Tag Archives: Switzerland

How to keep your cat (and other animals) safe during fireworks

The Swiss National holiday takes place on August 1st every year : firecrackers, fireworks, and big fires are almost everywhere lit to celebrate the anniversary of our beautiful country.

Image Pixabay

The explosions of fireworks and firecrackers are terrifying for animals : their hearing, much more sensitive than ours, is assaulted by the noise. Animals are panicked and try to run away, with big risks of injuring themselves on obstacles or of being killed in a traffic accident.

How to keep your cat (and the other animals) safe during fireworks ?

Choose fireworks without explosion.
Use fireworks only the day of the event.
Light fireworks in a zone clear and distant from houses and from farms to avoid any danger of fire.
Light fireworks far from cowsheds and stables, and far from the pastures where are animals to avoid frightening them.
For the municipalities : build your big fires the day of the demonstration only, or protect them with a small roadblock 40 cms high which will be removed 1-2 hours before lighting the fire. These simple measures avoid a horrible death for numerous small animals as the hedgehogs, the mice, or the snakes for whom this wooden heap represents a perfect shelter.
Keep your cats and your dogs home, windows closed and curtains pulled. Behave as usual.
If your cat hides under the bed or at the top of a cupboard, leave him alone : it is there that he feels safe. Do not try to bring him out of his hiding place.

Do you like fondue ?

Today we celebrate Cheese Fondue Day !

What is fondue ?

Fondue is a delicious mixture of melted cheese and white wine. It’s described for the first time in a Zurich manuscript of 1699. It’s a typically Swiss specialty, but this course is also known since the 1950s in Savoie, in Franche-Comté (France), in Aosta Valley and in Piedmont (Italy), regions close to Switzerland. There are several varieties of fondue, made with different cheeses.

Our favorite fondue recipe is the half-and-half fondue :

For four persons :

1-3 garlic cloves
400 g of mature grated Gruyère (14.1 oz) and 400 g of Vacherin Fribourgeois sliced thinly (14.1 oz) OR 800 g of mixture for fondue (28.2 oz) : we are lucky enough to have an excellent cheese maker in the region which prepares us directly the mixture of cheeses
3-3 1/2 dl of dry white wine (1.25-1.5 US cup)
3 small coffee spoons of cornstarch
1 small glass of kirsch
pepper
800 g of bread cut in small cubes (28.2 oz)

The fondue gets ready in a heavy saucepan, the caquelon. Rub the caquelon with a clove of garlic, or for a more pronounced taste, cut cloves of garlic in two parts, remove the germ and put them in the caquelon.
Begin to melt the cheese by mixing with 2 spoons of cornstarch (do not add cornstarch to this stage if you use a ready-made mixture because it’s already inside).
Add the white wine and bring to a boil.

Dilute 1 spoon of cornstarch with the kirsch and pour the kirsch in the caquelon. Stir constantly.

Switch off the cooker, pepper the fondue, and put the caquelon on a stove (burner or electric stove).

Everyone dips then a piece of bread (or potato according to the recipes) by means of a long fork with three tines. The fork is taken out again with a rotative movement that allows the cheese not to fall again and to wrap the bread well. The caquelon is put on the stove to maintain the fondue at the right temperature.

The fondue tastes accompanied with dry white wine or with hot tea. Avoid other beverages if you don’t want to have an upset tummy !

At the end of the fondue, a crust of cheese has formed at the bottom of the caquelon. According to Claire, it’s the best ! Scratch delicately the bottom of the caquelon to remove it and taste it.

Did you already have the opportunity of eating real fondue ? If yes, do you like it ?

Where to find Jackson Galaxy products in French-speaking Switzerland ?

We have an incredible piece of news to share with you : Jackson Galaxy products are available next to our home ! Imagine our excitement when our friend Ludovic told us that he had Jackson Galaxy products in his store Aniland in Collombey !!!

Jackson Galaxy is a famous American behaviorist ; we have already spoken about his books here and here. He multiplies the activities (consultations, work with shelters, books, conferences, television programs, …) for a single cause : animal welfare in general, and feline in particular. He also developed a whole range of products intended for cats or for their humans. He also has a foundation which promotes the education of people who have cats as well as the arrangement of shelters better adapted to cats.

Ludovic generously offered us toys to test, and we are over the moon ! There are even tips for your humans on the back of the packaging ! See rather :

But our favorite toy, it’s the Air Prey Wand, with retractable rope and telescopic wand :