miscellaneous rambling

This is a ridge that we did on our hike to Jia Ming Lake ( April 9-10, 2005). This was taken at the end of the hike, looking across a valley at what we had just done. 

Hiking up to Jia Ming Lake. Eastern Taiwan. Current elevation about 2400m 

snow on the peaks of Taiwan's central mountains ( over 3000m high ) 

For years now I have heard and seen photos and news reports of snow in Taiwan. On the highest peaks, which rival Mt. Robson in the Canadian Rockies, there is reportedly snowfall almost every year. It is very little, only a few cm¡¦s, and then it usually melts.
However, being down here at sea level where it is almost always 30 degrees, and just plain HOT, I never believed the reports. When I see it, and touch it for myself, I¡¦ll believe it.
So this year it was colder than usual. Many areas as low as around 1300m. above sea level had snow. So I couldn¡¦t pass up this chance. We jumped into the car and took off to the mountains one morning. Two hours later, we saw the snow on some far off peaks. Then we hunted for snow in some lower areas.
It turned out that you had to hike into some trails, and there one could see snow that was still on the ground because of the large pine trees that were provided shade on the ground.
I have waited years to see this in Taiwan. People thought we were crazy to go out there to see snow. Especially being from Canada. But I told them, that it was just too weird to think that there is snow in Taiwan. I had to see it for myself.

 

I have a friend who has 6 large dogs in a very small house. Not only that, but she feeds and takes care of lots of street dogs. She recently found two dogs that she wanted to keep, but can¡¦t. On top of that, she was just in the middle of a move and couldn¡¦t take them even temporarily. So I volunteered to take them for 2 weeks. I cleaned them up, and took them in and tried to find an owner for them by making posters and taking their photograph around with me all the time. I named them Ronda and Neerja after two Spanish towns which I visited. ( Ronda is in the mountains, and Neerja is a beach town)

In one week I had them house trained, and also scooter trained. They both could ride on my scooter together. On top of that, they also learned to stay by my side without a leash.
So all is well for the first while, I had the house dog proofed so they wouldn¡¦t mess with anything. I had no idea what kind of personalities they have. They turned out to be good dogs, and I got attached to them. Still, I couldn¡¦t take them for a long time. I had to keep them outside on the balcony most of the time because I can¡¦t have them inside running around the school with students.

On the last night, I was taking them for their final outing, then into the car to be taken back to my friend. They broke loose of their leashes in the house. They were very excited to be let loose. I called them back because I didn¡¦t want any accidents to happen in the house.. I was quite pissed, so I spanked one of them. She was so frightened that she pissed herself. What then happened, was that the second floor area where she pissed was close to the stairway. So I had a waterfall of dog pee flowing down my stairs on their final 10 minutes in the house!!!! I couldn¡¦t believe it. So close, yet so far. So the final memory of them wasn¡¦t so great to say the least.

During those final days, we found a pure bred Maltese dog too. We took it in to see if their was an ID chip embedded in its neck or anything. Nothing. We then thought we could sell it. You can sell one for about $800 CAD over here. Well, since it was full grown, and the vet checked it out and it only had one testicle. ( Meet the Fockers) he said it wouldn¡¦t fetch much of a price. Maybe only $200 CAD at the most to a breeder.
So, why not sell it for a few hundred bucks? Well, they use these dogs, and then when they are through, they toss them out on the streets¡K So we found a good home for it. Our neighbor is taking care of it, and so we can go visit it sometimes as well.

Two weeks ago, I was parking the car in a parkade. I heard a kitten¡¦s cry, and found it in a garbage can with the lid on it. It was less than two weeks old, and hadn¡¦t opened it¡¦s eyes yet. I noticed the garbage bins next to this one were full. Not only was it placed there, but I could see people going to dump their garbage, lifting the lid, and then placing the lid back on the bin, and proceeding to use the adjacent garbage bin. No one wants to be the one to smother a kitten with it¡¦s garbage, but no one wants to take it out either!

So I took it in for the night. The next day it opened one eye. I got a baby bottle to feed it milk. It can¡¦t have cat food for about 8 weeks I was told. In two days it opened both eyes, and I had the word out about it. It is now placed in a home, but I¡¦m not sure if it will be permanent or not. The mother of the girl who took it isn¡¦t happy, so it may end up here later. Which is of course not good, because I¡¦m allergic to cats¡K