ALL CREATURES Animal Welfare Trust News

Do you remember passing your University Entrance Exam? Along with the joy and relief comes the concern of what the new experience will be like. Despite how exciting change is, it can be a little uncomfortable; one of the things that you will definitely have to face is the fact that you will be getting a new roommate 😝! You have absolutely no idea what they are like; are they neat and tidy? Are they quiet or noisy? Do they snore? Will they be kind and friendly or are they a grouch with whom you can’t ever hold a conversation? Then you meet and together you begin to build parameters and set boundaries, they say to you; “ Mesho * I don’t appreciate your using my plates and not cleaning them afterward”, or you say to them “ Mesho * please don’t keep your radio on all night, it disturbs my sleep” and so on and so forth. What you and your mesho * are looking to achieve is a state of harmony. The Oxford English dictionary defines harmony as “The state of being in agreement or concord” o...

There was dust everywhere as the noise of blaring honks from impatient minibus drivers rushing to meet their targets for the day grew louder and louder. This writer sat and watched, in utter amazement and reluctant admiration as the driver of the minibus made near impossible maneuvers in an effort to wiggle his way out of the myriad of buses tightly packed together each waiting their turn to fill up on passengers. When suddenly there was a stirring within the bus and the sound of a young boy’s voice crying “ ayi! Tasiyani!” he was protesting the intrusion of a man’s hand who was jokingly trying to grab a little hamster from his hand. Everyone broke into inarticulate sounds of affection, the uuuuuhs, awwwws and ahhhhs, everyone was warmed by the boy’s determination to defend his little hamster. He too broke into laughter, holding his little hamster more closely, as he settled in once again on his mother’s lap. He was a little too old to still be sitting on his mother’s lap really, b...

Can you imagine what a dog’s dream life would be? May not be so easy for everyone but at least one may have an idea- no leash, numerous trees to pee on, lots of dirt to make holes in which to hide bones, pile upon pile of bones and steak, a nice shelter for when it rains or when it’s cold, no noise from fireworks on New Year’s eve. Maybe most importantly, a caring owner to whom he can come home after a day of lots of fun out in the fields. An owner who is concerned when he is sick and takes him to the vet, an owner who gives him a bath to keep the fleas away, an owner who defends him from bullies, an owner who calls him best friend. That would be fantastic wouldn’t it? Sadly, that is more than what little Snoopy (name given for the sake of this article because his real name is unknown to us) could ask for. Suffering terribly from loneliness, but as though that was not enough, being beaten and harassed by whoever pleased at Chilinde market in Lilongwe from which he suffered seve...

Do you remember reading or watching “The famous five” when you were growing up, or maybe “Tin-Tin” or watching “Beethoven” the adopted mischievous yet adorable canine? Tin-Tin’s endless adventures, him and captain Haddock, surely you must have loved finding clues and following on until we got the bad guy, hahaha “we” because we all felt like an integral part of the whole adventure, all the sniffing and scurrying, the dead ends and the starting over, it was exciting! If you paid close attention, in fact, even without paying much attention, you probably noticed that it seemed Tin-Tin couldn’t have sniffed out any bad guys without the faithful Snowy, nor could the famous five have bagged any criminals without Timmy, come to think of it, Mystery Inc. would not have done much without the timorous yet ever reliable Scooby doo to the effect that the whole show is named after him! Are you beginning to see where this is probably going? Snowy, Beethoven, Timmy, Scooby doo? Dearly cherished ...