warm fuzzy feeling

the animal family's pronounciation of Bobby has mutated to something like Bpow-Bpee. seems more befitting of the cheena looking runt. he discovers a new favourite spot.

Suede comes home

the people who adopted Suede and her siblings Bronze and Rice returned her yesterday.

according to them, Suede is very naughty, always instigating the rest of the kittens to mischief and mayhem, so they can't keep her. she spends a lot of time in a cage as they can't deal with her antics. the woman decides then that it is best to take her back so that she has a fighting chance for another loving home that better suits her.

the man and woman are at least happy to see Bronze and Rice doing great when they visited the 3 of them last week. the adorable Bronze has even bonded beautifully with their timid 2-yr old persian cross.

Bonnet (now named Tiara) is also doing well, being the darling of her new family. she is no longer shy, bouncing happily around her new mummy's room and letting the man and woman hold and hug her during their visit. the difference a loving family makes to a wary kitty.

the animal family also received an update recently from Grey's (now named Skoda) new mummy and daddy. the little princess is at times amorous, at times playful, more times fierce. sleeping apparently remains her sweetest moment. they have 2 nicknames for her - Chia char bo (fierce girl) and Kaypoh Cat!


Suede is at this moment snuggling up to the man, rubbing her head on his chin and clouding his judgement on her fate. after all, he is used to lively kits after contending with Bobby and me. the woman still hopes to find a home for her.

i guess we cats will get used to a new kit in the house soon enough but one of us has to be the sensible one here and wonder about the rate this animal family is growing. looks like i might be the only one.

a sight to behold

paws over keyboard. eyes on monitor. something profound is taking shape in my head. if i get it right, it might just change the world... the thought hovers just beyond reach. it tickles my ears and i look up.

GOD, is that you??! oh. my delusions of grandeur.

snuggle therapy

towards zero pests

that's what it says on Health & Environment @ eCitizen.

fair enough until you see what are listed as pests on some of those pest control websites: Ants . Bats . Bees . Beetles . Birds . Butterflies . Caterpillars . Cats . Centipedes . Cockroaches . Crickets . Earwigs . Fleas . Flies . Maggots . Mice . Millipedes . Mites . Mosquitoes . Moths . Rodents . Scorpions . Silverfish . Snakes . Spiders . Termites . Ticks . Wasps . Weevils . Worms

NEA lists mosquito, cockroach, fly, rat/rat flea & termites as the common disease carrying pests (vectors), but seems like these pest control companies will catch anything that people complain about.

particularly worrying: "In line with our mission statement, _______ aims to be (the best) when it comes to being environmentally safe with the use of non-hazardous substances for human and animals wherever possible." wherever possible?

perhaps it is unfair to see pest control companies as the bogeyman when all they are doing is fulfilling a demand (that just doesn't go away) and picking up someone else's dirty work. but their role as a point of final condemnation is cast over and over again. spot this example of a notice on NUS Eusoff Hall General Office News & Notices: Cat Found!! Will the rightful owner of this cat please claim it back from the Hall Office immediately. Please note that if the cat is not claimed by today at 4 pm, it will be given to the Pest Control Company. Please be reminded that residents are not allowed to keep pets in the Hall. In this issue, the owner of the cat will be fined for breaching the Hall's rule.

so either the cat goes with the bogeyman or you get it back with a fine. not sure about you but to me, a person who writes with such methodical dullness is either a nazi or a dead-end administrator. did the owner make the right choice in the end? i hope so. you would think higher education institutions would possess higher ideals, but of course not. the other big local university in town spots the same sweeping cat control policy but in their case, they had enough indignant staff and students to start their own cat cafe to ensure the welfare of the strays on their campus. the world certainly needs more of these people and less dead-end administrators.

but pest control as an industry is here to stay. perhaps to stop the trend of lumping cats with the rest of the vector pests, someone from this side of the fence should start a stray control company dedicated to solving the problem and not the animal, one that possesses more skills then netting and exchanging an AVA acceptance form for a TC pay cheque. they could starve but the world is certainly not saved by fat bottom-line driven men who drive mercedes benz.

tomcat thwarted... hopefully

now that all females in the family (eh, bar one) are spayed, hopefully tomcat will stop its regular amorous visits to the animal family. the horny bugger has even taken to urinating outside our apartment, possibly to mark us as his special angels.

the woman just got some cat traps from cat welfare and tomcat is top priority on her community sterilising crusade. tibby, leukemia and Bobby's momma suspect no. 1 are also marked IMPERATIVE on her hit list.

hoo wee, we are in for some fun and games.

spayed!

fruity display signs of being in heat. (already?! i must be a late bloomer) she whines, she flops and she follows Bobby around tilting her ass up suggestively. down girl down! prepubescent Bobby has no idea what's going on of course. or how lucky he could have been.

her behavior gets us both waking up to a drafty underside and a hell of a sting from the needlework. by the way, where did the rest of my ear go?

Fruity comes home with a nasty green streak down her left cheek and leg. apparently, the woman's quarantine the night before was a complete failure. keeping away the cat food and water did not stop Fruity from stuffing her fat face with Leafty's hay. when she was put under, it all came out green and yellow. as for me, brown water came out the other end. the poor poor nurse.

after a full day's downtime, we are both our perky selves again.

designer cats

the woman gets a gorgeous che che new york's che2 bag for her birthday from Fruity's godfather. rosie wastes no time in showing it up. what can be more che che than the real deal?

complaining kills

be it the long tail macaques, the reticulated python or the stray cat, when people complain, the animal often gets put down.

the woman writes to AVA about the culling of stray animals but does not get a satisfactory answer.

First reply: "We hope to see with greater awareness, less strays in our midst. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the number of stray dogs and cats we regretfully need to cull them as most of them are not adoptable."

Second reply: "The stray problem is a very complex issue and therefore requires a multi-pronged approached. Culling of strays is just one of the methods employed... The management bodies have to balance the interests of many parties and run it in a manner that best provides a pleasant environment and promote harmony amongst residence... As mentioned earlier, not all strays are adoptable. Moreover, few Singaporeans are willing to adopt strays. As a result, many have to be put down."

how about doing more to teach people how to live and let live? how to abide harmoniously with the animals around them? with all that we know, is there no way of preserving their dignity instead of culling them?

it is our hope that one day, the government and our community can come together to find better means for resolving conflicts between wildlife, strays and humans. humanity sure depends on it.

(Photo from Forgotten Cats, Inc.)

long tail macaques

the woman volunteers at the zoo today at the wildlife story telling station. she finds out that around 80 of our poor friends the long tail macaques are culled every year due to public complaints. There are just 800 left in our forests. Sadly for certain condo residents and golfers, these beautiful indigenous creatures are regarded simply as pests. when AVA is called down, it is often a death sentence for the offending animal as once they are caught, no one really knows what to do with them.

unpleasant human-monkey encounters are caused partly by insufficient growth of fruits in the forest, which brings the macaque population to the fringes of the forests, but mainly because these monkeys have learnt to associate humans with food, particularly the delivishly sugary, salty, MSG kinds.

what we can do to save these macaques is simply to stop feeding them, plant more trees (join in the effort on 27 Nov at the zoo!), and to stop complaining.

whining residents and golfers seem to think "the forest has moved pal, so should you." well it doesn't quite work that way.

yet it makes sense that people who choose to live or play near nature, love nature, doesn't it? they certainly love it enough to pay a premium for a little heaven in those biomimetic developments by the nature reserves that are painstakingly expensively internationally acclaimed-ly designed and engineered to look just like the real thing! "invite nature in for breakfast," they scream on their advertising brochures!

no wonder the wildlife is confused.

these people do love nature. the disney version. they should go live in a theme park instead.

when the pot starts to sizzle...

we get some tag team action going. bobby you take left, i will sneak in from the right. rosie, stop getting distracted over there.

the man won't know what hit him.

mealtimes are getting to be more and more of a challenge for the man and woman but they learn fast. how to eat with their right hands while they airlift snooping cats off the dining table with the left. it gets to be so efficient it is almost like queuing for a theme ride. me, Bobby, Fruity, Rosie, me, Bobby, Fruity, Rosie, one by one we get tossed over shoulders to the bed, and to the back of the line we always go. i am perfecting my double somersault back flip. one of these days, i will get it just right.

mr personality

everyone times out with Leafty at least once in the day

he can always be found chomping on his hay

when we specifically ask for a snuggle

he hops over and responds with a cuddle

(if you find this a lame excuse of a poem, Fruity wrote it. not me)

caught in compromising positions

happens to everyone.

dear sweet rosie, after spending many weeks acting all regal and demure starts to really make herself at home around here.


no one should have to be held to expectations set by their first impressions. moreover, we like the new rosie. she is having some real fun now and she is still very very sweet. purr.

more on casanova

i am glad for this new playmate. no one else even comes close to my exuberance in this animal family. Fruity is useless, after a couple of minutes of hide and seek, she disappears permanently to the food station or some cosy corner for a snooze while i continue to hide like a dope hoping to be found. Rosie of course thinks she is far too grown up for our childish games. with Bobby, the fun almost never stops. we hide, we seek, we chase, we wrestle. quick snooze, quick bite and the cycle repeats itself, endlessly. the man and woman learn to sleep through it, even when we use body parts as freeway for a high-speed chase. the man got it in the lip last night. he turned over and went straight back to sleep.

Bobby also doesn't seem to be aware that he is tiny. barely even a volkswagon. he takes on even rosie, chasing and wrestling her like a maniac. she of course, just have to give him a casual swipe and off he flies. when his zest gets too much even for me, i just put a paw out on his head and watch him wrestle air.

the bugger knows how to win hearts, what can i say.


moglee, hope you are feeling better.

cats take over

overcrowding is starting to become an issue, especially at bedtime. man and woman wakes up to find cats sprawled over legs, snug in armpits or stealing the blanket. i myself particularly like it in between shins.

word of advice to everyone - stay very still to avoid accident.

regular casanova

bobby is a huge hit with the girls...



very soon however, he will be a casanova without testoterone (snigger snigger).

pining for grissom