A CRAFTY RAT AND A GREEDY PIG

The Chinese zodiac is based on a 12 year cycle with one animal honoured for each year. The 12 animals rotate in a specific sequence and 2 different legends tell how the 12 animals were chosen from all the animals in the kingdom. As one goes... a race was held across a river by the Jade Emperor to detemine which animals will represent the Chinese zodiac. All animals were invited to participate and who ever arrives first will take the first year of the zodiac followed by the second till the twelfth and last. The rat and the cat were good friends at the time and both hitched a ride on the strong ox across the strong currents in the river. However, the rat wanted to win the race and pushed the gentle cat into the river. When the ox almost reached the end, the crafy rat hopped off and ran across the finishing line first. Thus, the zodiac starts with the crafty RAT followed by the strong OX, TIGER, Tiger decorations to paste on our front doors to welcome the New Year RABBIT, DRAGON

SNAKE, HORSE SHEEP, MONKEY
ROOSTER, DOG AND LASTLY THE PIG
The pig got hungry during the race and stopped for a meal and rest. The cat did made it to the finishing point at number 13 and thus, was not included into the zodiac. This is why rats and cats do not get along today and cats hate water!!

THE 12 ANIMALS IN SEQUENCE
In another legend, Lord Buddha asked all the animals to visit him before he departed from Earth. Only 12 animals turned up and in return, he honoured each animal with a year. Both the cat and the rat agreed to wake each other up to go together in the morning, but the rat went alone, while the cat over slept.

Characterisitics of people born in each animal sign:

RAT: 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 - charming, hard working perfectionists, easily angered, generally successful; compatible with Dragon, Monkey and Ox; incompatible with horse and rabbit

OX: 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 - patient, inspire confidence in others, easy going but stubborn, compatible with snake, rooster and rat; incompatible with tiger and horse

TIGER: 1962, 1974, 2010 - Brave, competitive, born to lead, tendency to be selfish; compatible with dog and horse; incompatible with goat and ox

RABBIT: 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 - Creative, compassionate, avoids confrontation, classy, stylish; compatible with pig and dog; incompatible with rooster and rat.

DRAGON: 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000 - mightiest of the animals, driven, ambitious, loner, quick tempered; compatible with monkey and rat; incompatible with ox and goat

SNAKE: 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 - intelligence, graceful, analytical, materialistic; compatible with rooster and ox; incompatible with pig and monkey

HORSE: 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002 - strength, wit, energy, multi taskers, self centred and tantrum throwers; compatible with dog and tiger; incompatible with rat and monkey

GOAT: 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 - dependable, calm, creative, excellent care givers, simple; compatible with rabbit and pig; incompatible with rat and ox

MONKEY: 1968, 1980, 1992 2004 - curiosity, mischievous, city people, adaptable; compatible with rat and dragon; incompatible with horse and snake

ROOSTER: 1969, 1981, 1993 2005 - confident, pompous, loyal, blunt; compatible with ox and snake; incompatible with goat and rabbit

DOG : 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 - deep loyalty, honest, stubborn, care little for wealth but always have money; compatible with horse, incompatible with rabbit, tiger

PIG: 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007 - dilligent, generous, entertaining, brand consious and not exactly thrifty; compatible with rabbit and goat, incompatible with monkey and snake

WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF THE TIGER: FEB 14 2010 - FEB 13 2011

Hey, where's my bitter gourd!

My bitter gourd in the sun.

Life is full of surprises. Last week I proudly wrote about my attempts in vegetable gardening - feeble attempts I would say judging by the size of my produce. The next morning, my precious bitter gourd went missing. The two smaller ones higher on the fence were still hanging on for their dear lives but the larger bottom gourd was gone. I live in a community where we take along plastic bags when we walk our dogs to make sure we do not leave any "accidents" behind. So, we definitely do not take punny gourds without permission. I can figure out a few answers to the disappearing gourd:

1. It fell off cos' it was ready to be plucked.
2. A rat climbed up the fence and ran away with it.
3. A squirril took it home for dinner.
4. A kid just plucked it for fun.
5. Moon light shrinks bitter gourds to undetectable sizes.

GismoMan says, "Who wants your bitter gourd? 1. it's bitter ; 2. it's a waste of effort cooking cos it would have taken more time to clean, cut and cook than eat it." I do think he has a point.

Anyway, there are more pressing issues to worry about. When I got home from work yesterday, MartianGirl came screaming, "There is a "buaya" (crocodile) in the garden." We live miles away from rivers and the nearest crocodiles are basking in the zoo. But, I had to go pretend and look out for it. It was probably a large monitor lizard - they can grow up to 3 feet. I have seen 6 feet ones in the wet lands. They are carnivores and live on small animals. They look quite clumsy with their large bodies and short legs, but they are fast. MartianGirl was five years when we visited Kuala Selangor, a town on the outskirts of the city with parks and wetlands. She had wandered off about 6 feet away from me and a really hugh monitor lizard came up from the pond and fested its eyes on what he probably considered was lunch. MartianGirl wanted to make friends, "Cicak, cicak." It was terrifying, I just ran, grabbed her and fled in the opposite direction. A "cicak" is a harmless house lizard, similar to a gecko, that feeds on insects and runs up and down the walls of our homes. The monitor lizard that wanted MartianGirl was truely as large as the one in the pix below.

"Cicak" (house lizard) - pix from internet source

Malaysian monitor lizard - pix from internet source

This morning, GismoMan announces, "I saw a rat in the kitchen last night and it was as large as a cat." Prone to exaggerations, I would say it was as little as a kitten. But I hate rats and they are the only animals that will actually make me jump up a chair and go hysterical, typically as shown in movies. I have gone after a snake and fierce dogs but I cannot handle rats. So, I had to put out the Rat Bait in the cupboards and made very sure that Daemon K9 could not get to them. But no rat as yet.

This is what I call excitment in the city. I can't imagine living on a farm where a lot more surprises can happen in one day. I would't be able to cope.