一昨日、猫の臀部周辺に白いごま粒みたいなのがついていて、ちょっと調べたらどうやら瓜実条虫っぽい。ノミを介して猫に寄生するらしい。よく聞く「サナダムシ」という名前は条虫類の俗称らしい。白いのがついてるのは胡麻の方だけで、菜種は大丈夫っぽい。

さっそく昨日の朝、獣医さんに写真添付してメールで聞いてみた。なんか虫っぽいものがついてて、ついでに私もノミに刺されたっぽいんです、どうしたらよいでしょう？と。自動返信で、お急ぎの場合は電話してねと返ってきたのと、午後にまた動く白い粒がついてたのを発見したので、今度は電話してみた。そしたら受付の人が、今週は予約がいっぱいだけど、便をもってきたら検査しますよ、いつでもいいですよ、と言ってくれたので、便確保次第行こうと思ってた。

そしたら夕方、獣医さんから返信が来て、写真をありがとう、これは乾燥したサナダムシの破片のようですね、薬を処方しておくので営業時間内のいつでも都合よいときに取りに来てくださいね、とのこと。なんて親切なの！感動〜！

獣医さんは朗らかで可愛らしい人で、猫たちをとても可愛がってくれて、この子たちに会うのがいつも楽しみなのよ〜と言ってくれて、何かあったらすぐに電話してね、と言ってくれるので、社交辞令だとしてもいつもうれしい気持ちになる。

それで、今朝一番で病院に薬を受け取りに行ってきた。錠剤が意外と大きかったので、「これどうやって飲ませたら良いですかね？」と聞いてみたら、「砕いてクリームチーズとかに包んであげるといいわよ」とのこと。それを聞いていた、患者猫をつれたマダムは「ピーナツバターもいいわよ」と言ってて、うわーアメリカっぽい！と感心した。猫にピーナツバターは思いつかなかったわ。

家に帰ってから、まずクリームチーズだけを与えてみたところ、食べた。よしよし。なので、こんどは錠剤を8分割してクリームチーズで包んで与えてみたら、周りのクリームチーズだけ舐めて薬は吐き出した。うーむ。やっぱりそうなるよね。時間をおいて再度試してみたけど同じ結果。仕方ないので、膝の上に乗ってゴロゴロしてるすきに、むりやり口を開けて薬を放り込んでみた。「え、ちょ…！」みたいな反応だったけど、何とか飲み込んでくれた。このやり方で全部の破片を放り込んだ。やったぜ！猫としては絶対に嫌だったと思うんだけど、なぜか逃げずにずっと膝の上にいたのは、たぶんまったりモードで動くのが面倒だったんだろうな。ともあれ、おとなしく薬飲んでくれてよかったよかった。

はやく治りますように。

I found some insect-like thing around my kitten’s butt the day before yesterday. Moreover, I seemed to have been bitten by fleas or bed bugs unfortunately. My kittens were okay, and their poop seemed normal. Suspecting they were tapeworms, I asked my vet via email what to do yesterday.

Then I received an email from her in the evening. They were dried tapeworm segments as I thought. She said she prescribed the medicine and I could pick up it anytime during the business hours. I was impressed at her taking the time out of her busy schedule. How kind of her!

This morning, I got my kitten’s medication for tapeworm at the vet clinic. The pill was bigger than I expected, so I asked the staff how I gave him the medicine. She recommended that I split the pill and cover the pieces with cream cheese. The other woman said peanut butter was also good.

After going back home, I made my kitten try cream cheese, and he liked it. Then I split the pill into eight pieces and covered with some cream cheese. He licked off the cream cheese, but didn’t swallow the piece of the pill. This flopped. Next, I forced him to open his mouth, and threw in the piece of the pill. I felt so sorry for him, but I had no choice. Even though he seemed to be confused, he managed to swallow it. This was repeated 5-6 times. Thanks to his patience, finally all the pieces of the pill were gone!

I really hope it works well for him.

Yesterday, my homework was to describe a process. My teacher said that recipes were not good, because they were too easy to describe. However, he had talked about recipes as an example for the last class.

Thinking it was okay to describe a recipe, almost half of students wrote recipes. I was one of them as well, so I wrote how to make Chinese dumplings. Teacher asked each student what to write and a Chinese woman who sat behind me answered. She told the teacher she was writing about dumplings. Moreover, a Taiwanese student and another Chinese student had same answers. It was a little funny. Did all the Asian students write about dumplings recipe?

Talking to the woman who sat behind me during break time, I enjoyed sharing the difference between Japanese and Chinese dumplings recipe. One of the difference was that I used pork belly as fillings, and she used beef and mutton. In the class, we should have compare our written recipes each other. I bet it would have been more fun.

Here is the dumplings recipe I wrote.

How to Make Dumplings From Scratch

Today I’m going to introduce you to how to make fried Chinese dumplings from scratch. I usually use the recipe of Wu Wen, Chinese cooking expert famous in Japan. Homemade dumpling skins are more chewy and tasty, and homemade fillings are more juicy than ready-made dumplings. The tools you need is two large bowls, a measuring cup, a measuring spoon, knife, cutting board and a frying pan with a lid.

First, in a large bowl, put 100g(1 cup) of all purpose flour and add 50cc(1/5 cup) of hot water at once, stir quickly with chopsticks and make the dough. Then, knead the dough in the bowl, and pull it together into a ball. Let the dough rest 20-30 minutes, covering it with plastic wrap.

Meanwhile, make the fillings. Put the ground pork, fine chopped cabbage, grated ginger into another bowl. Add tablespoonful each of sake, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. Mix it well, and the filling is ready.

Next, spread the flour over a board, then knead the dough on the board until its surface becomes smooth and silky. Cut the dough into halves, and shape them to a long, narrow stick. Cut them into 2cm(0.8 inches) wide pieces. Place each small lump of dough on a floured board, and roll them with your palm. Pat each dough into 10cm(4 inches) round with a rolling pin, and make the skins.

Then, place a teaspoonful of filling on a skin, fold into two equal halves, and seal it from the center to an end. Make the rest of the dumplings as the same way.

Finally, put the oil into a pan with strong fire on the stove, and place dumplings. After they get slightly browned, add some water and put the lid on. Cook 5-6 minutes until water runs out.

Place it on a dish, serve it with preferred sauces. Now it’s ready to eat!