Update: Jackie, et al

She has done it! After trying for two years of worming her way into the house, she has finally become the home's PR, and it's now full-time, for good!


At first, she kept coming up the stairs and meow outside the house, until she is let inside to eat, rest and sleep for a few hours a day. Midway, she was fostered at our home, but there was no success in finding a permanent home for her, so she returned to her community, but continued to visit MIL home, very persistently meowing outside, which is a very bad idea coz there are cat-haters around there.


So, her "few hours a day" inside the home turned into "during the daytime". What finally enabled Jackie to gain her full-day PR status was firstly, the passing of Mama, and secondly, PL the brat (Mama's daughter) and CM have both finally come to a truce and have stopped tearing each other's hair off when they meet, so now both cats no longer have to be separated.


So Jackie is now a full-time house cat, but she has to be separated from the other two coz she is the aggressor and still trying win the Queen's throne. *Sigh...*



Here's the brat PL (above) and CM (below).



PL the untouchable brat had never been an outside cat, except for once when she'd dashed outside and got lost for a day or two, totally terrified and being gong gong without any survival skills, was finally found trying to hide (in an impossible way) ... safe, hungry and probably traumatised.



CM, our dear favourite CM... is the smart cat that came from outside and loves to go outside, but was not allowed to do so because she had been the victim of strangulation by some human sicko who strangled her with her plastic flea collar. She was found choking, suffocated and had almost died if it wasn't for MIL's instincts.

That murder episode left a mark of "tightly compressed hair" around CM's neck which took several days before the hair puffed up back to normal, which showed how tightly that human sicko had strangled her.


She's so smart that she's known to open drawers to sleep in, and she'd once recognised the old lady who fed her when she was a kitten when the lady visited MIL at home. :)

MIL's cats

Poh Ling aka Mimi, the naturally-cranky daughter of the late Mama.
She's looking very slim in this photo...due to my photo skills *Ahem!*


Every cat-loving visitor to the house would have kena-ed a scratch or two from her, myself included! She belongs to the "untouchable" category.


CM aka Chong Ming, coz she's very the 聪明 (smart) loh.


From a very street-smart stray, she's come a long way to become loving, trusting and tolerant of whatever nonsense I dish out to her (I'm the one who always clean her ears, nose, eyes, etc. ). We can even kiss her forehead without her blinking now. The SO and I adore her.


Remember Jackie, the cat whom I'd fostered and tried but failed to rehome in 2006?
She's the one cat who always sits with her front paws crossed, like a lady.


Jackie is now a PT home cat (at MIL's home) and PT community cat. See her hanging tummy now.

It's been a long time, but I think she always remember her time spent living with us. She's become very fond of being carried and sayang-ed by MIL and us, but she's still very wary of strangers while living outside.

She's a street-smart gal.



While resting on the bed at MIL's home, I was pleasantly surprised that Jackie would still snuggle up to me, the way she used to do previously.



:)

Sweet Jackie, et all

Remember Jackie, the community cat that went back to live at her old community? I haven't got new photos of her, because I don't usually have my camera with me when I pop over to MIL's for dinner.


Well, Jackie still visits MIL at her doorstep occasionally. As the dreaded pest control vans have been coming by regularly, MIL has been keeping Jackie at home sometimes. Jackie is either kept in the cage, or let out to roam after the house cats were locked up in the bedrooms. So she's kind of become MIL's part-time cat.

On my way to MIL's home for dinner yesterday, it poured cats and dogs. The rain was so heavy that parts of the void deck (i.e. empty space on the ground floor) was wet. I saw Jackie huddled in a corner among some bicycles, trying to keep dry. As usual, she meowed loudly upon seeing me, and I took her upstairs to keep dry until the rain stopped.


At MIL's home, I was told that Jackie had actually spent the earlier part of day indoors, eating lots of stinky goodness and acting manja - wanting to be carried. Jackie seemed very comfortable, and even knew where to do her peeing.

I find her amusing at times, being shy to some people, and yet so manja to others. However, she's always sweet to me, and would tolerate whenever I carry her in my arms, or chew my finger very, very gently.


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Two new cats have appeared around my neighbourhood - two grey tabbies, both male.

One is an unsterilised, skinny and feral-looking cat with a short stumpy tail. He seemed to be friendly towards Kiddy (aka Baby, the existing community cat) and vice versa.

The other cat, what can I say - is definitely a home-bred cat. He's a long-tailed tabby, of normal weight, sterilised and with a sweet 'purrsonality' to boot. From the moment we saw him, the SO could carry him in his arms, and I could carry him over my shoulder. What a loveable kitty.

My newly-acquainted neighbour and fellow catlover (whom I met through this blog) has nicknamed them Feralboy and Tammyboy respectively, because I've told her that Tammyboy looks just like her female pet cat, Tammy. :)

Here come the cat trappers...again

MIL's block has been raided by the pest control/cat catchers for several weeks already. Last week, the men in the van came by again, but MIL said they were nice enough to allow her to chase/take her cats away. So poor MIL had to carry the 6-7kg manja blackie back up to her flat and later carried him down to be released. When I met FIL later, he told me that he had brought Jackie up to the flat too, and that she was smart enough to enter the cage at home all by herself. Was that really smart? Haha! Perhaps Jackie did that out of familiarity, as she had been up to the flat and gone into that cage before.

Last Sat, I saw Jackie at MIL's void deck again. She's still her normal self, hasn't lost weight, but definitely quieter than when she was at my home - normal behaviour for community cats since they don't want to attract too much unwanted attention to themselves, either from humans or from other cats. She came to me, although at one point, she ran away when I wanted to carry her, perhaps thinking that I might take her home. Anyway, I left her to finish her dinner and went up to the flat.

When I came down later, I turned from the staircase to the void deck and was suddenly greeted by a cat scream. It was Jackie calling me very loudly. What a pleasant surprise to be greeted like that! :) I spent some time sitting on the deck chairs, with Jackie sitting or lying next to me a few feet away. Whenever I moved to look at the other cats, she would follow me about, and lay down just a couple of feet next to me. This went on for a while, until she was distracted by something else and we took the chance to sneak off and went home.

Jackie revisited

Yesterday, we went to MIL's for dinner and I saw Jackie at the void deck. She was lying down in between two parked bicycles. I approached and before I called out her name, I think she kind of registered who I am, looked up at me and gave a very soft meow. I called her and she came to me and let me stroked her. Perhaps it helped that there was no pet carrier in sight.

Soon, two other community cats came to join us, namely, a male manja Blackie and a calico - both of whom we suspect to be abandoned (from their friendliness to humans). I gave them some dry food and went up to MIL's home for dinner. One other shy cat looked on from afar while the 3 cats ate the dry food.

After dinner, I came down to check on Jackie again, and MIL was in the midst of feeding them community cats dinner while FIL looked on. Quietly, I looked at Jackie and squatted down a few feet away from her. She came to me and let me carried her. When my hubby came to join us, Jackie ran away, and would not pay heed to his calls. Oh, well... *shrug*

FIL said that Jackie wouldn't let him stroke her and would run away from him. MIL complained that Jackie wouldn't allow herself to be carried and that she (MIL) had to catch Jackie unaware just to be able to carry her. That may be a good thing, so that Jackie can stay safe from the cat-bullies.

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.

Another weekend

It's Saturday again, which means that Jackie can roam around the house and enjoy more playtime with her playmate --> me!


Although she's about 15 months old now, we find Jackie to be a kitten at heart, and loves to play with us the whole day, if she can help it. Alas, the weekend household chores beckon, and we have only limited time and energy to spend playing with her.


Currently, her favourite game is running round and round me to chase a bunch of strings. I would hold the stick (from where the strings hang), and Jackie will run around me to chase the strings hanging down from the stick. After a few rounds, she will sit down to rest - that's when I can actually hear her panting! She got better at the game and now doesn't run around me that much anymore...lazy bum. :p


Another thing that excites her is the sound of birds chirping. If she hears the birds, she will drop whatever she's doing and go seek out the birds.

Where's the bird that I hear chirping?

If I'm busy doing other stuff, she will quietly go lie down on the sofa, or our bed in the master bedroom. After a while, I realised that she always lie on the same spot on the mattress, on my side of the bed, i.e. the spot where my bum rest when I sleep, and which is slightly indented. :-{


Even when relaxing, she likes to maintain proper decorum, and always crosses her paws in her ladylike manner.


Although not quite a lap cat, Jackie allows me to carry her in my arms like a baby, while she purrs away. More and more, she is becoming my interactive soft toy nowadays. :)

How I spend my weekend

FRIDAY - My weekend usually starts on Friday evening. As usual, after dinner, I will go to auntie p (AP for short) and meow at her to play. Sometimes, she would just lie on the sofa without budging, so I have to keep going to her and meow at her until she gets my message. At other times, I will paw her legs while she's walking to get her attention. Unlike most cats, humans can be sometimes slow. *roll eyes*

This is my favourite ball game. Sometimes I play alone, but I prefer to play with AP, as she is very useful when the 2 balls (one blue and one red) get lost under the bed or somewhere around the home. AP will bounce the ball up and down and I love to jump and catch it!


When AP reads the newspapers, it's also my cue to play. Sometimes AP will continue to read her papers despite my meowing. Then I will sit on top of the newspapers that she's reading until she plays with me.

Can you find me?

I love it too when there are new toys in the home that I can play with, like this lovely red umbrella with a hanging strap for me to chew on.


AP said she will take me to Ah Ma's house tomorrow. I wonder what is Ah Ma? AP took out this red box and started playing hide and seek with me inside. After that she put a few cat biscuits inside and I have to go inside to eat them one by one. So few biscuits only??


SATURDAY - this is one of my favourite day because I don't have to stay in the bedroom, and I can roam the house for the whole day without sleeping. Then, AP took out the red box again, and I quickly went inside to play with her. But instead of playing, she said she's taking me to Ah Ma's house. I still don't know what is Ah Ma.

Anyway, I was carried in the red box and went out of the door to places that I'm not familar with. AP mentioned that I was very well-behaved in the taxi because I did not meow non-stop like the previous time when she first took me home.

Then we went into this house which look slightly familiar to me, like a place I have visited before....maybe in my dreams? Then AP opened the red box and put me into this cage which has strange smell of other cats.


When I was in the cage, Ah Ma and Ah Gong came to look at me and they say I looked pretty. That made me happy!

There was also a calico cat in the room with me but she wasn't caged at all (so unfair!). She gave me a hiss to tell me who's the boss in the house. I don't know why she must be so bossy. I just ignored her and decided to sit down. Hey, where did AP go? I want my auntie...! *meow*

I could smell 2 other cats in the house, but I did not see them, which is a good thing, as I wouldn't want them to get jealous when they see me. After a while, the calico decided to act cute to catch the human's attention. I think she is jealous of me, because Ah Ma and Ah Gong said I am pretty. Thank goodness she's stopped bothering me!

Later, Ah Ma went downstairs carrying bundles of cat food and AP carried me in the red box and went down with her. Once downstairs, AP let me out of the box.

Oh, the place looked and smelled so familiar to me, and I happily went around sniffing the bicycles, the floor and the other cats who were eating the food that Ah Ma prepared for them. As I already had my dinner at home, I didn't join them.

Then I saw someone very familiar walking away from me...it was a figure of a woman walking with a slight limp. I recognise this figure as the woman who give the stray cats our breakfasts and dinners, and quickly ran towards her! And that's how I realise who Ah Ma was.

I saw some old cat friends of mine, and I showed them my joy in seeing them by rolling around on the floor. Other times, I ran from one end to the other end of the block to enjoy the fresh air and the smell of grass, such that AP could not find me. Sometimes, I purposely kept quiet when she called me, so that we can play hide and seek...heehee. But AP is quite smart and caught hold of me in the end, and put me back into the red box. What? We're going home so soon? *Wweow....!!*

That was the end of the visit to Ah Ma's and soon we were home and it was time for the humans to go to bed. AP said she will bring me out again next week. I wonder what is next week?




SUNDAY - another one of my favourite day when AP will be at home to keep me company. After breakfast, I wanted to go into the red box again and kept peeping inside and meowing for AP to let me in. Being quite well-trained by now, AP understood what I wanted and took the red box down for me to play. I quickly sat inside the red box and waited for AP to bring me out, but it didn't happen. :(

Are we going out yet?

AP was having a cold and went to take a nap after a late lunch in the afternoon. I went to join her on the bed.

I love to take naps with AP on Sundays and sometimes knead on her tummy. Once I'd even sucked on her blue t-shirt while kneading. Oh, I can't describe the joy of sucking and kneading to the oblivion of everything! I was hoping that AP was wearing that blue t-shirt again.


Later, AP decided not to sleep because she said that I was taking up too much of her space on her side of the bed, and she said I woke her up by my rolling and turning.

Am I taking up too much space?

Oh, really?

AP then took out the small black box again to take pictures of me. I decided to pose for her. Don't I look cute?


~ The end ~

By Jackie

* Notes by Auntie P:
Ah Ma = grandma in Hokkien (aka my MIL)
Ah Gong = grandpa in Hokkien
The above was published on Mon, 10 April 2006

It's Friday...yippee!!

Well, at least it's yippee! for me, as the SO has to go back on the weekends to clear his extra workload nowadays...poor thing. :(

Tomorrow, we plan on bringing Jackie to visit MIL when we go over for dinner. MIL was Jackie's caregiver, until Jackie started visiting MIL at her doorstep, uninvited. It was then that MIL asked us to do something about Jackie. Jackie was first abandoned at MIL's block when she was about 7 months old. MIL had been caring for her since then, and took care of her sterilisation. Nowadays, whenever we go over to her place for dinner, the very first thing MIL will say is: "How's the cat/Jackie?". Yes, we're fine too mum, thank you. She would love to see her baby again.

I wonder how Jackie will react when the home cats come and sniff at her. The 3 home cats are quite used to having ad hoc cat guests in their home, whenever MIL brings new cats home either before or after sterilisation at the vet. We sometimes call the home - CRC - Cat Recuperation Centre. The guest cat would be kept in the cage, covered with a piece of cloth, as most of them would be quite nervous being in a strange place with strange smells.

One of the home cats - CM, a very intelligent calico - would suddenly become extra vocal and extra manja when she smell a new guest cat in the home. She would meow extra loudly and want a lot of sayangs from us, as if to reaffirm her position in the pet cat hierarchy. Normally, she would meow at us only if she's in the mood. :P

Having lived as an indoor cat with us for 4 weeks now, I am curious as to how Jackie will behave when we let her out in her old hangout at the void deck and meet her community cat friends again. Will she be curious to go around sniffing all the cats' scent, or will she stick close to us and follow us about? I wonder. If the weather is good, we'll get to find out tomorrow.

Bad timing

It's raining more grey tabbies at CWS adoption website, CatDonna. *cry* And like you'd said, the adoptions seemed to be moving very slowly lately. :( Must be 'hang cheng pai' - bad economy in Hokkien.

Today, I contacted another potential adopter - a nice young lady whom, together with her mum, were very keen to adopt a cat. We made arrangement for her to view Jackie, but by the evening, she'd sadly sms-ed me to say that her father objected, and only wanted a dog (again). :( I could sense both her excitement this morning and her disappointment and upset later, in the evening.

Lately, I keep getting potential adopters who seemed to be living in very patriarchal families where the father has the last say in everything, even if it means thwarting the joy and happiness of their daughters AND wives! Tsk...tsk...tsk...just my luck!

Luck is also not on my side at work...what with the power-hungry people who would do or say just about anything about anyone, whether true or untrue, with or without any semblance of their conscience, just so they can hang on desperately to their turf. I refuse to play their game, nor kow tow to their expectations against my principles.

Today was simply not a good day for me. Or maybe I just need to get more sleep. I would really, really hate to put Jackie back to MIL's block, given her wonderful temperament. What a dilemma!
:(

Trial adoption failed

To readers, thanks for your good wishes for Jackie's trial adoption. Although it was reported to me that Jackie was friendly to the humans and got along with the 2 dogs at her new home, things did not quite work out for Jackie's trial adoption.

Aside from the usual animosity between existing housecat (a ginger male) and newly-introduced cat (Jackie) which could probably be overcome with time and patience, the chief problem stemmed from the fact that all three trial adopters did not seek consent from the man of the house. On the contrary, they chose to sneak in the new cat while knowing that the man of the house will object to having an additional pet at home. Apparently, the man of the house issued an eviction order once he found Jackie in his home.

Admittedly, it was presumptious of me to think that since all three trial adopters comprise of 2 adult sisters and their mother (all three are working), there would not be any objection issue among the two-leggeds in the household. Well, that's a lesson learnt for me.

While at no point did I blame or chide these people for wanting to return Jackie, I am slightly annoyed at the things they said when they delivered Jackie, such as: "Oh, there's no one at home during the day, so the home will smell of the cats' pee/poo, so we can't take Jackie" which came from the mother's mouth. I think such things are excuses meant to make them feel less bad about what they had done. Shouldn't they have thought of such things (which anyway is already happening even without Jackie) BEFORE they decide to take another cat?

Anyway, I am glad that Jackie is now back with me instead of with them. I must try to be more careful in my screening in future.

Trial adoption

Jackie went 'home' today, at least for a trial adoption. The 'trial adopters' appeared to be pet-loving folks and already has other pets (cat and dog) at home. Well, at least I won't have to worry about Jackie being lonely now.


As Jackie is easy-going and non-dominant, I believe she will get along with the other pets, like the way she gets along with the other stray cats at MIL's block. I'm more concerned about how the other pets will take to her. The early SMS update indicated that their 'big dog and big cat' didn't care a hoot about Jackie's presence. That's not too bad for a start, I think. :P


I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope that things will work out well. So it's goodbye for now, darling Jackie. Hope you'll like your new home and your new folks.

On a lazy Sunday

Sniffing out a man...





Hmmm....getting more interesting...





Better wipe that human scent off my nose



That ladylike cross-paw pose again





This happens only when there's no man in the house

A one-person cat? Nay...

Looking at the lukewarm state of things between Jackie and the SO (significant other, aka uncle S), which in Jackie's viewpoint means "you go your way, I siam (avoid) your way", I'd almost thought that perhaps she is one of those so-called one-person cat. When it comes to me, her transformation is akin to that of Mr Hyde to Dr Jekyll, minus the aggression and violence, of course. She would snuggle and cozy up with me, and be all manja and affectionate. So I'd thought that perhaps she would only be nice to one person and that was it.

Luckily, by insisting that uncle S serve her some meals and gently play with her, Jackie's attitude towards the SO has improved for the better. She's rubbing his ankles and willing to share the same space with him, instead of hiding herself under any available piece of furniture (preferably in the next room). She had even allowed the SO to carry her at times without panicking and trying to escape.

Well, well, well, there is hope, certainly, and all was well, I thought. That is, until the SO started to play rough with Jackie before leaving for work this morning. That silly act scared Jackie so much that she's gone into hiding again, and even refused to come to me then. Sigh...

I don't know what is it with some men, but I find it soooo annoying when adult men momentarily lose their good sense and do something that is so illogical to me that it's downright silly (sure, they think it's fun), just to jeopardise what's been painstakingly built up. I just don't get it. :-?

Free choice feeding or controlled feeding?

Anyone who has read any literature about cat feeding would probably have come across "free choice" feeding - whereby owner leaves the recommended amount of dry food for the cats to eat throughout the day, as most cats like to nibble that way. This approach seems to work for most kittens and cats that were reared indoors. However, I am still wondering if it really works for stray cats that are now brought home for fostering, without them turning into severely overweight fur balls.

Stray cats usually gobble up the food that's been given by their caregiver, since they only get fed about twice a day, and they've got to quickly eat before their food get stolen by another.

When Jackie first came, I notice that she did not gobble up her dry food immediately, but would nibble it every now and finish the whole thing over several hours, or not finish everything in her bowl. Since introducing some Solid Gold dry to her food, Jackie's been gobbling up whatever dry food that I leave in her bowl. This happens even after she's had a couple of scoops of wet food beforehand.

Afraid that she may become obese if I continue the free choice feeding, I've started to give her snacks several times a day during the weekends, so as to pace her eating. The result is that she seemed to be always unsatisfied and always waiting for the next round of dry food.

I wonder if I should go back to free choice feeding, and hope that Jackie will automatically stop eating once she gets satiated by eating all that she wants. This approach did not work with an ex-foster cat Billy, whom not only gobbled up his food, but also that of another foster cat who was rescued together with him.

Any ideas or suggestions? What are your experiences with cats at home?

Photo update - Jackie