CAT AND MOUSE

I was with 2 colleagues when we saw this calico cat running towards us with something in it's mouth.

It was so close to us that we realized it is a female cat who was carrying a rat in her mouth. Amazement quickly turned to horror but she quickly ran past us and hid into the neighboring bushes. It was then we noticed her tummy was saggy but flat, indicating she had just given birth recently. I guessed she hunted the rat to feed her brood of kittens. 

CATS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

I brought Sandy for a walk the other day and suddenly noticed that a cat was hanging around a sculpture area. When I moved nearer, I was surprised to find a mynah lying strangely on the plaque of the sculpture. As I wasn't wearing my glasses, I wasn't really sure what the mynah was doing. Even as I approached even nearer, the cat didn't flinch or move away but stood guarded. It was then that I realized the mynah looked dead although I wasn't sure if the cat killed it and placed it there like a trophy or it was merely guarding it?

Anyway, not far away, a cat snuggled up against the leg of one of the park benches.

Frankly, there are many more resident cats in the area.

The dead Mynah lying on the rock

CAT AND KITTENS

The white mother cat was suckling two brown kittens and she looks so young.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Today's weather - sunny

I didn't have much high hopes of this movie but after watching it, I was pleasantly impressed. Directed by Christopher Nolan, this is the last of a 3-part trilogy on the DC comic superhero character Batman. The first two movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were released in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

Hemmed by a cast which included Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and Batman, Michael Caine as the butler Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, as well as new characters Selina cum Cat Burglar played by Anne Hathaway, Bane by Tom Hardy, John by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, other cameos included Cillian Murphy and Morgan Freeman. I am happy that this new installment wasn't a disappointment in the making and it was worth the wait for four whole years before it came to the big screen.

I shan't dwell on the storyline but I am very glad that the movie-makers introduced new twists or surprises to an otherwise mundane plot. One of my favourite character actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt really came a long way since his days on the TV series "Third Rock from the Sun". As John Blake, the audience was treated to a surprise at the end when it hinted that he could be the new Robin, who is the other half of the well-known Batman-Robin pairing portrayed in the comics. Interestingly, in one of the scenes, Joseph's police uniform spotted the familiar initial GC on his sleeves, which I suppose stood for Gotham City. Anne provided a different girlish portrayal of the Cat Burglar, which was a fresh take that bore absolutely no resemblance to the classic Cat Woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer in the late 80s. Then there was Tom Hardy, whom I last remembered as one of the characters in the movie "Inception" of recent years. Just take a look at the photos below on how much he bulked up in a matter of months to play the role of Bane. Sadly, he was almost unrecognizable with the mask on this face and there was only one blink and you will missed it scene of his actual face in the entire movie. Such ballooning in body weight must have a toll on a person's health, I guess? What a sacrifice actors have to make!

And yes, I am looking forward to see the new movie "Man of Steel" on the most well-known DC comic superhero Superman in 2013, which is a year away, after watching the short trailer played before the movie started.

CATS

 Today's weather - rainy

I saw two rather heavy-weight cats near my mum's place. I only managed to take photos of this obese looking sleeping cat. It was sleeping so soundly. How adorable!

CAT

This is one unusual coloured cat. It was lazing and waiting for food scraps under the table where I was seated this morning for my breakfast. These were photos taken using my new iphone 4.

CAT

This resident cat was looking at the princess yesterday when I brought her out for an evening walk. It was ready to raise its fur to intimidate the naive and fearless bitch. 


Sometimes, one does not know what is death until one encounters it. Our previous mixed terrier Ginny got into a brawl with a cat in the past before she ran away and hid under the stairs with her tail tucked under her. She finally learnt her lesson that the resident cats could not be bullied. Would Sandy learn her lesson someday too?

SUNDA PYGMY WOODPECKER

The other day, I walked past this Eugenia grandis near my house and I saw this black cat staring up the trunk of the tree. Immediately, I knew something must be on the tree.

So I walked around to the other side and stared very hard up the trunk. Finally I saw it. It was a woodpecker and I got it identified as the Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker (scientific name: Dendrocopos moluccensis).

Strangely, it was supposed to be found near coastal areas, so what is it doing in such an urban area. I only managed to take these few photos before the lucky bird took off and the poor cat stared towards the distance as its meal literally flew away.

MACFADYENA UNGUIS-CATI

The climber Macfadyena unguis-cati truly had an interesting common name Cat's Claw.

This climber does not have tendrils, hooks or spines to help it secure itself to or climb up a structure. But as the climber grows, the new shoots produce these 3 claw-up appendages for the same purpose. Some imaginative fellow then gave this climber its common name and there was no turning back.

Anyway, the first photo of the nest of red ants on the leaves of this climber freaked me out. Did I say I am allergic to some insect bites?

KUALA LUMPUR

Actually, I do love to go to KL and I did that from 11-12 Jun 10.

The 1st photo showed the silhouette of an artistically shaped tree covered by climbers. It was taken near the evening time. Guess what shopping centre was shown in photo 2?

Photo 3 showed the flowers of the beautiful Leea angulata. The 4th and 5th photos showed a pretty adult cat and a kitten. Well, the final and 6th photo showed the birds on the wall of the hotel at 1 Utama Shopping Centre.