Some personal thoughts

Sophie’s stay with us must have been traumatic for her and Coco, as it is dramatic for me and the SO. Though there wasn’t much chemistry between Sophie and him, the SO just kept mum and quietly supported me by doing the housework and later, helped to clean up the cage and cat room. :)

I’ve been told by my cat friends that it’s usually the cats that select the owner, and that was how Coco selected me. Perhaps the lesson for me out of this fostering episode is that: 有些事是可遇不可求。

So, Coco may just have to remain as the one and only cat at home (maybe I should not say this). This episode has also made me appreciate Coco even more, although she still disturbs my sleep every night with her snuggling in bed and is still very fussy about food and has difficult eating patterns! We are thankful that we can both go to work and leave her at home with peace of mind, although I do worry that she may be somewhat lonely.

What I’m really sorry about is that Sophie has to return to the cattery, where I don’t know what fate lies for her, and whether she will have another chance at living the home life. Some cats can adapt faster, while others just need more time. I hope that one day, she will meet the adopter, who she will chose as the one for her. She will resume her life as YoGa, the name her sponsor originally gave her.

Meanwhile at home, Coco has suddenly resume her loud, manja meowing and behaviour, so it looks like she’s woken up from her "dream" (refer to XY_Meowie and EJ's interpretation :p ).

End of Blog:
With this post, I have decided to close down this almost 3-year old blog, since I no longer have a foster cat. Things are going to get more intense on the work front, so if the mood and inspiration strike, I may just start another new blog. Meanwhile, I may still continue to post on my food and the luggage-tale blogs if anyone is actually reading those. :P

Thank you so much for visiting this blog, and I'm glad to have made your acquaintances, and even realised some readers are my neighbour and colleague. Haha!

Wishing you all a healthy and better 2009 ahead~!

D-Day is coming

I think I should try to spend less time in front of the very entertaining / relaxing computer and more time to do my chores and start packing. The PC is THE multimedia toy for us, and we can amuse ourselves sitting in front of it, thereby neglecting the housework.

We'll be going away for a vacation in 2 weeks' time for about 2.5 weeks, and this will be the longest time that Coco will have to spend alone at home with no human contact, other than with the cat-sitter. This thought has been bothering me for the longest time, coz I wonder how the ingrate-make-me-lose-sleep brat will handle our long absence.

I also wonder how many minutes or hours the cat-sitter would be willing to spend with Coco. Will she try to visit Coco twice a day and spend at least an hour or more (in total) with Coco each day, like I usually do when I cat-sit Spud? She's a busy mother of three, so I feel I should not impose on her by insisting that she does.

I've been having this sort of conversation with the SO since some time ago, for more than once:

Me: How ah? Do you think she will be ok?
SO: Hmm.... (after some thought) I think so. Cats are solitary animals.

Me: Do you she will miss us?
SO: I think you will miss her more.

*Laughs*

Me: She still behaves like a kitten. When do you think she will grow up?
SO: She will grow up in our absence.

>_<"

After that, I have been asking the SO on numerous occasions: How ah? Do you think she'll be lonely? Etc, etc.

Sigh... Such is the suffering arising from attachment.

Coco, 14 Jan 2007

- the day she was rescued together with Snowy and caged for toilet training

I guess we must get ready some slept-on bedsheets, blankets and t-shirts with our scents and place them all over her sleeping areas... in case she misses us, even for one bit.

And now I'll have to take my hp along and activate international roaming, just so that we can communicate with the cat-sitter during the trip.

Blanket season

It's been raining on and off everyday, and the nights can get cold when you're staying on a high floor, so it's blanket season.

For the humans



And for cat... *Grrr!!*





I just don't know what to do with her



Except, surrender...



Sigh! :-(

Procreation : Humans & Animals

I agree with gist of the letter. Like animals, some humans need to be neutered too.

ST Forum, 25 July 2008

IMPROVING BIRTH RATES
Procreation has everything to do with affordability

I REFER to last Saturday's letter by five mothers, each with many children, 'Extend benefits to fifth and subsequent children'.

While the Government should do more to arrest the falling birth rate, I absolutely disagree on extending benefits to bigger families. Contrary to what the five mothers said, procreation has everything to do with affordability. If you ask the Government to contribute, sad to say, you are already in way over your head.

We live in Singapore, a small island with no natural resources, so we can survive only by being pragmatic. How many times have we seen couples struggle to raise a big family reported in the newspapers?

There was a security guard who fed his family of four children with just a packet of rice for lunch - that's one packet of rice shared by six. Then there was a family of criminals whose offences ranged from theft to drug trafficking. The list goes on and on.

When your family grows too big, there are many constraints. First, the attention parents can give to each child becomes limited. Second, each child's development is hindered by its parents' limited financial resources.

I am not saying having many children is bad. It's bad only when you know it's not economically viable. No matter how much you love children, it should not be an excuse to have as many as you like.

This is the difference between humans and animals. We exercise constraint and use our judgment. That's why we can have family planning but animals cannot.

I agree with the Government: Those who can should have more, but those who cannot should exercise restraint. What is the point of having more children, when you cannot raise them properly? Eventually, the innocent children are the ones who suffer.

Chua Boon Hou

Pets are like our kids

I have been thinking about them throughout the day.

Our thoughts are with Xin Xin, daddy's gal at the KXBCY household, who is now at the vet hospital, battling kidney failure.

Our thoughts are also with Pebbles, a community cat cared for by Veganmeowies. Pebbles has cancer. It's the first time I see Pebbles' photo, and I just love that picture of her and her calm demeanor.

I went home and told my furkid (ya, the bratty one who disturbs my sleep every night) : please stay healthy, ok?

That's all I ask of her, at least for now.

Heatwave issues :P

With the current heatwave, I keep feeling like our home has turned into a huge oven, slowly baking us to done-ness. Even Coco is feeling the heat and won't sleep long in her cat bed. Instead, she's resorted to sleeping very near to my feet / legs at night and will not hesitate to flip / touch / poke her claws into my legs! She's not giving me very peaceful sleep nowadays, and then there's all the cat hair left all over our bed.

Unfortunately, our old system-3 air-conditioner which started leaking sometime last year is now confirmed to be officially dead (RIP, aircon). We'd thought it was installed by the ex-home-owner which would make the aircon like, up to 8 years old. However, the service man came to check it and told us that aircon model is at least 15 years old! Wow!

We've started shopping for a new system-2, which installation will become a major operation! *BIG HEADACHE* To maintain some aesthetics in the master bedroom, the installation of the aircon piping might just involve hacking away a very old set of built-in cabinets in the cat room. What this means is that after installing the new aircon (maybe a month later, coz everybody seems to be installing new aircon nowadays), it would then become necessary to install a brand new set of built-in cabinets in the cat room!! *BIGGER HEADACHE!*

It always doesn't stop at just one thing, does it?

Perhaps we should also change the bathroom's cabinet under the sink in the master bedroom (which requires getting a new sink as well). Should we then also change the cabinets in the master bedroom to have matching bedroom cabinets? And while we're at it, why not get my coveted brand new, ergonomically-designed kitchen as well?? Muahahaha!! It can get pretty crazy! >_<"

Anyhow, if you know of a carpenter who does nice, contemporary cabinets with good workmanship, please email me (for those who have my email) or drop me recommendation in the comments. Appreciate it! :-)

Ps: actually, my headache is more about having to do the packing and cleaning up the whole mess involved. Haiz...

HRH - The queen (part 2)

Speaking of queen + Cleopatra + fans, here's Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, complete with fans and servants! :)

It seemed like Cleopatra must have had a cat, that there's even a song album titled Cleopatra's Cat by the Spin Doctors.

That Cleopatra might have owned a cat should not come as a surprise, considering cats were revered and treated as pampered companions in ancient Egytian times, and were often portrayed as Gods in ancient Egyptian paintings.

Read more about Cats in Ancient Egypt


The cat sculpture in the picture is so lovely, if only I had made one during the pottery classes. Ahh, it's too late now.

Anyhow, I was glad to read about my pottery teacher in the Chinese papers recently, though it's a real pity that he will soon have to vacate his home at Seletar to make way for those noisy airplanes.

Maybe we ought to have another party at his house soon, to bid farewell to yet another lovely part of old Singapore that has to be "culled" in the name of economic development.

Haiz...

The untold story

In the previous post re Coco takes a walk, I had only told half the story. The yet-to-be-told part was that at one point, Coco panicked when someone from the neighbouring unit came back home. Before I could scoop her up, Coco jumped onto the narrow window sill and tried to escape through any lobang, but of course there wasn't any crevice for her to escape to, since our windows were either closed or meshed up to prevent a cat from escaping out.

Coco then jumped down onto the floor. I scooped her up, carried her close to my chest and walked back towards our door. Midway, she scampered about and tried to clawed her way out of my arms. Although I'd clipped her toe nails a few days' ago, she still managed to claw me right through my t-shirt! I didn't think much of the scratches, that is, until I went to take my shower...

The next morning, they looked like this.



The SO thought the scratches there (not the first time) made me look ... erm..."garang" (fierce) and that soon, other gals will pick up the trend of having a couple of scratches on their chest as a fashion thing. 真咵张! I didn't want my colleagues to see them nor think that cats always scratch people, so he said to tell them I fought with a werewolf the night before...

*Haiz...*

To catch a cat

Last Friday afternoon, I was teeming with anxiety. >_<"

Decided to catch a community cat with eye infection,
which needed vet attention.
I didn't know if I can get her, coz she's not from our area,
but lives a good 15 minutes' walk away.
I hoped I could find her, that she would get into the cat carrier,
coz my "manpower" had to work late that evening. Argh!

In the end, I found her and got her into the soft carrier.
Problem is, she refused to be confined, could not be confined,
kicked up a big fuss, banged herself inside the carrier,
screamed, moaned and howled for the whole street to hear!
Alamak! Never would we imagine,
that a sweet, docile cat would behave this wild and untame-able!

In the end, I had to let her go.
Nevertheless, I went to the vet,
with a cat carrier that was without a cat.
Showed the vet the poorly captured photo,
took back some antibiotic eyedrops,
which we hope will work for the cat.

The worst thing was,
while walking through the void deck (to the bus stop),
I tripped and fell, because I didn't see a very gentle ramp,
most likely built for the cleaner's "truck".
Fell flat on both my knees, which got me shaken for a while,
while an (older) aunty stood by and looked on, as if watching a tv drama. >_<"

Sigh...what a bummer of a day,
and my scraped knees and bones are aching.
Ow, ow, owwwwww...!!

*Roll Eyes!!*


Here's Shiny, the culprit :P
A skinny, docile female cat with a loud voice...much louder than we'd ever imagined!



She ran far away from me after I reluctantly released her from the carrier



Had to grab her with one hand with the other holding the hp to snap a quick picture.
From the photo, the vet said it's likely to be conjunctivitis.

Shiny, with less than shining eyes last Friday

We've gone back to look for her and (forcefully, against her loud protests) applied the antibiotic eye drops 3x already since Friday night. Her eyes are tearing less now, hope they will heal soon.

The day before Monday *groan*

Truth be told, I'm aching all over today, from the kick-boxing class yesterday. All I feel like right now is to lie in bed all day and not do anything remotely strenuous, yet Coco kept barking at me to "Get up, get up!" the whole morning, like Ah Ma like that. *Roll eyes*

On some nights, if I'm still at the computer past 11pm, Coco will come crying and whining at me non-stop, that is, until I turn off my pc, and go to bed with her. Then she will quiet down.

Yesterday, she did it again! She stepped over my keyboard and turn off the pc while I'm still reading some blogs. *Grumbles*

What kind of kay poh cat have we got for ourselves?!? *Smacks forehead*

>_<

Despite the aching body, it's time to meet a couple of friends for lunch, and hopefully, plan a vacation for ourselves. :P

Not a great new year so far

Lately, several cats that we know from the regular blogs seem to be ill or having urinary tract-related problems - Spencer from cat aunty's blog, Toro, one of San's amigoes, and Skoda, one of Mighty Mouse's 3 cats. Braun, another one of hers injured her paw over the new year, which added further stress and medical expense to her parents' pocket.

Let's all wish the kitties a speedy recovery under the tender, loving care of their mommies, daddies and caregivers. Hope the kitties will be guai enough to take their medication, drink more water and keep to their prescribed diet until they get well.

I would also like to remember Jiji from the KSN household, who recently passed on from an accident. I'm really sorry for their loss, and Jiji will be dearly missed by the two- and four-leggeds in the family.

On the home front, to encourage Coco to drink more, I've placed another water bowl in the cat room, in addition to the one at the kitchen (which is next to her dry food bowl). I'm glad Coco does drink from it, and sometimes in the middle of the night, I can hear slurping noises as she takes a drink.

On a personal note, I am dreading the coming month or two, when the shops will be flushed with red, and our ears will be bombarded with incessant CNY songs. Busy days are right ahead!

A male tortoise-shell cat?

Read this on CWS' Adoption page and almost could not believe my eyes:


A rare male tortoise shell kitten for adoption. It is about 3 weeks old and need a forever home. For adoption, email xxxx

My guess is that whoever adopts this kitty will find that a few months down the road, his "male" tortoiseshell has become a "female". :-)

In other news, with the stepping down of the CWS adoption volunteer and a few others, they have cut out the "middleman", so posters of cats on the adoption page will now have to leave a contact (email, phone no. or link) for potential adopters to contact the fosters directly.

This means I have to re-post Aunty G's cats Alex and Ginger with a contact link. I have not decided to re-post Coco yet, partly because this is the low season for adoption (until CNY) and I don't think her chances are good, what with all the cute kittens galore on that page! Even if someone shows interest, Coco is so used to us that I'm not sure I should tear her away from us. :-(

My philosophy is:
When in doubt, don't.

So I guess it's 顺其自然吧 (leave things to nature) ! ;-)

My furry bed mate

I just wanted to take a nap on a Sat afternoon, but even then she must join me...!?!



It's not too bad if she'd just lie there in a stationary mode, but sometimes, she'll start her grooming session while leaning against me



But I'm a light sleeper, you know, Coco...and can you please don't poke your claws into me??



Then, she will change her position, and stretch out whenever she wants



And poke her hind paws into some other part of me...!?!

*Grrr...*



She remains oblivious to all her antics, and continue sleeping anyhow she likes, and anywhere...except her own catbed



And that is why Ksn should not envy me for having a cat that sleeps with me lor.


Coco the bed "choper"

The ingrate

Although I like cats, I've never like sticky cats, i.e. those cats that are so needy and wants human attention all the time. I remember one particularly sticky cat that I'd met years' ago at Metta Cattery...I think his name was Ruyi, a male grey tabby kitten. He would stick to my foot and would not leave it further than 25cm away. He was like chewy gum that got stuck on the undersole of the shoe. Thankfully, Ruyi got adopted soon after.


On the home front, it turns out that Coco is quite a sticky cat, although not all the time, but more like 65% of the time when we're at home, and she constantly wants my attention. She was not quite like this previously, so we wonder... Maybe I've been pandering to her too much, that she thinks she can climb over our heads, or more likely, uncle S' head. She's showed hints of aggressive behaviour, like slapping my face when I gave her a lecture for bad behaviour while lying on the bed (luckily I was wearing my glasses then), and growling at / scolding uncle S a couple of times when all he did was talked to her.

We have in mind, at least two lovely community cats out there that need homes which we would consider taking care of when they get sick or old. They are cats that have experienced the tough life, and would love to live in a home. Yet, here we have at home, an ingrate who's living in the lap of luxury (so to speak), and still behaves badly. Tsk...tsk...

The world is really unfair, and perhaps some ingrates really need to be taught a lesson.

A home cat's life!

If only we could live like a home cat and sleep as much as we want, whenever we want, without a care in the world...

And definitely without having to worry about the next paycheck...

What a blissful life it would be... :)

Why? Again

Sometimes, I wonder what we are doing. What the heck were we thinking when we first decide to feed the first stray cat??? And how did it become more and more cats, with the food turning into more and more expensive cat food?

I remember the first cat I'd fed. I was living at another HDB housing estate, and there had always been stray cats at the void deck. At first, there was an uncle who fed them every night and he would sterilise selectively, but he had to move away. Then I met the Malay auntie who only feeds (rice + fish + Friskies) but would never sterilise. Luckily, someone did bother to sterilise. There was even a sponsor who lived elsewhere, but offered to pay the cost of sterilising the cats without even appearing. She had helpers/volunteers who helped to trap the cats for sterilisation.

Anyway, about the first cat I fed - it was a dark grey tabby kitten of about 7 months, very skinny, scrawny and always looking hungry. I didn't pay much attention to him the first time, but the 2nd time I saw him, I just could not walk away. I probably wasn't working then and was nuah-ing at home, hence I could see that the kitty hung out all afternoon without sleeping...probably too hungry to sleep. He looked really famished, so I went to the kopitiam, bought a piece of fried fish which the kitty gobbled up in a flash.

After that, like most ignorant folks who didn't know any better, I started buying the supermarket variety of cat food to feed the cats that I bump into. Perhaps it was SO's influence (then my boyfriend), that I starting coming into contact with more stray cats. Later, I started taking cute kitten upstairs to feed, clean up and play. There was Lucy, another grey tabby kitten (most likely abandoned), and there was Xiao Hei (abandoned by his own cat mother, I was told!), whom on the very first visit to my home, was smart enough to LS on a piece of floor rag instead of dirtying other inappropriate places (I didn't have a litter bin then).

Fast forward to many years later, somehow, we've become folks who would touch and sayang every stray community cat that crossed our path, in all and every housing estate. It didn't matter that we were strangers. As long as the cats are friendly and game for a pat, we gave them a pat or two, after which we would leave a few kibbles for them to munch (so that they won't follow us). Somehow along the way, the supermarket variety of cat food became objectionable, and supposedly better quality and much more expensive cat food took its place. Meanwhile, we have to face the nasty looks from non-cat people and their sometimes rude, offensive questions and comments. Most of the time, we had put up with such nonsense and just grin and bear it. Then came the cat-fostering and rehoming thingy, the mess and chaos at home, the forever-there cat hair, the cajoling, disciplining and mothering of foster cats.

Sometimes, I wonder what are we doing? What have we gotten ourselves into? Are we just a bunch of cat-crazy, illogical, cultish folks who don't know any better then wasting our time and money on "useless" animals? Why do we let our liking and even love for cats overtake our lives (sometimes) and inconvenience us like this, when we already lead busy, stressful lives just eeking out a living in this cold, urban, concrete jungle?

What is our connection to them, and what does it all mean?

Cat magnet's calling

The past 2 nights had been cold, as we'd been getting unexpected rainy weather since the weekend. Come bedtime, I had to use the blanket, which always attract the 2 cats without fail.

Snowy likes to join me in bed at some point in the middle of the night, while Coco will join me in bed only if uncle S is not also on the (master) bed. Whenever I sleep in the spare room's single bed, I will end up with 2 cats in the same bed - Snowy on the edge of the bed right next to my feet, and Coco beside me in her cat bed.

Last night, I slept in the single bed again (coz uncle S was snoring), and as soon as I had my blanket on, Coco immediately headed straight for my blanket and plonked herself in between my bent legs which kind of formed a comfortable "bucket" for her to sleep on. Sometime in the mid of night, Snowy came to snuggle with us too, so we ended up with 2 very warm, closely-snuggled cats in the "bucket" of my legs. :P

As a result, I could not toss and turn freely all night. Maybe that's why I'm feeling so tired today.

Wash day caper

It was sofa upholstery wash day today, and we didn't want the cats to get onto the sofa frame and getting it all hairy, but as one can see, wash day or not, the cats have other ideas.

Coco couldn't care less about the plastic cat repellent.



Snowy wouldn't go to sleep unless she gets to lie down on her favourite corner of the sofa, and it has to the be 3-seater sofa, the other 2-seater won't do!



After I laid the cushion pad and allowed her to rest on it, she finally started to doze off.



And Coco decides to sleep on the sofa frame as well.



The miserable thing was that after washing and drying, one of the sofa covers turn "dirty-looking". I wonder could it be the detergent used? Maybe it's time to stop buying the detergent powder imported from a close neighbouring country. I shall have to wash the cover again next weekend. :-\

GST increase!

Today is the first day of the GST increase (from 5% to 7%) and of all days, I had to choose this day to spend over $400 at a department store at one shot. >_<" Good make-up brushes are exobitantly expensive...let's hope they can really last me for ten years. I feel a bit guilty because it's not as though I wear lots of make up as I'm not quite willing to wake up earlier everyday just to put on war paint. As it is, I'm already waking up half-an-hour earlier to feed the cats and clean the litter box.

Speaking of cat litter, my neighbour S (Spud's owner) went to JB yesterday and bought an additional bag of Ketty Love cat litter to give to us (plus her home-baked chocolate cake). From cat-sitting Spud, I found this KL cat litter to be very fine and forms a very firm clump when wet, so the clump is easy to remove and that helps to keep the litter box clean. It does have a faint "detergent" smell though. S said this brand used to be called Happy Cat, which incidently is available at Aquapet Thomson. I didn't order HP coz I ordered the FussieCat litter which comes in a more economical 10 litre pack.

Last night, while feeding Timmy, I finally met Ms A again, after a long stretch of silence. She'd thought I had moved away! :p I haven't met her, simply because whenever I have foster cats at home (especially 2 cats), I tend to pay less attention to the (poor) community cats, hence less chance of bumping into her. I really need to rehome at least one foster cat so that I can reserve more energy for the community cats.

Stressed

(Cat design from www.teezz.co.uk)

I haven't been blogging, as the past week had been crazy for me. Even then, I guess I won't have much to blog about, since the cat sisters have settled into a very predictable routine, although every now and then, something out of the ordinary will happen, like Coco chattering in the middle of the night at the odd cockroach or lizard, or Snowy trying to increase her fibre intake by chewing the rug.

Coco still get very crazy whenever she sees cat grass, and will wail non-stop until I give her some. She can't possibly expect me to plant fresh crops of grass all the time, can she? Everything, if done too much or too often, becomes tiring.

Yesterday, the cats had their shower. It's been a long time since they last had one. Snowy was given a shower when she stayed briefly with the ex-trial adopters, but then she came back not smelling the same, nor feeling the same. I think those folks did not use a conditioner, hence Snowy's coat didn't feel as smooth. I used a flea & tick shampoo with a built-in conditioner. It smells great too!

The good thing is Snowy's weight has dropped to 3.9kg, from her all time high of 4.2kg. I intend to maintain her diet for a while, and hope that she gains a more slender and graceful shape. Despite the lower food consumption, she sometimes still have this habit of pooing twice a day, even if it was just a small dollop of poo at a time. *Roll eyes!*

In other news, can you imagine if you were me, and one day you received an email from your colleague who tells you that: I read auntie p's blog...auntie p is my colleague! Hahaha!

What a discovery! It was a shock to discover that my colleague actually reads my cat blog, not to mentioned she's found out about my other secret life (of blogging about foster cats)!
:pp

Anyway, this colleague of mine has 3 lovely adopted/rescued cats of her own, 2 of which were featured in yesterday's Sunday Times.
:)