Update

This morning, a piece of good news came in through the email. Y's sister emailed to say that Silver the kitten has been adopted into a loving home. That was really good to know. She has been renamed "Ash" and from the pictures, one can see that both parents are doting on this beautiful kitten.





Re another cat, regular readers may know that I intend to release Jackie to her old hangout at MIL's block if efforts to rehome her weren't successful. We wanted to try to get her adopted because she had started going upstairs to visit MIL, who was afraid of complaints from the cat-unfriendly neighbours. However, luck wasn't on our side. It's still raining cats and grey tabby kittens at the CWS adoption site, and two potential adoptions did not go through successfully. Nevertheless, we kept on hoping, and in the process, saw her becoming from a rather wary cat to one who is more confident and more used to the normal, but sometimes loud noises of everyday living.

We continued taking Jackie with us whenever we go to MIL's for dinner twice a week, and let her out at the void deck, for about a couple of hours each time. We wanted to ensure that Jackie will still be accepted as one of the community cats there if we have to release her eventually. After an early dinner, FIL usually hang out at the void deck to chat with his kakis. He observed that Jackie seemed to have fun playing with a couple of community cats and running about outdoors.

Whenever it's time to take her home, we would leave the pet carrier near to her, called out her name, and she would go into the carrier on her own. I didn't have to force her to go into the pet carrier, nor did she ever run away, although sometimes, she did meow in protest while on the way home in the taxi.

Last Saturday evening, as usual, we took Jackie to MIL's and let her out at the void deck. When it was time to go home, imagine our surprise when for the very first time, she refused to go into the pet carrier. Not only that, she'd even ran away from me whenever I approached. We wouldn't be surprised it if was the SO whom Jackie was running away from, but it was me - the person closest to her and whom she follows around at home!

It was rather bewildering to us. We tried walking away from her and then re-approached her, but each time, she ran away from me, and at one point, tried to escape by running up the stairs. We came to the conclusion that Jackie wanted to stay outdoors, and that it was time to let her go.

Right now, Jackie is living as one of the community cats. Both parents-in-law do see Jackie everyday, and she gets her daily breakfast and dinner from MIL, just like before. With the choice of either living as a lone cat in a safe bedroom for most hours of the weekdays vs living a free life outdoors with other cats and the usual risk from the elements and (sadly) humans, I guessed Jackie chose freedom.