection.And as for the information, my city doesn't have any organization working on cats and dogs welfare. This situation ends up with uncountable homeless cats, abandoned new born kittens, and claiming human as the most dominant species controlling over the planet.

I might not a WWF or Greenpeace activist. I might not a politician who has the capabilities and power to bring this up into some sort of lip service policy. I just believe that cats and other species beside human, has come to the planet long before we arrived. Thus we should treat them in respect.***