Bony the community cat

Bony first came to our area, fearful of us (me, mom and dad) and the other sterilised cats feared him. Now sterilised and with tipped left ear, he loves to follow us around and likes me to stroke him, even when he's not hungry. He doesn't pick up fights with the other cats but he still has a habit of following them which freaks out some of them.

Why do I become a cat caregiver?

The comments made by the 2 Class 95 DJs on 7 May have resulted in many reactions and comments on blogs and ST forum and online forum. After reading them, we can have a good gauge of the different attitudes/perceptions/feelings regarding stray cats, the feeders, the caregivers, etc.

Everyone will have different opinions depending on:

• their experience/interaction with the cats or animals in general
• what they see in their estates - responsible cat caregivers or irresponsible/ghost feeders
• awareness vs ignorance - cat poo vs dog poo, cat feeders vs cat caregivers

Perhaps the good thing about this discussion is that it may educate people about the presence of responsible cat caregivers and Cat Welfare Society.

Cat feeders vs cat caregivers

Why do I bother to sterilise the stray cats in my area and also inform the town council officer to contact me if there are any complaints about the cats? Why do I implement Trap-Neuter-Return-Management (TNRM) programme?

I don't want to be an irresponsible cat feeder who just feeds the stray cats without sterilising and without clearing over the leftover food. For some feeders, they believe that it's good karma to feed food or by giving bones/scraps of leftover from dinner, they aren't wasting food or they think if people complain about increasing population of cats or litter from cat food and the cats get culled, it's fate and there is nothing they can do. Then why bother to feed the cats in the first place? It's not helping them at all as the irresponsible behaviour often is the cause of the complaints.

My motivation

A few years ago, I read from Dawn's blog that TNRM works and there are caregivers in other areas who work with TC and residents to solve complaints about cats humanely. I tried to help an FIV cat and started noticing stray cats in my areas. They are friendly and affectionate and even for the less approachable ones, I have won their trust by feeding them and started to sterilise those without left tipped ears.

From someone who has been keeping hamsters as pets for years, I have grown to love cats outside my home. They are definitely not like hamsters but after interacting with them, giving them names, I want to make sure that they can live in a safe environment for the rest of their lives. I want to ensure their well-being.

Nuisance - cats or irresponsible pet owners?

With sterilisation, the population of the cats is controlled but we can't control irresponsible cat owners who abandon their cats or let them roam. The stray cats are in our estate not by their choice - they are offsprings of abandoned pet cats. Sterilised cats usually do not cause nuisance to anyone and if they do, that's where the Town Council can contact me and I will volunteer to talk to the complainant instead of paying money to engage a pest controller.

Vacuum effect

Sterilised cats are territorial and can help to keep out new cats. When sterilised cats are removed, new unsterilised cats will come in to take over the place of the removed cats. This is called the vacuum effect. Removing the sterilised cats will just mean more and more cats and without solving the root problem, residents will keep complaining and the Town Council has to continue wasting money culling the cats.

TNRM

When these sterilised community cats are managed properly, they are not a nuisance to the residents. The cats don't need to cauterwaul or get into cat fights to find a mate. Cat caregivers are also there to help resolve reasonable feedback/complaints from other residents.

Real problems

Asking cat lovers/caregivers to bring the cats home doesn't not resolve the real problems. The real problems could be:

• irresponsible feeding of cats
• people feeding but not sterilising - so there will also be more and more cats
• cats removed but new unsterilised cats will roam in or irresponsible owners dumping their pet cats/unwanted kittens
• irresponsible cat owner letting their cats roam and the cats may poo at the corridors
• residents putting food outside their units and attracting cats to go upstair to eat and poo at the corridors
• dog owners not picking up the poo of their dogs
• residents littering the estate

Hope

Caregivers like me are actually helping to deal with the effects of irresponsible pet ownership (eg abandonment and roaming). Seeing how some people can be cruel to abandon their pets and how adults allow their kids to derive pleasure from scaring the cats or throwing things at them - it saddens me to see how the community cats which are not harming the people are being treated. There are also kids and parents who would approach me and my mom and take an interest in the cats and stroke them. It gives me hope when I see this group of people who have compassion for animals.

We can view community cats as a society's problem or living beings who have the right to live in our community/estate. When there are responsible caregivers who are putting in time, effort and money to make sure that the cats are taken care properly and everyone can live harmoniously together, why can't we give the community cats a chance to live?

I hope my community cats and all the others in Singapore can continue to live in peace.

Nonya kuehs from Maxwell Food Centre

When I think of Maxwell Market, I will think of the yummy nonya kuehs (sweet desserts coated with coconut flakes) I tried a few weeks ago. One is made of tapioca

and the other from gula melaka.

Angel's tongue

I took this photo of Angel a few weeks ago and I think he looks funny :)

Goodbye, Pebble

Pebble, our pet female Syrian hamster passed away yesterday. She could have been 3 years old or older. We knew her days were numbered when she was losing most of her fur, had soft stools, turned blind and in her last few days, she didn't eat much. Her 2 brothers, Peanut and Poofy are still as active as ever.

Being used/hardened to the passing of more than 30 pet hamsters over the past 16 years, I was still a bit teary-eyed when I held Pebble's hardened cold body in my hands as Mom and I wrapped her in tissue paper and said our goodbyes.

Shopping for cat stuff

For the past few weeks I realise I enjoy shopping for food, treats and toys for the cats.

Recently I got Angel and Bob some toys from this pet shop called Sundreams at Far East Shopping Centre. The lady there is friendly. I have also bought a scratching board for Bob, wet food imported from Japan for him and Angel. The wet food will be a weekly/fortnightly treats for them. I also bought this pet grass to see if I can grow them for the 2 of them and the community cats to eat.

Making a difficult decision

On Sat morning, we decided to let Bob and Angel meet without barrier as it has been quite some time. It was not successful. Both were growling at each other and it was clear that Angel couldn't hold his position as he was slowly retreating. At the same time, we tried to prepare the canned tuna as a treat for them but they were not interested at all. The moment Angel looked away, Bob pounced on him. Both wrestled with Bob on top and Angel managed to break free and dashed for the living room and scrambled to the top of the rack. We managed to hold back Bob by spraying water at him but that didn't really deter him. The moment he stood still, eyeballing Angel, I quickly grabbed him by his scuff and put him back into my bedroom.

Angel was shaken up quite badly and kept hissing at us too. We left him to calm down. I sprayed some Feliway, hoping to calm both cats. Angel stopped hissing at us almost an hour later and seemed to be back to his normal self. However, yesterday morning, he didn't rub himself against my legs or lay down on his side to let my foot stroke him when I woke up and came out of my bedroom. He just lay at one corner of the hall or under the dining table throughout the day. Luckily last night, he seemed to more like his usual self.

Today, he seems normal but he is still not covering his poo (like the past few days) and Mom observed that if he sniffed scent of Bob, he would look around to see if Bob is around. Otherwise, I could entice him with his food, play with him and stroke him when he was laying on the kitchen while I was having my dinner.

All of us in the family saw what happened on Sat and we felt quite affected by it. Sis said she feels heartache to see Angel being attacked. For me and Mom, it seems that Angel is unlikely to be comfortable with Bob around as we found him alone without his mother or siblings and he has no other experience with other cats. He has only seen cats I brought home in carriers, trapped for sterilisation. He had paw fights and hissing sessions with Charcoal/Salem during that brief period. When we were fostering Pearl, Pearl would also chase Angel who of course didn't enjoy it.

Over the weekend, I thought I would have to put Bob up for adoption as Bob is miserable being cooped up in my room most of the time. Angel is clearly affected by the encounter with Bob at the moment. From what I read, I have to do complete separation and reintroduction all over again. It will only work if Angel can be conditioned but if he is a cat who can only be a one-cat family, whatever we do will probably not help the situation.

I love Angel, my first pet cat. I have also grown to love Bob who has been sharing my bed every night since a week after Mar 20 (the day we brought him home). I don't mind sniffing his poo when he does his big business while I'm sleeping. Most of the time when I don't feel lazy I will wake up to scoop out and throw away his poo and clean his backside before I go back to sleep. I play with him or groom his fur for a short while before sleeping, to relieve his boredom of not able to go out of my bedroom. I'm still undecided at the moment whether to put Bob up for adoption. Dad and Sis were alright for us to keep Bob if he and Angel get along. But Sat's episode has made all of us feel upset/sad.

Right now, my mind feels cluttered. I need to get it cleared first before I can think about the best way forward and discuss with my family. I want both Angel and Bob to be happy.

Effects of Catnip

are definitely not wide eyes for Bob (he was probably surprised by me taking a photo of him as he didn't show much reaction to the toy)


and also does not lull Angel to sleep (as it was his usual nap time and earlier Angel did act a bit strange by hugging his head with his front paws for a short while)


I used my pair of old stocks and put some stuffing in with the dried catnip.

Turning 30

I spent my birthday last Fri at home most of the time, other than feeding the community cats in the morning and in the evening. In between, I busied myself by cleaning the cat litter trays for Angel and Bob and also played with them.

Since we kind of celebrated the day before by going out and having lunch, I was happy to enjoy Mom's home cooked meals of stir fried instant noodles with veggies and meatballs (lunch) and fried rice and soup (dinner).

Oops. I don't have no camera with me.

This is the response I have been giving to my family and friends when I was out with them last weekend and today. Somehow I have lost that something... to capture the moment when the yummy dish sat in front of me before I tucked in.... the candid shots of my family or my friends laughing or goofing around. But it's not that I have been feeling unhappy. Somehow I think it's linked to less time spent in front of my PC to blog and surf and I want to spend more time with my family and cats when I'm home. Or it could be I have been taking too much photos and now I'm just contented to soak up the moment and enjoy my food immediately or look at my family and friends and just tuck those happy moments instead of snapping them using my camera.

I guess when I'm thirsty for some photos, I'll remember to carry the camera with me.

Simply Peaceable's photo contest

I love Simply Peaceable's natural skin remedies:

• Bugged Outdoor Balm (I apply every night when feeding the cats to prevent being bitten by mozzies)
  
• Botty Balm (it's for baby's nappy rash and it works well for rashes I get during this hot weather and it's great as a body moisturiser too)
• Calm Balm (a nice smelling solid perfume that is soothing)
• White Clay Mask (to detox my skin gently)
• Polishing scrub (as a face and body scrub that smells deliciously like oats)

If you are interested in getting such stuff for yourself, you may wish to visit Simple Peaceable's website to check out the products or even join in the contest if you are inspired :)

Furry foot reflexologist

Angel likes me to give him a massage using my feet and also nuzzle his face against my toes.

Gifts from Japan

My cousin went to Tokyo recently with his friend and he helped sis to buy 4 tubes of mascara and on his mom's instruction, bought some lightweight sturdy brolly for her and me. He is also very sweet to get Sis and I handphone straps with cat cartoons. I choose the one with the eyes opened and I'm going to keep the paper wrappers (with cat stickers) :)

Angel, his new toy and the books

Angel also didn't take much notice to the toy initially and I had to make it bob in front of him.


He was more interested in checking out the 2 books I borrowed from the library. One book is "Cat vs Cat" that Sis said it is a recommended book by some online site on how to introduce a new cat to the resident cat. Another is "Meow Chow" - I want to find out if there is any good recipe that I could introduce to the cats if it's simple and nutritious. So far I have only been feeding them dry food and occasional wet food as a treat.

Bob in my bedroom

Bob seems quite comfortable in my room and also putting on weight.

He looked a bit cock eyed here.

and he was curious in the camera.


YesterdayI bought him and Angel some new toys (like a roly poly) so that he will have something to entertain himself when we are not in the room with him.

At first Bob wasn't too interested in the toy. He actually overturned it, so that it can't bob anymore. He was more interested in following me around the room.

Then I played with it myself and he noticed the new object and bit the felt material.


Then he went stoning after playing with it for a short while.

Busy

With Bob at home with us, I find myself less time to blog and surf the internet as I want to spend them with Angel and Bob after feeding the community cats with Mom. Bob is usually in my bedroom and we would let him out sometimes in the kitchen or around the house when Angel is sleeping in the other bedroom. Angel is still hissing at Bob, so we are trying to be patient and wait for the right time to introduce the 2 cats face-to face.

Work has not been exactly fulfilling but I'm fortunate to have bosses who are not nasty and nice colleagues. Come May 22, I will have been working in the same office building for 8 years. I have been thinking what else I can do but part of me enjoy the familarity of the work environment and also the pace of work that doesn't require me to work late often. I can then exercise with my good friend once a week, feed the community cats with Mom almost every evening, plan for outings with my family, squeeze in some time to catch up with friends or with things I want to do (like reading a good book) and also help a few other caregivers to trap their community cats to sterilise or handle occasional complaint cases about cats in our areas.

At the moment, I'll just go with the flow and see where it will lead me to.

Health check

I have recently received my medical screening results and was shocked to find out that my bad cholesterol is borderline high (used to be low) and my Rheumatoid Factor (RF) is 23 (acceptable range is 0 to 14)! Otherwise, I'm in the healthy/good range for good cholesterol, blood triglycerides, BMI.

I'm now waiting for my organisation to organise a post-briefing and I will ask the doctor present about my results. No point jumping about the information I have read about RF (eg. high RF could possibly mean risk of rheumatoid arthritis - scary).

However, I realise I have been eating less actively and exercising less. It's time to watch my diet and start exercise.

Angel, can we keep Bob?

Mom and I had difficulty deciding whether to bring Bob home after seeing how Angel reacted to Pearl when we were fostering her. However, we couldn't bear the thought of Bob missing or trapped in the drain during a thunderstorm. On Thurs night, I brought the carrier to the park, hoping to get Bob to enter willingly. We made the mistake of feeding Bob first and by the time, I used the food as a bait to lure him into the carrier. It didn't work.

We almost wanted to give up the idea of bringing Bob home as Dad is facing some problem at work and we don't want to add to Dad's worries. On Fri, I brought the carrier down again. Mom and I were a bit half-hearted but we thought to give ourselves and Bob a chance. Bob doesn't seem to like the carrier, so I had to hold him by his scruff and Mom held the carrier upright for me to gently put Bob in.

Back home, I gave Bob a quick bath. He only struggled a little and then tolerated me using a cloth soaked in soapy solution and then warm water to bathe him. Mom toweled him dry before putting him in the balcony.


Yesterday we took him to the vet for his first vaccination and he even purred when the vet checked his heartbeat. I asked the vet to check the black stuff in his ears and the vet after examining some sample said they are just some ear wax and not ear mites. The vet also said Bob could be more than a year or 2 as he has already lost some of his teeth.

We have let Bob out for a short while when Angel is sleeping. Bob seems to be interested in the shows we are watching on the TV. When I tried to take photos of him, he actually slanted to one side to look behind me. Haha.



Bob is so friendly and gentle that even Dad and Sis are won over. He likes to rest/sleep on our laps or next to us.

I was quite surprised that Dad let Bob out of the balcony last night, so that Bob can sit beside him on the sofa to watch TV.

We realise Bob sleeps a lot. This could explain why we don't see him in the afternoon. He is probably sleeping in the drain or bushes. Bob is such a darling that we can't imagine putting him back in the park.


Angel seems to behave better than when we had Pearl. He would still hiss as he run past the balcony.


Last night, the 2 of them almost had a confrontation. Angel was sleeping on top of the rack next to the TV and Bob was resting at the sofa. When Angel was waking up and wanted to get down from the rack, Bob noticed him and I quickly put my hands on him. His body stiffened and he looked alert and seemed to want to move forward. Both of them started to hiss even though they are about 2 to 3 metres apart. I quickly carried him to the balcony.

Bob would have to stay in the balcony in the meantime while we try to think of ways to introduce him to Angel. I have seen Bob play wrestle with Bush in the park and I don't think Angel would take nicely to that. Angel, on the other hand, probably thinks any other creatures other than the 4 humans are his enemy.


I will have to wake up briefly on weekdays at 5.15am to help Dad when he leaves the house as our balcony is just next to the exit. Bob, unlike Angel and Pearl, has no qualms about leaving the house to explore the corridor and he also will like to enter the rest of the house where Angel roams.

We really hope Angel and Bob can get along.

Mom's bak kut teh

Mom cooked her own version of bak kut teh. There's no teh but pepper seeds and less salty.

Sunset and night

A lovely view of Clarke Quay and sunset from the top of Asian Civilisation Museum.

I like how the lights play against the walls of the museum.

Rambo and Trini

Mom has been preparing dry cat food soaked in hot water mixed with some canned wet cat food (sometimes some rice too from our dinner) for Rambo. Now Rambo seems to put on some weight and his coat looks less dull.


A friend has advised me to sterilise him while another said I may want to think twice about sterilising an old cat as he may not wake up from the anaesthesia, so I'm still considering whether to put him through sterilisation.

Although he looks quite sad with his jutted out tooth, out of shape face, he is gentle and friendly towards us. When mom and I come with food, he will run to us and sometimes when the weather is cold, he will snuggle near our legs/feet.

I have recently sterilised Trini, the 3rd calico cat in this area. She was actually pregnant, so it is a good thing I managed to trap her in time or we would have many kittens who might not survive the recent rainstorm. She is quite vocal and will greet us with her meows and likes to rub her head against our legs and hands.

DIY Facial Party

A few Saturdays ago, my friends and I decided to chill out at FR's place to do face masks. We had fun showing one another the stuff we have been putting on our faces.

FR treated us to some pies she and hubby got from a bakery from Sunset Way.


After the pies, we cleansed, toned our face before we slathered green and red clay masks on them.


FR also made some concoction of tomato juice and lemon juice to tone our faces after the masks. Our skins felt a bit stinging but I like the sensation.

Nearing the end of our pampering session, we each had a bowl of FR's health tonic of white fungus, wolfberries and dates.


What a nice way to spend our Saturday afternoon :)

Green Issues and Tree Hugger

These are some websites where I get my regular dose of environment news and green tips and how to simplify life:

• Green Issues
• Tree Hugger
• Care 2
• Guardian
• The Worsted Witch
• Real Simple

Giving magazines and newspapers another life

I receive free magazines (not the lifestyle and entertainment kinds) at work. Usually, I will usually just put them into the recycling box near my workstation. Recently, a friend, through her emails and actions, have reminded us to green our life, whenever possible. When I was flipping through the colourful pages of a magazine, I thought I could keep it to wrap a friend's present. This was what I did.

I think the combination of rolled up newspapers and a bowl as a mini table is innovative. However, it can't work for curious inhabitats like Angel and clumsy humans like me. Hee.

I decided to try this out just for the fun of it. An ugly version :)

Yay, Bob is back

When out for lunch yesterday, I received a call from a feeder in my area that she saw Bob hiding in one of the covered drain in the park. She lifted up one of the slabs for Bob to come up to the surface and fed him some food. She said he fits the description I gave her on Sun night. I quickly
called Mom so that she could go down and look for him but she told me later that Bob was nowhere in sight.

At a work event/dinner last night, Dad called me to offer to drive over and pick me home. I told him I could make my own way home. He had finished feeding the cats and said that Bob was in the park and Dad fed him. I was very happy to hear another person seeing Bob.

I went home straight after the dinner and quickly cleaned up the 3 hamsters’ cage, washed up Angel’s toilet tray and put in new cat litter and pine pellets. When Mom came back from her taiji class, I happily told her Bob is back and suggested going down to the park to look for him.

We went down but only Bush, Shadow, Oreo and Baby greeted us in the park. We looked into the covered drains and called his name but no Bob meowing or appearing.

This morning, Mom saw Bob and the other cats and fed them. IShe said he looks healthy but he’s afraid of Manja/Shrek/Malay cat (a roaming pet cat of a Malay family who would join the other cats for a meal sometimes). After eating, he went back and hid in the covered drain again.

We don't know where he was hiding the past few days. Mom said he could be trapped or swept away by the rainwater in the drain and he managed to find his way back.

I was very happy to see Bob just now and had him sleeping on my lap. Mom and I are thinking of bringing him home on Good Friday to try out the possibility of keeping him at home but we also know it won't be easy.

Cloth pads

I think Lunapads are a cool invention for females like me who find wearing disposable pads uncomfortable. I got to know about the Lunapads a few years ago and bought a few with the idea of alternating them with disposable pads. However, I wasn’t very committed to using them and still used disposables most of the time.

Last year, I found out that a friend has been using cloth pads from Lunapads and completely phased out the use of disposable pads. I was encouraged and thought I could do the same too. After buying some more Lunapads, I have been using them for the past 3 months, without the need for disposables.

Some of you may feel disgusted by the idea of having to wash your blood-soaked/stained cloth pads. I don’t think it’s icky to do so; after all it’s my blood. Of course, it’s easy to throw away disposable pads but the discomfort they give me pushes me to use cloth pads. I have gradually overcome the inconvenience of having to soak/wash the Lunapads and the liners and bringing extra liners to change them where I’m out. I feel better about myself and don't feel cranky wearing Luna pads. Now I just need to find the best way to reduce usage of water in washing the pads. Then I’ll be on the way to being more environmentally friendly (by contributing less waste and using water efficiently).

I have taken some photos of my Lunapads:

(From left: liner, day pad, liner with wing)

(Top and side views of the pad with the liners attached with the aid of the elastic bands)

I have also read that the use of disposable ones has some health risks. Planet Green has an article on some alternatives to disposable pads.

For any of you who are keen to try, you will have to order cloth pads online since Parenthings who used to bring Lunapads in has stopped its operations. Simply Peaceable (SP) is considering bringing in Sckoon’s cloth pads and baby diapers if there is a demand. If you are interested, you can drop SP an email.

(Underside of the day pad - isn't the design chirpy? :) Wait till you see the Sckoon designs)

(Lunapads' pouch that came free when I bought the liners a few years ago. The recent purchase doesn't have any accompanying pouch)

I’m attracted to Sckoon’s cute prints on the pads and other products (such as leak proof pouch and panty). Lunapads and Sckoon pads are quite similar and the difference seems to be how the liner is attached to the pad. I’ll get some to try if SP carries them.

You can also try making one yourself by following the steps in these websites: Tiny Birds Organics and Adahy's cloth pad patterns. It looks easy!

Missing Bob

Bob has not been sighted and coming for food since Thurs night. Mom and I have looked for him in the areas near the park. Mom has a few theories to explain his disappearance:

1. Bob was hiding in the drain during the rain/thunder storm and got swept away
2. Someone saw Bob and decided to adopt him

We hope it's scenario 2 but we also hope Bob will appear again when we are in the park to feed the other cats. My earlier plan was to bring him to vaccinate before the coming Good Friday holiday and bring him home to see if he and Angel can get along. But now he's missing. He is a very sweet cat. On those nights when it was cold and raining, he likes to climb onto our laps and sleep. At home, Angel doesn't do that but he's still a darling.

Whenever he is, I hope he is not suffering.