Another Experiment with Blog Design

abedulogo2As you may have noticed, I decided to change the blog design yet again. Your comments from the last change gave me many good ideas. I hope you enjoy the new theme. Here are some of the new features that I hope you will enjoy:

– Having two widget columns allows you to see what I consider the most important information (i.e. Recent Articles and Saudi News feed) without having to scroll to the next page.

– Other functions like the Music Jukebox and Recent Comments can also be found with only a small amount of scrolling.

– The widgets will stay in every page, which is an improvement over the previous theme.

Finally, the banner has changed to give the new theme a fresh look.

I also read a suggestion to increase the font size for the articles. This has been a constant issue as the view of readers depends on their monitor size. It is hard to satisfy all the needs of the different monitors that are used. Therefore, I decided to keep using the current font and provide readers that need to enlarge the article with a tip to increase the size of the display.

– Simply press Ctrl and the Plus sign (+) simultaneously to increase the display. This can be repeated until you reach a comfortable reading size for the display

–  Similarly, use Ctrl and the Minus sign (-) to reduce it.

As always keep the comments coming, it does help me improve the blog and its content.

Once Again – Encounter with Riyadh Street Cat

tortoisshell-calico-cat

I’m becoming convinced my house must have a homing device reaching out to the Saudi street cats encouraging them to come and stay at my house.  My most recent encounter involved a young Saudi street kitten.  This kitten could not have been more than six months old.  It was a cute kitten, a tortioseshell calico with long hair and the fluffiest bushy tail.  Now what makes this story unusual is we have no idea how this kitten made its way to our home.  For you see, we have several internal courtyards within our home.  What I mean by internal courtyard is that one can only enter these courtyards from internal access of the home; there is no external access.  These courtyards also have high 11 foot walls so privacy is assured.  Somehow this little kitten got into one of these internal courtyards which meant either we had to get it out via the 11 foot wall or somehow catch it and bring it in through my home in order to take it back out to the street.  At this time my schedule was precluding me from spending much time at my home and I was not even aware we had  this kitten in the courtyard until it had been there already for a few days.  Fortunately my housemaid is a compassionate individual and made sure the little kitten was receiving food and water while it was stuck with us.

 

Now given my last experience with a Saudi street cat, I had no desire for a repeat and spending  more time in the hospital.  I called my trusty vet, Dr. Majed  and asked his advice on how to safely remove this kitty and return it back to the street.  He suggested either placing a ladder at the wall or stacking up two tables, one atop another which should allow the kitten the height it would need to score the wall.  I kept this advice in mind and figured I’d try one of those options the following day. 

 

In the meantime I had to leave my residence to visit someone in the hospital.  Little did I know my housemaid who was feeling sorry for the kitten being trapped in the courtyard decided to take matters in her own hands.  I was not there to observe this but she went into the courtyard and managed to capture the kitten.  She then put it into a pillowcase and carried it within the pillowcase to the street where she then released it.  I was very pleased to learn that she rescued and in turn released the cat but also concerned given my own experiences which ended up with me in the hospital!  Thankfully she was not bitten or scratched and this story has a happy ending.

 

I will reiterate that I learned my own lesson and as much as I continue to love cats I will no longer make any attempt to touch an unknown Saudi street cat.

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