He was here

And he's still here, with us...


And always will be with us... on our minds, and in our hearts.


More neighbours have been asking about Jon Jon and of course, about Sugar, as they were once the inseparable pair and THE ICONs of our blocks.


Sad to say, the bad news hasn't yet ended. Someone who saw it informed Ms A (caregiver) that Charlie (aka Thin Tail) has passed on, perhaps one day before Jon Jon did.

Charlie was quite territorial - I'd seen the way he attacked and chased the younger cats away. Yet he's a manja lap cat when it comes to human beans. Charlie once shared the same territory as Sugar and Jackie-O (who now lives at the pet shop). As the Chinese saying goes: 一山不能藏二虎, i.e. a mountain can't have two tigers, so how can there even be three, and worst, all are territorial and male cats? Cat fights and injuries were common in those days.

Our condolences also go to the KSN household, whose dear Lincoln passed away.
Rest in peace, Lincoln. You will be dearly missed by mommy.

Jon Jon is missing

On her way back from the market, Ms A saw Jon Jon and planned to take him to the vet in the late-morning. Later, despite circling the area a couple of times, JJ was nowhere to be found.

JJ was diagnosed with kidney failure more than a year ago (since Dec 2006). He's had repeated episodes of "fasting" or anorexia, whereby he would refused food of any kind for many days on end. If not for the persistence and dedication of caregiver Ms A, JJ would have died last year, or even earlier. It has taken Ms A much time, energy, costs and many tears (I'm sure) that JJ is still living.

We will try to find him this evening. The main thing now is to get him to the vet and see how things go from there.


(Jon Jon, 5 July 2008)

Update at 10pm:
JJ was found early this evening and taken to the vet. As expected, the prognosis was bad. His kidneys had failed and his eyes were glazed. He was put to sleep to relieve him of his suffering. JJ passed on peacefully, after Ms A spent some quiet time alone with him. He will be cremated in a new cat bed that Ms A bought for him.

Rest in peace, Jon Jon. You have been loved. May you be reborn into your next life as a kind human being, who will show the same loving kindness and compassion that Ms A had shown you all these years.


(Jon Jon, RIP 10 September 2008)

Jon Jon

Ms A the caregiver called. She said she will take Jon Jon to the vet tomorrow morning, and asked in her tearful voice, if we wanted to see him.

I have seen Jon Jon last night - he was just sitting there, huddled and barely moved, except to take a drink. He seemed in a daze and took a long time to lick the water, then stopped as if he had fallen asleep midway.

The SO and I went down to see Jon Jon, who was huddled in the same manner. As we stroked him and talked to him quietly, he laid down in a relaxed manner and just let us. JJ's body felt lukewarm, his tummy is very sunken and he smelled bad. It's that familiar smell that I have experienced with another community cat in the past... the smell that stayed on my hands and which took 3 washes to get rid of.

Ms A said she'd called us since we're fond of Jon Jon. She asked us to pray for him, then left us alone...I guess partly because she couldn't really talk and partly coz she didn't want us to see her cry. I wanted to share with her about something, but by then, I too, could not speak. Later, we left Jon Jon in a safe corner and left. I'd used up my only piece of tissue, and my nose was still dripping like a tap... but I did not cry.

Jon Jon, photo taken on 14 Aug 2008

Despite Ms A's effort to cook/prepare his favourite food, Jon Jon had not eaten for a week.

Community cats update

On my way back from marketing, I was happy to bump into Sugar, whom I hadn't seen for a week. He looks well, with a cheerful expression, which he hasn't had for quite some time. I wonder what Ms A (caregiver) had done to make him look less ill. He followed me to the bench, and I sat with him, stroked him and talked to him. He always seem to enjoy having our company, or keeping us company, so it's the least I can do for him, since there was nothing I can do to ease his pain on days when he's ill. After 20 mins, I left him to look for other cats to give the opened canned food, which Sugar had declined.

We've been seeing Jon Jon and he too, is losing weight and doesn't eat much of our food. Well, he's always been a fussy cat! I suspect he waits for someone at our block to feed him the kind of food that he likes.

All the other community cats - Blackie, Timmy, Tortie Gal Mimi, Tabby2 & Kiddy are well and are still chubby.


Community cats from the other area:

Last Thursday, Shiny's eyes suddenly turned for the worst. The 3rd eyelids were showing in both eyes, leaving a small "black hole" on his right eye, while the left eye was half covered. I was alarmed and went to get antibiotic eyedrops from the vet for him. We managed to apply it on his eyes on Fri and Sat morning, as we had no success of finding him on both evenings, even though we went to hunt from him at different timings.

Found him this morning and fed him; the swelling on his eyes have receded somewhat, and we can see more of his eyeballs. *Phew!* Shiny's upper right eyelid still has a swelling, while the 3rd eyelid is partially showing in his left eye (about one-third). Hope we can find him in the evenings so intensify the eye-drop treatment, and feed him some yummy FussieCat and better quality dry food (so he won't have to eat the F brand from the feeder's domestic helper).

Saw Humm Humm last Friday night while hunting for Shiny. While at the vet, I also bought a bottle of antibiotic powder, if only HH would agree to be my friend and let me apply it on him. Thankfully, his open wound seems to have dried up and all I could catch sight of was a bit of "crumpled" skin, but no sight of his wound. So HH will be ok. He's a big-head tom, but I think once he's sterilised and got used to the human touch, he will also become a friendly, affectionate cat.

Jambala is well, and so is BT, both of whom we meet every now and then. We suspect BT's presence is creating a sort of in-equilibrium among the community cats in this area. HH and Jambala will both stay away from BT; Shiny stays away from HH, but could not care less about BT. And BT just kind of bulldozes his way into us, demanding to be fed! Very 霸道, behaving like a ruffian. :P

Will update with their photos later.

Community cats update

During the week, I finally saw two rather elusive cats, which I haven't seen for more than a week.

Sugar - He doesn't hang out as much at his regular place. Ms A the caregiver thinks he's hiding from her, to avoid taking medication!


He seemed hungry and came to me, wanting food. I gave him the only dry food I have, and he ate a bit. I tried to clean the debris on his chin, next to his mouth. He'd refused and ran a few feet away. When I persisted, he suddenly cried and jumped/ran off. I think his gums are still hurting.


It took some effort, but I finally coaxed him to stop running away from me, so that I can placate him and say sorry, and sayang-ed the poor boy a bit.

Saw him on another day when I came home after work. I thought wet food would be easier on his gums and have resorted to carrying a can in my work bag, but he refused to eat.



He just laid on the cool grass while I patted him, resting. He seemed like very fatigued and looked kind of down. When the SO came back after his swim, I asked him to go look for Sugar to sayang him, which kind of cheered Sugar up a bit, as he had begun purring.


After dinner, I went to look for him. After playing hide & seek with me for a while, he finally came near me and let me be near him. He didn't want any food, so we both sat there in the cool evening breeze for a while. He did act manja and rolled on the floor for some sayang, so I hope he'd felt better. I saw him again tonight, and again he refused the wet food, and ate a few kibbles. Also saw Jon-Jon tonight... he has slimmed down a little, although he ate normally this evening (not so picky, at least!).


Mimi - I have no idea where Mimi hangs out during the day, but finally saw her a few nights' ago and again, tonight.



She's grown longer, but her face is still kitten-ish. The fur has grown back on the shaved patch on her lower tummy. She's healed well from her spaying.



Tabby2 - went to feed him some wet food this evening, and saw a patch of dried leaf stuck onto his rump.


It was chewed up gum. I tried to remove it as much as I could, but it was impossible to remove it all without cutting off the fur. So I stuck a small piece of tissue onto whatever gum that remained stuck on him... will see if I can remove more of it tomorrow.

Throughout the process, the affectionate boy didn't protest at all, but kept purring and started kneading...so happy with all the attention from me. :)

Community cats update

It was good to to meet these cats on my way home last Wednesday. I gave them a little snack of dry cat food.

Jambala, who had just woken up from her nap, under a parked car.



Tuxedo cat Timmy, looking nice and plumb and as sweet as ever



Sugar & Jon-Jon



Sugar had a bout of painful gum problem for the past weeks, and caregiver Ms A had taken him to the vet. At one point, Ms A needed our help to feed him his medication. On one night, while refusing to take his medicine, Sugar went berserk and even threw his frustration at Jon-Jon, which was shocking to us. I think he was in much pain that night to react that way.

Although he's now his usual sweet self, he's rather wary of Ms A or us, coz he thinks we may feed him with medication! We still find him very adorable. :)




I also met these cats the week before.

Kiddy who is very affectionate and gets along with most new cat that appears (now it's Mimi who loves to stick to him)



Mimi - apparently she had fever the other time (Ms A confirmed at the vet) but has now recovered.
Soon, she will be sent for spaying.




Shiny, whose eyes have recovered gradually.

We'd only managed to treat her eyes with eye drops for 5 or 6 times, coz we failed to to find her on some nights at her usual hangouts.


(Shiny, 3 March 2008)

After a few days of treatment, her eyes were no longer red or tear as much, but the 3rd eyelid on her right eye was still quite prominent. However, it went down on its own subsequently, and Shiny's bright eyes will soon be back again.

Community cat update

I took a few photos of Sugar (aka Xiao Bai) and Jon Jon last night, after I had an "adventure" with Shiny, another community cat (but that's another story).



(Sugar, Feb 2008)


He didn't eat much of the dry food, and the can of FussieCat wasn't appealing to him.
He's not a big fan of wet food, anyway.


Jon Jon eating up the wet food



They both will refuse to let me go home and will chase after me to my block, unless I sit them with them for a while.



I don't know what else to offer him, except some sayang.
I hope he is not in any pain.



















(Sugar, Dec 2006, at home)

A tale of two brothers

I might have mentioned previously about how Jon Jon & Sugar came to be community cats. They were already in the estate when I moved here 4.5 years ago. According to Ms A, their chief caregiver, both were home pets that were left behind / abandoned when their owners moved away.


Jon Jon (7 Jan '08)

Sugar is the undisputed king, always taking the lead in most of the activities that community cats do, such as inspecting his territory, protecting it and chasing away newcomers or even "old-comers" who are thinking of taking over his territory.

Although I'd seen him acting tough and chasing away a male ginger cat that had strayed into the territory, Jon Jon is usually known as the meeker one, always kinder to newcomers, being curious of them and more forgiving of them, especially if the newcomers were kittens/young cats. His behaviour and somewhat feminine looks always confuse us as to whether he is a boy or a gal.


Sugar (7 Jan '08)

Sometime last week, Ms A noticed that Sugar wasn't eating for 3 days in a row, and suspected something must be wrong with his teeth or gums, and decided to take him to the vet. The vet's prognosis proved Ms A right, and once again, the tender, observant care of Ms A managed to save the day for our dear Sugar. After a day's stay at the vet, he's come back and is starting to eat a little dry food.



However, what I wanted to remember is a lovely anecdote about these 2 brothers related to me by Ms A. When Ms A took Sugar away in a carrier with the intention to visit the vet, Sugar, being unhappy to be confined, started creating a ruckus while inside the pet carrier.

Hearing Sugar's frantic cries, and much to our surprise and amazement, Jon Jon too, started protesting and gave Ms A a bite on her lower leg! Ms A scolded Jon Jon (obviously), yet Jon2 continued to follow her and tried to "attack" Ms A as she walked away!

Ms A said that Jon Jon was trying to protect his brother Sugar! Ahahahahaa!!



We were really flabbergasted by this tale, to say the least! We'd never ever thought that the supposedly meek Jon Jon would exhibit such aggressive behaviour, much less be so heroic as to disregard and disobey his chief feeder and caregiver to give her a bite! Kekeke!

There's a small wound on Ms A's leg but she's none the worse for it, and like us, she is very charmed and warmed by Jon Jon's loyalty and protectiveness towards Sugar (who has always been the protector).


Jon Jon still sniffing out Sugar with the weird smell of the animal hospital

I'm really charmed by Jon Jon's behaviour and I feel proud to have these 2 lovely icons living amongst us. The feel of this place definitely would not be the same if they weren't around.

Though they may or may not be biological brothers, Jon Jon and Sugar's brotherly love towards each other has once again proven that animals aren't the useless, unfeeling beasts that some humans regard them as, but just like people or perhaps better than some people, they are more loving, feeling and loyal than some humans could ever be.

:-)

Community cats update

Jon Jon (Sep 07)




Sugar (Sep 07)



Sugar, this morning (Oct 07)



It rained this morning, and we found Sugar snuggled in the bike basket, looking so cute that we could not resist taking a photo using the SO's handphone.



As soon as he saw us, Sugar wanted to come out of the basket.

Being coaxed to stay in the basket for a shot.


Blackie (Oct 07)



Blackie seems to have made-up with Tabby2 and Tortie gal...or they're just tolerating each other's presence. These 3 cats would greet us in the morning on our way to work.


As usual, black cats are so very sweet.

Kiddy (Oct 07)



Affectionate boy Kiddy, also known as Baby, his big wound on the left shoulder fully healed nicely. That big-holed wound (probably from a fight) incurred some $400 in medical fees!

Timid Timmy, also known as Coco (Oct 07)



She was so timid when we first found her (abandoned). Now she's affectionate and even allow me to carry her.


She's a really good-looking, petite tuxedo cat.

May all of them remain healthy and safe.

Nonsensical people who are too free

Some people are just so full of nonsense. They probably have nothing better to do with their empty lives, and so choose to make the stray cats' lives miserable. I found another instance of such nonsense this morning - someone apparently emptied the bowl of drinking water (for Jon Jon and Sugar) into their sleep boxes!

With the recent rainy weather, Ms A had prepared 2 small boxes laid with newspapers so that these two cats can at least have a dry spot to sleep in. The boxes were usually placed in an obscure spot at the void deck that's inconspicuous to passerbys. However, with the non-stop rain of past two days, I have had to move the boxes to a drier spot, which unfortunately meant that the cats would be noticed by people passing by.

Many residents here are quite neutral to the cats, and some are even quite fond of them (they pat the cats), so I hope and pray that this small minority of nonsensical persons would move out of the estate and stop making the community cats' lives miserable!

*Grrr*

Jon Jon should be called Diffy (for difficult)

This evening, I met Ms A who helped me to buy a pack of Hills Prescriptive Diet K/D dry food when she visited the vet today. The K/D was of course, meant for Jon Jon, the community cat with kidney problems.

By the way, Ms A confirmed that Jon Jon (JJ) is a boy, so I'm glad that that gender issue was finally cleared up! I've been confused about JJ's gender because some folks called him JJ, while Ms A calls him An An, which is a gal's name. Furthermore, JJ does not have the alpha male look at all, but have facial features similar to those of a gentle female cat, plus, his ding-dongs seemed to have shrunk so much that it would be too easy to mistake him for a gal!

(Photos from early Dec '06; JJ looks cleaner nowadays)

I asked Ms A whether JJ has chronic or acute kidney failure, but she didn't understand those English terms, and could only tell me that JJ is in the middle stage of the disease, which was what the vet had told her. It didn't help that my spoken Mandarin, though passable, does not extend to more complex medical terms! My question sounded totally out of the blue to Ms A, so I suspect that the vet had not mentioned this point to Ms A. Ms A mentioned that the vet seemed so busy that she didn't even have a chance to talk to him much (Well, that's one reason why I never like to go to that particular animal hospital, if I can help it).

JJ didn't like K/D wet food, so Ms A had been cooking fresh fish for the fussy eater. Apparently, his royal highness the fussy eater would eat the fish if it was freshly cooked, but not if it had been cooked hours before. Poor Ms A had to coax him to eat the home-cooked fish as well as the antibiotics twice a day. Looking at her, one really has to admire her patience and dedication to care for such a difficult cat - one that cannot be touched too much, cannot be held for flea medication to be applied or for oral medicine to be administered.

What can I say about JJ, except that he is such a diva! Although they are buddies, JJ and Sugar are so very different in terms of "catsonalities" - one is difficult while the other is easy to care for. One is generally boh chap, while the other simply loves cat-friendly humans.

I've informed Ms A about the information which was kindly provided by Moglee and Calsifer such as adding cod liver oil and vitamin B to home-cooked fish, chicken, salmon, etc. which would be suitable for JJ. So, we'll have to see how things go, in view that JJ's diet is easily jeopardised by other cat-friendly passerbys who tend to feed them cats with junk food.

Where do community cats hide during the torrential rains?

I've often wandered where the community cats hide themselves during the day. They're so good at the disappearing act that one hardly noticed them until they all come out at night during mealtimes. With the non-stop monsoon rains that's been coming down for the past 2 days, I wonder where they could all be hiding?

Around my place, I've only seen Sugar and Jon Jon who have been provided with a nice box placed in a sheltered, dry area for them to sleep in. That's about as dry as it gets for them, as the void deck was thoroughly drenched with the pouring rain and windy conditions. Other than that, I haven't seen any cats around during the day. Sometimes I don't even see them at night as they must still be hiding from the rain.

I missed seeing Timmy on Monday evening as it was raining non-stop then. Last night (Tue), I finally caught hold of her during a brief respite and she ate the dry food heartily, but later threw up half of what she'd eaten. Just then, it started to rain again and I saw her scurrying away quickly to some place to hide. Unfortunately, I didn't see where she'd ran to as I was busy clearing up her vomit.

Maybe we ought to attach a mini camera to these cats for a day, just to see where they go to hide and what they're up to when they're out of our sight.

Hills Prescriptive Diet k/d

Ms A took Jon Jon to the vet, who confirmed that JJ has kidney problems. The vet prescribed Hills Prescriptive Diet k/d which may help to prolong JJ's life by a year. :-(

I have no experience with cat's kidney problems....is this how it is? Is there anything else JJ can eat?

Ever since I started giving her Solid Gold, JJ has been running to me with enthusiasm everytime she sees me, but now it looks like I can't give her her current favourite food.

Jon Jon then and now

At about 5.30am this morning, I was awakened by the din coming from the opposite block. At first, I thought it was some school boys having a really wild overnight party. I got up to take a look, and it seemed like someone was getting married at the wee (and probably auspicious) hour - they must be Teochews.

Since we were up, we might as well do something useful, like checking out the community cats!


This is Jon Jon in August 2005:



This is Jon Jon today:




Since she (I think he is a she...?) got her itchy body problem and still refused to let us treat her, she had lost weight and look more scruffy. After the Royal Canine diet didn't quite work, I've resorted to feeding her with Solid Gold, which she seems to like and is eating with some gusto. Let's hope she doesn't lose weight further.

How to treat a difficult cat?

What can one do for a cat that doesn't like to be held, is very sensitive to even tiny drops of medicine being applied to its body, and yet badly needs to be treated for its itchy skin?

Jon Jon keeps scratching herself (sometimes I get confused about her/his gender) every two or three steps she takes. I think the itch troubles her so much that she's not able to eat properly. She's lost quite a bit of weight, and I wonder if I dare to try another round of Frontline on her.

In the past, I had been warned by Ms A of the difficulty of applying the liquid treatment on her as she would jump and run away once she sensed the slightest drop of the medicine. Nevertheless, the SO and I did treat her twice (with the medication given by Ms A), but not after lots of struggling and a few scratches from her. After all that trauma, Jon Jon ran away whenever she saw the both of us!

She's forgotten about those bad memories and sometimes purrs quite contentedly when I stroked her. A few days ago, I tried to "test water" and held her gently with both hands. Immediately, she jumped away and refused to be held. We can definitely forget about bathing her.

I'm still pondering how best to treat her. Any ideas?

Close shave

Horrors! Here's some shocking news which made my jaw dropped!!

My neighbour Ms T happened to be speaking with our TC officer and got to know that a resident living in Ms A's block had complained to the TC to have our lovely community cats - Sugar and Jon Jon removed!

Ahhh.....the heartless person!! Do you know what you have done? :-(

The TC officer came, saw that both ear-tipped cats are well-fed, healthy and clean, and straight-away understood that these cats are well-cared for, and didn't remove both cats (although they did catch a haggard-looking, black stray cat at some other block). He's also instructed the cleaners to step up on the cleaning of that particular area.

Immediately, I called the kind TC officer and explained the situation, and that many residents (who love to sayang Sugar) will surely miss both cats if anything untoward happens to them. If necessary or if the resident continues to demand for the cats to be removed, we'll get help to mediate.

In the meantime, I got to go check on our dear community cats more often.

Sugar: What complaint? Who vomitted fishy things? Please lah, I eat dry food one. Not me, not me!

Jon-Jon: Whatever it is, I didn't do it lah!