animal family

cat welfare 2010

2010-03-17T15:20:00.003+08:00

We created the problem. Why should they have to pay for it with their lives?

2010-02-12T12:01:00.009+08:00

The burden of stemming the tide of destruction largely falls to cat caregivers – regular people with a big heart.

MEDIA RELEASE
Singapore, 10 February 2010 | For Immediate Release

The proliferation of stray animals in our communities is a human-created problem. They are here as a direct result of human-driven activities – a thriving live pet trade, irresponsible breeding and pet abandonment. As we enter the year of the Tiger, animal welfare agencies and organisations have a big concern - the number of animals that are going to be cleaned out with the trash during spring cleaning. This trend is mirrored in more than one turning of the year on a multi-cultural calendar – Hari Raya and New Year’s Day. And we are already seeing it happen with the next Chinese New Year around the corner.

On January 30 2010, 8 cats were abandoned in their filthy, rusty cages. When community cat caregivers received the tip-off, only 2 very frightened cats remained. The rest had gone to hide in the drains. Our experience with home cats that have been abandoned is that they have very little chance of survival. Some stay put in their hiding spot refusing food until they waste completely away.

Cat caregivers are those who sterilise and manage their community cats and work closely with the Town Council to resolve cat-related issues. They are volunteers who give of their own time and resources to care for the welfare of community cats.

The current measures in addressing the problem of stray cat proliferation includes

Pet Cat Ownership
* Improving standards and practices of pet shops by the Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA)
* Education and awareness campaigns on responsible pet ownership by government agencies and animal welfare organisations
* Banning cats from public housing by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) (therefore pet cat abandonment is not a crime)
* Face-to-face mediation with cat owners, sterilisation assistance and rescue efforts by cat caregivers with the support of the Cat Welfare Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)

Stray or Abandoned Cats
* Sterilisation of community cats by cat caregivers with the support of SPCA and the Cat Welfare Society. Approx. 4200 sterilised through the support of the Cat Welfare Society and SPCA in 2008.
* Boarding at overtaxed animal shelters in Singapore
* Surrendering of animals and destruction at the Society for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) – Approx. 4500 surrendered in 2008
* Impounding and destruction by the - AVA Approx. 3500 culled in 2008

And still we had to put down 8000 cats last year. An average of 10,000 cats has been put down every year for the last 10 years.

The current measures put the considerable burden of addressing the problem of irresponsible cat owners squarely on cat caregivers. They also offer irresponsible cat owners an easy way out by abandoning and surrendering without consequences. The number of cats destroyed is gradually coming down, but the burden on cat caregivers continue year after year. The decreasing numbers is also a testimony to their efforts.

Many cat owners are driven to keep cats to save them from the streets, pest control and abuse. The percentage of people with local cats picked from the streets far outweighs the ones with pedigrees. Not regulating ownership not only penalises responsible owners who help keep cats off our streets, it puts irresponsible owners out of reach of the long arm of enforcement. Currently, government action against cat owners is confined in large degree to eviction. The pet cats then often join the community cats on the street.

Addressing the problem of irresponsible supply and demand, breeding and abandoning of pets has to come from a direct and concerted effort by government agencies, animal welfare organisations and the community of concerned citizens and pet owners, through legislation and enforcement, awareness and education and community peer pressure.

It is our aim at the Cat Welfare Society to support this steadfast and devoted community. We are celebrating their labours, the spirit and their compassion at the Tiger Show.

More information about the event at www.catwelfare.org.

Singapore's first Tiger Show

2010-02-12T01:50:00.005+08:00

The Cat Welfare Society, together with the Post-Museum, is organising a week-long art and advocacy event from 21 - 28 February 2010.

The provocatively titled "Tiger Show" welcomes the year of the Mighty Cat in celebration of our humble Community Cats. It will bring together people from all walks of life who have a passion for animal welfare, and most certainly, a soft spot for our feline friends, to gather, to share, to learn and to party!

The line-up for this exciting week is as follows:

21 Feb (Sunday) 7.30pm - The Tiger Show Opens
Join us for the opening of our week-long feline-inspired Art Exhibition and Bazaar!
Free, by invitation.

The show is a gathering of renowned cat artists like Paul Koh of Catmasutra, Ng Ling Tze of Sloth Studios, the team from Cats of the World as well as other local artists like multi-disciplinary visual artist,Tay Bee Aye and ceramist, Michelle Lim. Many feline-inspired collectibles will also be on sale at the show!

Exhibition opening hours 6-10pm (Tue-Fri), 12nn-10pm (Sat-Sun).

25 Feb (Thursday) 8.00pm - "I am Cat. Hear Me Roar"
An advocacy and mediation workshop for the welfare of cats

Be part of an open and honest discussion with SPCA, Action for Singapore Dogs, Cat Welfare Society and guest panelist Mr Siew Kum Hong about where animal welfare, especially for domestic animals, stands in Singapore - our progress and our stumbling blocks, with insights into the role of new media in advancing our collective cause. Our line-up of speakers include Jaipal Gill from SPCA who will be speaking on animal sentience, Kelly Then on managing disputes and November of Leafmonkey Workshop on new media advocacy.

$8 with a non-alcoholic drink
$12 with an alcoholic drink

26 Feb (Friday) 7.30pm Animal People Singles' Night!

It's a party so let the fur fly. It's time to break out the alcohol and the party heels. If you have ever lamented that you met this wonderful person to find out they hate your dog or your hamster, you won't have this problem here. And did we mention the vivacious Maia Lee is performing? (Strictly humans tonight, please!)

$12 with first drink

28 Feb (Sunday) 12 - 5pm Cat's Day Out

We are reviving this popular gathering of cat people and their cats! Join our favourite host, Melody Chen in search of the most beautiful domestic cat that day! Also look out for cat grooming services, cat and owner photo portraiture taking, cat training workshop and a very special symposium cum visual performance by the one and only Smiling Yogi Bala Matchap -- Cat Yoga!

$30 per ticket (for one person accompanied with or without one cat. Tickets for each additional cat is $5)

Register early!
Space is limited so register with cwstigershow@gmail.com early.
Visit their Facebook Event Page to leave a comment and word of support!

How do you recover from this?

2009-09-23T17:53:00.000+08:00

Two old aunties rushed down to AVA after they found out that their cats were caught. A mother and her baby.

The officer brought the cats out but said he could only release one. The aunties had to choose.

The cats jumped for joy at seeing these familiar loving faces, not understanding the anguish and the tears.

They chose the mother. Because they had seen her as a baby, as a young playful adult and then an unwitting, unsavvy young mother. Then they witnessed the baby frantic, hysterical in the cage as she was carried back into the unspeakable backrooms.

How does anyone make such a decision? How do you expect them to recover from it? This happened some time ago but the aunties will never ever forget this.

great kitten migrations,

2009-09-17T16:05:00.013+08:00

Breaking News: Ninja adopted and lovin' it! Adopted, Rejected, Adopted again: Someone coming for Ranger tonight!

It's hard to keep track of the comings and goings sometimes but we try.

The woman made a long overdue house visit, so here's another before and after from Ah Ma's Gruesome Foursome...

Big handsome boy still behaves like a kitten. When he was smaller, he used to fish out, play with and cuddle their hamster every night when everyone was sleeping. Now that he is so much bigger, they decided not to risk it by locking poor hammie up in a cat-proof cage. I hope Big Boy still visits his friend often.

The last of the foursome turned up at the CWS Cat's Night Out in July.

Small rules his household from the icy north pole. When you scold him, he will face north (or anywhere where you aren't standing). He can do it for up to 3 days. I am nowhere near that cool.

This is the kitten the woman catnapped from Ah Ma's. We were all prepared to overlook the sudden presence of this ugly cat in our midst but as a stroke of luck will have it...

Melody cuddled the Cat's Night Out mascot all the way home! Now they have to contend with his constant sucking habit, muahahahaha. They love him lots, despite.

staycations,

Can you believe these kiddos have not found homes yet?!

Moo and Boo. You can barely tell them apart except for the straight tail and the kinked tail. (Update: Moo and Boo adopted!)

as predicted, their two white siblings went to new homes first.

Whitley here was almost adopted but for her kinked tail. It's not her fault, swear!

and mystic ocean

Someone left these 5 babies in a plastic bag outside Ah Ma's front door. Why ever did you do this?? Fosters tried but none of them made it. Goodbye, we will be seeing you again soon.

before & after kittens

2009-08-21T15:07:00.005+08:00

The horror show in the video has thankfully been averted through the efforts of volunteers from Pawpledge, Vineyard Community Church and others. The flat is painted, cats sterilised and kittens evacuated to the animalfamily.

Previously, White Challenger and Mixed Ranger were confirmed for adoption. Wallflower's condition was touch and go.

Since then, White Challenger has been rehomed. By a twist of fate... Wallflower has also been rehomed, leaving Mixed Ranger and Black Ninja still in our midst.

"Did you think I wouldn't recover? I am all pretty now!"

"My adopter found abandoned kittens in her neighbourhood so she doesn't have room for me anymore. I am happy for the kitties but someone please adopt me!"

"yes, i'm still here too..."

remember this formless lump that was heartlessly left by the dustbin?

He was lovingly raised by Bukit Purmei's P.A.W. Vet Centre, then a super foster. When he became all cute and plumb, he found his way back to the animalfamily and immediately decided to lose his appetite.

Only after some frantic panicking did we realise that Boo Boo did not like being quarantined on his own so he was thrown in with Mixed Ranger and Black Ninja. They hate him but he sure is loving it. Appetite returned and plumbed up again!

He goes to his new home this weekend.

these old ladies, so cute you gotta love them

2009-08-02T03:21:00.009+08:00

*Wendy* the functioning schizophrenic and *Maggie* her senile partner in crime rescued an injured cat during one of their nightly feeds. The tom got better and Wendy decided to keep it but wouldn’t sterilise because she felt he might have too weak a constitution to survive it.

The tom thanked her by turning his full libidinous and destructive nature on - copulating with her young kittens causing a miscarriage, launching bloodbaths on her other cats and he sprayed, everywhere.

After the umpteenth inconveniently-timed call from Wendy to lament about how much stress the cat is causing her and looping labyrinthian arguments about whether to sterilise the cat or not, the woman decided to cut Wendy short on one of her voluble and outrageous wall of consciousness monologues. She hung up.

Her colleagues were momentarily confused. Didn’t the woman tell them she didn’t have kids? She was all “Are you listening? I am going to hang up now if you aren’t listening. When you are ready to listen, then call me back.”

It worked. When Wendy called back, she was considerably calmer. She paid attention and finally agreed for the woman to come collect the cat for sterilisation. They did have one problem, the cat was so hostile he wouldn’t let anyone near him.

The cat trapper was called in and Wendy annoyed him by telling him that if she couldn’t catch him, he couldn’t. And she wouldn’t let them move any of her mountainous possessions that clutter all available space in the flat. She simply wouldn’t shut up. All the while, the cat teased us by darting from one victorian knick-knacks nook to ethnic trinkets cranny.

The woman had to be bad mammy again. “The trapper can’t work if you keep talking. Go to the back room and sit there. Don’t come out until the cat is trapped.” “But…” “Hupp, go back”. She did as she was told.

It took the trapper, the trapper assistant and the woman one hour to get that delinquent cat with the help of a torch, a net and 2 of Wendy's Indonesian decorative poles. Every time Wendy sneaked out, the woman went ‘Hupp, back.” She trotted back. These old ladies, they can be so… cute.

Before they left, she gave them one of her Christmas trinkets with thanks, - a porcelain cat sitting on a gift box.

litter of critters

2009-07-30T15:36:00.005+08:00

4 out of 6 of the leukemia caregiver's kittens have been adopted! they still had remnants of the cat flu so only 2 went straight off for their home trials with the more confident adopters. The rest were packed off here for recuperation and fattening up.

A pretty little head on a bag of bones, Mixed Ranger has to pile on the pounds before heading to her new home. But she is the least worrisome, all brass and sassy attitude!

Perk up, little wallflower. She was burning hot when she got here and dehydrated. She gave the woman a scare by lying limp on her lap. After a couple of squirts of water, she finally looked up with her big sad eyes. She hasn't caught any adopter's attention yet.

White Challenger doesn't sweat it, he has a new home waiting for him when his adopter comes back from vacation.

Black Ninja's conjunctivitis is clearing up. He wonders why black cats are the last to be adopted, if ever?

ah ma & leukemia caregiver update

2009-07-21T17:22:00.015+08:00

The woman was BANNED from Ah Ma’s place because she catnapped a kitten held hostage by that incorrigible hoarder.

So she kept away while Ah Ma fumed and hissed. (The kitten has since been adopted.) It looked safe to resurface again this week although Ah Ma, as befuddled as she is, remembered. Quite surprisingly, she only asked the other volunteers if the woman was there to take anymore of her kittens. They said no and they all moved on from there - Ah Ma back out to her favourite coffeeshop and the volunteers back to work on the cockroaches.

And it wasn’t even a surprise to find Ah Ma with 2 more kittens.

It’s tempting but the woman will try to accumulate more brownie points before pulling another catnap. After all, there is no end to the supply as long as people in the neighbourhood treat Ah Ma as a dumping ground. Since the start of the clean-up - 13 new kittens - 1 dead, 5 rehomed. The rest are where they are but thriving at least.

They headed over to the leukemia sufferer with 30+ cats after Ah Ma’s. The situation was already very much under control with most of the old furnishings cleared out and adult cats sterilised.

The old auntie was tired, overwhelmed, almost resigned. One kitten, degenerated to skin on bones, had to be rushed to the hospital. The others were in fairly good shape but teary. In her state, the soul is willing but the flesh is weak. She is just not able to keep up with the care the little ones need right now and we are desperately seeking new homes for these sick babies.

As soul-gutting as these cases are, it is hard to be upset with these old caregivers turned hoarders. No one taught them any better. And they themselves suffered enough for it. So I save my wrath for the ones not sick, not old, just dim, who cling on to archaic ideas that cats must roam and that neutering is evil and immoral.

On one of her trapping days, the woman had to fight off a teen who insisted one of the trapped cats is his. When it roams, pal, it is fair game. She offered free sterilisation for his other 2 cats. He said no. She shrugged. She will get them on their next wandering.

That makes 15 new young cats discovered, caught and sterilised this month alone. 50 and counting since January in a 10-block area. Half of them from homes. It’s hard to reconcile sometimes why we have let other people’s responsibility become our own. But in cat welfare, their problems often become yours. After all, if they are not sterilising, they are either a hoarder or a chronic abandoner and some one has to pick up their pieces eventually. We can at least take heart that some people are coming to their senses before it is too late.

And quite unexpectedly, they become your newfound cat welfare neighbourhood watch. This one-week old kitten was dumped next to a dustbin wrapped in a tissue and saved by our neighbour’s 7-yr old daughter.

It is with the vet, fighting for a chance on this callous earth.

How you can help:
* Donate cat food.
* Foster or adopt a kitten.
* Sponsor the medical fees for the 2 hospitalised kittens.

this is what I think of teeth scaling

2009-07-19T00:40:00.002+08:00

So I had a little gum inflammation, didn’t bother me much, but you thought drooling very unbecoming of a cat.

For that, I made you spend the night with me on the sliver of cold hard floor between the utility cabinet and the junk you keep in the backroom. Because I won't suffer quarantine on my own, not quietly anyway.

You brought Fruitcake in with you, which was a nice touch. We had fun playing hide and seek in your sleeping bag while you were sleeping. So much so you were surprised that we were nowhere to be seen when you woke up the next day.

You called for us and we took our time before we popped our heads out from the top of the cabinet in unison. Gotcha.

mystery call to AVA

2009-07-03T17:02:00.002+08:00

An AVA officer got a mystery call today at their Toll-free Hotline for the loaning of cat traps from a particularly exasperating caller. He didn’t know he was conversing with a cat, masquerading as a cat-hater. That would have made his day.

The bare facts are such: The loaning of free traps from AVA is open only to people living in private residences. They will need to present their IC at the Centre for Animal Welfare and Control for collection, where they will be shown how to use the trap. Only one trap can be loaned at a time by the same person for a period of 2 weeks.

Here’s where it gets interesting. I asked what happens after a cat is trapped and the officer said that you must call AVA to collect the cat by the next working day. I asked what happens to the cat and got the obvious answer. I then said that some family members are not comfortable to send cats to their death, can we catch and release them in other areas? The officer strongly discouraged this on the grounds that the cat may be disoriented and cannot find food, leading to suffering.

Tooty the exasperating caller then asked, but you won’t really know what people do with the cats after they are trapped right? The officer was getting slightly alarmed saying have you seen cats getting skinnier and skinnier if cannot find food? At least when it goes to AVA, it will be at peace.

The system certainly sounds good on paper, AVA provides free service to private home residents, nuisance cats removed to a misery-free end. Win-Win.

But so many questions unanswered. How do you ensure that the trapped cats do end up in AVA? How do you ensure that the trapped cats are properly treated overnight, over weekends by trappers who have no love for them?

Someone with a private residence address should go down and borrow a trap to see what information is being imparted to trap loaners. Cat Welfare Society has broached to the Ministry of National Development before to provide information about Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage as an alternative to culling. Whenever someone requests for a trap, AVA can inform people about sterilisation as an alternative, or send a brochure along with the trap. Has this advice been trickled down to the ground staff?

The officer obviously feels for the cats but his hands are tied by a system that is clearly flawed. He was getting annoyed by this heartless caller and hung up even before I said thanks and goodbye. Good for him.

CWS: A Look Ahead

2009-06-26T03:02:00.007+08:00

Cat Welfare Society has had a solid month of fundraising with the LPN Cat Day at Suntec City, the Cat’s Night Out “In Search of the Most Beautiful Domestic Cat” at Jurong Point and that unforgettably tongue-in-cheek STrip “What’s New Pussycat?” campaign.

Besides raising funds for stray sterilisation, these light-hearted occasions gave us a rare chance to let our hair down with other cat groups, volunteers and with the public.

Now the fun is over, it is time to get back down to the serious business of cat welfare.

Engaging govt agencies

CWS is planning a series of engagements with AVA, HDB and Town Councils. And it cannot be timelier that Sunday Times dedicated a full page on animal welfare last weekend, giving voice to the poisoned bayshore cats, abandoned animals and tireless animal welfare volunteers.

(They had to juxtapose it with an article on our good friend Mr TTK to provide a perfunctory journalistic balance to the spread, but that is easily forgiven. A contrary article on a less controversial figure would have been more detrimental. So thank you, Sunday Times.)

Also featured in the full page coverage is a small victory for cat welfare. AVA has put it on record, “AVA… is again open to subsidising the cost of sterilisation of stray cats, if caregivers, town councils and communities are willing to participate.”

So our upcoming meeting with them can now fast track to the mechanics of the stray cat sterilisation scheme: what is required of town councils and volunteers, and how to streamline the scheme for greater success.

After which, we can start working with dedicated caregivers whose stray management work in their areas through Trap-Neuter-Release-Manage or TNRM, mediation and community building work has reached a healthy maturity. We will talk to their Town Councils first.

How you can help:
If you are a caregiver with a well managed cat community, come forward. Also start keeping records of the number of cats in your neighbourhood, the number of cats you have sterilised, your encounters with Town Councils and the number of complaints handled as these will go a long way when we engage them.

If your area does not have a TNRM programme, start one! Look out for our upcoming stray cat management workshop and meet-up on how to get started.

Sterilisation

CWS continues to single-mindedly put our funds into subsidising the sterilisation of stray cats. All our fundraising efforts are for this very purpose.

We get appeals from time to time to provide financial help for caregivers in need and for cat rescues. And this the committee members and volunteers do on our own personal basis.

The reason CWS funds are not diverted that way is this: The cold honest truth is that we have had to dig into our reserves last year to cover sterilisation and medical subsidies. And one had to go. It is a sign of the times that donations are down and reimbursements for subsidies are up.

We must keep stray cat sterilisation going simply because sterilisation makes the biggest impact to the welfare of our cats in the long run. It is this consistent, demanding, unglamourous work by dedicated caregivers and volunteers that provides a compelling reason for AVA to enter into a dialogue with cat welfare advocates. And we cannot afford to derail now.

The moment the government finally takes on the funding of stray cat sterilisation, that will really open up everyone’s resources to help the sick and suffering.

That moment is close and what will get us there is to make sure more community cats are sterilised and managed.

How you can help:
Start a TNRM programme in your neighbourhood. The next best thing is to sponsor a sterilisation!

Mediation

This is something that we struggle with immensely because we don’t have a full-time person in CWS. The committee members and volunteers handle our cases after hours or through phones and emails.

Mediation remains the most stressful, unrewarding part of cat welfare work. Being yelled at by irate people with cat pee on their slippers after a long day at work is not anyone’s idea of a fulfilling existence. But we still do it, together with our network of caregivers and volunteers because it goes hand in hand with TNRM. Stray management just doesn’t work without it.

What we find is that people come to CWS for a magic pill. And five after-hours dispensers to pill an entire nation is beyond ridiculous. We need more mediators.

It is a fact that Singaporeans hold an uncanny esteem for authority. People from an organisation are often seen as more respectable than someone from the neighbourhood. That is how Singaporeans work, so “I am from Cat Welfare Society” goes a long way. But anyone with the passion, a little gumption and knowledge can register with CWS and fulfill this role. And all the better if they are actual residents in the neighbourhood.

These resident mediators have their nose on the ground, they get to the problems quicker and they can better establish long term relationships with the Town Council officers and other residents. Town Councils can’t ignore them simply because they are residents, therefore constituents and more importantly, voters.

The magic pill? Don’t yell back and don’t wear your house clothes when mediating.

As much as mediation is daunting and completely thankless, just a word from you can save a cat from being caught and culled. If you are lucky, you can instill a little conscience in the neighbourhood, one cheesed off resident at a time.

How you can help:
If you want to be a mediator for your neighbourhood, register with CWS and contact your Town Council officer. Also look out for our upcoming stray cat management workshop and meet-up on how to get started.

Beyond CWS

If you have been following the posts and thread on the Cat Welfare Society’s Facebook page, you would have a good idea of the spectrum of cat welfare activities required to fully tackle an issue as broad as cat welfare.

There are the numerous appeals for medical fees for sick or injured cats, the many catteries and shelters in trouble in these tough economic times, cats and kittens that need fosterers and homes, AVA officers and Town Council officers to negotiate with and the unenlightened public to educate. As individuals, where do we start?

My own experience with the animalfamily is to start where your passion takes you. I started with the rescue and adoption of an old mangy toothless cat that stole my heart.

6 years on, the family has 10 cats at home, 40 cats fostered (and thankfully rehomed), hundreds sterilised and we dream of a cattery. We have seen cat shelters and their antithesis, cat hoarders and left a part of ourselves with each and everyone of these animals, the cheery ones, the sadly neglected, the dying and the dead.

Still, it is not enough. There must be a more sustainable solution to the plight of our cats, the kind that makes it less necessary to take cats off our streets for anything other than to loving homes. This will happen only when the responsibility for stray cat welfare is not just on caregivers but the entire nation. That is the prize worth working towards.

an inconvenient people

2009-06-19T17:57:00.007+08:00

In a post-AWARE world, there is a growing wariness of groups who “push stridently for narrow interests, at the expense of other groups”. This was mentioned in the parliamentary reopening speech, albeit about political representation. The concern is that this would polarise and divide our society.

Stray management is such an interest. You just have to look at some of the posts in STOMP to see how it polarises. Cries for compassion for strays are met with cries for compassion for humans who are affected by them.

But can we really afford to contain polarising issues while we wait for social and cultural tides to change? Environment issues had the same bad rap a decade ago. They have since entered the mainstream simply because the problems have become too big to ignore.

And before them, liberties for minorities, women, the sick and the poor arrived after enormous hardship and suffering. All the while, the privileged cried injustice, instability, loss of traditional values, inconvenience.

And they are still crying over inconveniences posed not just by animals but two legs - migrant workers, aids victims, homosexuals, ex-convicts.

All narrow interests? Maybe. But the lessons are there to be learnt. People thought there was something defective or culpable about the people they dominated by numbers or by circumstances, justifying their actions and they were proved wrong. They thought they could dominate the land and they were dead wrong.

People a.k.a voters don’t want to be pushed into change but the world around them is changing. 10 years to irreversible environmental damage. 50 years to the end of sea fish. The threat of scarcity and the chaos that follows is real. All the more, the guiding principles henceforth must be to Save, to Conserve, to Share and to Free, regardless. They have to become as habitual as it is to brush our teeth and that leaves little room for pickiness.

Save. Conserve. Share. Free

We may be all about cats, others about dogs, marine life yet others about children of ex-convicts with aids. This is not because our interests are narrow but that they are realistic. Different concerns require different strategies and approaches within the constraints of available resources, but what binds them are those very objectives: to Save, to Conserve, and to Free.

To Share? Maybe we still don’t do it quite so well.

How then to hardwire Save, Conserve, Share and Free into the two legs?

The challengers to civil societies would be the first to tell you that these values are not new to them. They just don’t look past their in-group sensitivities when it comes to application. (All the more ironical when civil societies adopt the same attitude they are trying to fight.)

We all have it in us to do it

Then I pawed on this charming TED video on the discovery made by brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor the morning she suffered a stroke. Like a true scientist, she didn’t panic, she said Oh cool, now I can study my own brain from the inside out.

She already knew about the very different personalities of the left and right brain. Simply put, the right brain is all about the now and how our senses gather and distill information about our environment, while the left is all about me, how I process information about the past and present to project a future.

She hemorrhaged in the left hemisphere, felt her grasp of language slip away and fascinatingly with it, her sense of self. Her right brain took over and she floated on a sense of blissful wonder at not knowing where her body started and ended. She was at one with the world.

Arguably, environmentalists, humanitarians and animal people feel that kind of intense connection with their surroundings everyday. It’s just how their brains work and they didn’t get a stroke to stumble on it.

Could the contemporary emphasis on right brain development evolve a new generation more in tune with the ground they stand on and all there is on it? Can it turn the volume of the self-seeking left brain down to become a people less worried about where they started and where they end?

Until then, it must be inconvenient for those who find others saving and conserving things that threaten their health, safety, aspirations, livelihood and decorum. There are bigger inconveniences ahead when the water rises, food prices rocket and the fish disappear. If they are not part of the solution, would they be part of the chaos?

Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium 2009 II

2009-05-26T00:59:00.004+08:00

The Cat Welfare Society gave a presentation as part of the second panel session on Domestic Animal Welfare. It raised up our community's two main issues - that HDB allow cats to be kept as pets in flats and the reinstatement of the stray cat rehab scheme - amidst positive evidence of the effectiveness of sterilisation and a growing community of cat caregiving and advocacy in Singapore.

Can we make a cat auntie's dream come true?

Since 2004, there has been a year on year drop in the number of cats surrendered and impounded.

Long overdue, these caregivers are starting to receive well-deserved recognition in recent years.

So, what do these community cat caregivers want? They want more eligible homes for community cats. And they want to know that their cats are safe from being indiscriminately caught and culled.

While stray cat population figures show that sterilisation is effective, what it doesn’t do is reduce the number of cat nuisance complaints, which is constantly cited as one of the reasons for resisting cat-friendly policies.

On the ground, there are many parties and their differing concerns to balance when trying to achieve an amicable level of human-animal co-existence. A lot of the resistance to the reinstating of the Stray Cat Rehab Scheme is from the town councils who are skeptical about how the scheme benefits them and also the additional workload that comes with administering the scheme.

(AVA confirmed that if they were to bring the scheme back, it would be in a decentralised form and only with the consent of the town councils.)

It reinforces the point that helping town councils reduce instances of human-cat conflicts is paramount in winning them over. And that is a task that CWS will take up this year. It is making plans to engage HDB, MPs and TCs and call for like-minded people in this community to come forward with inputs and support towards this campaign.

In contrast to the stray cat, stray dogs remain far less tolerated on our streets. The govt still does not recognise the same trap and neuter programme for our canine friends. Yet the pet dog trade trumps the cat anyday.

Singapore being a free market, the govt does not interfere with the market supply of pets from breeders or in pet shops. Many advocates argued that more must be done to curb the supply, especially in the face of a growing number of abandoned pets in Singapore, many more dogs and an alarming number of pedigrees.

This would be music to our ears certainly but as unlikely as it is that the govt will restrict the trade in pet animals, they must at least answer for how well these animal traders are being policed. It became clear that AVA relies on whistleblowing to keep these traders in check.

As the day progressed, several areas of overlap surfaced that animal welfare groups could potentially collaborate on:

1) Allowing more categories of pets to be kept in flats like cats and medium-sized dogs.
2) Regulating the loaning of traps to the public for errant cats and monkeys.
3) Policing of unscrupulous breeding and trading of animals.

To their credit, AVA indicated a willingness to continue the dialogue beyond the symposium on many of the issues raised. One person from the floor said it best. She asked AVA to tell us how we, the animal welfare community, can help them make some of these long-awaited changes a reality. And this is an opportunity that AVA cannot quite afford to pass up.

Students made up a large percentage of the audience at the symposium, many recipients of the animal protectors grant with an impressive showing at the event. These student leaders and activists with a passion for animal welfare are likely to become our next generation of veterinarians and advocates. If AVA wants these future leaders in their fold and not on the opposite side of the table, this is the time to engage them.

And what these students want is the confidence that the govt and its policies can change. More than that, what they want is to be part of the movement that leads and that inspires the conscience of this country for animal welfare and for conservation, not trail behind it. You can just see it in their eyes.

Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium 2009

2009-05-22T20:09:00.006+08:00

The 2nd annual Singapore Animal Welfare Symposium was held last Saturday 16 May 2009 at the National University of Singapore. There were 2 panel sessions, one on Wildlife in Entertainment and the other on Domestic Animal Welfare.

Various issues were brought up about animal performances and arguments were bandied about the necessary public education and awareness aspect of these performances against the moral question about whether it is humane to train animals to perform unnatural behaviors for education, entertainment and revenues.

While this debate will certainly continue beyond the walls of the symposium, one pertinent question did come up that provides a practical handle on why rational sounding policies are so problematic when seen from the ground level. Senior-level management of entities like the Singapore Zoo and AVA, by nature of their profession and their position are grounded in a deep understanding of animal welfare issues and do, within parameters, aim to preserve and uphold these values on an organisational and national level.

Where it often falls apart is how these policies and values are translated on a day-to-day operational level. Which begs the question, is the staff on the ground reasonably qualified, indoctrinated and trained to execute these policies and practices with the same comprehension? The answer was that there is always room for improvement.

If improvement is what they seek, the animalfamily would like to highlight that this goes beyond the question of staff selection, qualifications and training, to empowerment. Is there sufficient empowerment for the staff to provide the kind of discernment and compassion on the ground that goes a long way on an emotional issue like animal welfare? Organisations dealing with animals certainly cannot be run like other govt agencies. Their ground staff cannot be like the many mindless administrators in so many govt offices, but be recognised and managed like what they really are, the keepers and custodians of countless lives every single working day.

I see two fronts that animal welfare advocates can and should pursue. One, to engage on a policy level, and the other, to hold agencies accountable for the execution of policies to a standard that even comes close to justifying their rationale.

There is a temptation for advocates to lump the two and to use unacceptable ground practices to make the leap towards calling for policy about-turns. And that’s where they run into a brick wall.

Ultimately, there is a time for discussing policy and there is a time to simply call out undesirable practices like use of withdrawal of food and coercion on performance animals and loaning traps without proper checks and investigation, for what they are - counter-intuitive to

# Safeguarding the health of animals, fish and plants.
# Building a positive image and enhance community outreach.
# Promoting animal welfare.
# Optimising the utilisation and return on resources.

Because they said it, we didn't.

(to be contd)

let's start a revolution

2009-05-12T19:07:00.009+08:00

These are exciting times for cat welfare volunteers, supporters and activists. In the beginning, they started websites, then forums and they blogged. Now more than ever, they have organised themselves into a remarkably coherent voice for the common community cat in our communal void decks and on our collective streets.

The woman remembers that singular moment when her flame for cat welfare was fanned into burning scorching action. That was 5 years ago when Maneki walked into her life. Back then, it was tough to get started. Cat Welfare Society helped by providing starter packets of information but because there were never enough people to start a TNRM group in this area, it didn’t make sense for CWS to come down to conduct workshops or to make contact with the town council.

The woman had to find her own way, attend a TNRM workshop in NLB, loan a couple of traps, make herself useful to the town council officer and just get on with it.

Blogs and bloggers certainly helped along the way but cold hard information was tough to come by to paint a coherent picture of how we arrived at the present milestones in cat welfare, who are our minor and major movers in government and civil society and what are the common goals for the future.

It is truly only after Facebook and the flowering connections it proffered that this organically emerging animal welfare ecosystem in Singapore is crystallising in a way that this feline hopes will inspire progressive thinking and greater action in Singaporeans for us Singaporean cats. Facebook connects people, their human faces and their stories on a level that surpasses their carefully crafted words that make up websites, blogs and forums. This has done more to move bodies of knowledge around at great speeds without saying any much more than people are already doing.

So if you haven’t found your way onto the bandwagon, maybe this is the time.

This blog has been featuring links to other animal welfare groups in Singapore since forever, it also spots a blogroll that I have just split into a local list and the rest of the world so that it is easier to monitor our very own catty echo chamber of meows and grunts.

If you want to join the revolution that is happening online, here is a list of Facebook groups that you can hook up with for starters. Perhaps by chance or design, we might become mutual online friends and fans and I look forward to that.

Organisations
Cat Welfare Society Page / Group
SPCA Singapore

Issues
Appeal to the AVA to Stop the Free Loan of Cat Traps
Cats in flats...
Support Pet Shops that Do Not Sell Pets
Stop Culling and Revive Stray Cats Rehabilitation Scheme in Singapore
STOP the culling of stray cats!

Support Groups
Cat-CareGivers' Support Group
Cat Fosterers (Singapore)
TnRM (Singapore and Malaysia)
Singapore Adoption Group

Student Groups
Cats Management Network
SMU Paw
NUS PEACE! People Ending Animal Cruelty and Exploitation
NUS Cat Cafe

Other Groups
Cat Absolut
Paw Pledge
MettaCats
Blessing Home

General
Cat Lovers Singapore
Singapore Community Cats

天冷就回來

2009-04-27T19:36:00.007+08:00

the woman saw "if there're seasons" and fell in love with this liang wenfu song.

it made me think about little old ladies and their community cats. i dedicate this to them...

rosie puts her mouth where her words are

2009-04-20T13:54:00.003+08:00

we are more human in a crisis

2009-04-04T02:29:00.005+08:00

The reality of 2009 has hit home. Charity organisations are looking at their financial year-end balance sheets and balking. Donors, volunteers, are looking long and hard at their own finances and commitments. Many have lost jobs.

Animal welfare is perhaps the hardest hit for its very nature. TNP recently threw a spotlight on a jobless man in Ang Mo Kio who has 80 stray cats under his care. Reactions to the story echo a general public sentiment that the jobless man and his kind are out of their blinking minds, spending money on CATS of all things in this crisis where so many people could use that extra lifeline. This sentiment spills over to animal welfare work on the whole.

It often escapes them that quite simply, cats don’t eat money, nor dogs, birds, sharks or whales. We might try it for a lark but still perfectly legal tender following a rinse after regurgitation.

We merely ingest a small measure of raw materials that money can buy. The bulk of the money spent goes right back to people, and lots of them. If spending is the way out of this crisis like we keep getting told, animal people are certainly no small part of that equation!

Lucky for us, our caregivers are legendary for their single-minded obstinacy. No job, no money but don’t even think about suggesting that they discontinue their feeding rounds or with TNRM. They know enough from watching their cats how to gnaw the thinking parts off a cold hard household pest.

These aunties and uncles are the very people carrying the brunt of a country’s uncertain economic future, but somewhere along the line, they rejected everything that this society has taught them and made the conscious, unwavering decision to focus on something outside of themselves rather than their own problems.

In a crisis, they become more resourceful, more willing to ask for help, forming their own network of collaborators and sponsors, and taking advantage of all available subsidies from organisations like SPCA and the Cat Welfare Society. And they are doing it in english, in mandarin, in malay, in tamil and several dialects.

The way a Toa Payoh caregiver sees it, “When you have money, you have no time. When you have time, you have no money.” So they go about joining the dots between the people with money and the people with time.

All the more, they look to animal welfare organisations to provide a level playing field with their programmes and subsidies. These organisations are able to connect recipients with donors on a far larger scale than any individual or group, to the combined tune of $110,000 last year for cat sterilisation alone. This is up from $90,000 from the previous year.

And they need to meet this growing demand in good times and in bad.

If you are surviving the crisis with a little extra in your pocket, please consider giving to the SPCA and the Cat Welfare Society. Cats don’t need your money but the uncles and aunties who love us do.

Tooty would like to thank the generous people out there who contributed to the hoarding case. In particular, Cat Welfare Society, Paw Pledge and the anonymous individuals all the more noble for their anonymity.

good news on the rehomed, the sterilised and the released

2009-03-31T11:18:00.007+08:00

the rehomed
ah ma's conjunctivitis kitties grow from this,

to this.

afiq (in the background) has a squinty eye while putri has a cloudy eye. still, they are in the care of a loving extended family so it's as good as it gets. their siblings are faring just as well, one as a royal family pet and one with a mummy inspired to greater cat welfare volunteerism.

the sterilised
just out of surgery but look at him go. popped out of his picnic basket for a merry-go-round in mario's moving taxi.

wonder what the people in the car behind make of this.

safely back in a more secured cage but still acting up, shredding the newspapers and lying on his back in defiance.

the woman had a bit of luck catching this one. he walked right up looking for food. but now, we are so waiting to let this constant whiner back out where you belong.

the released
auntie's released cats are doing fine. they get plenty of food and cat auntie company (definitely more than one, including the woman).

although one ginger with a knotted tail seems to be losing out in the pack. she bolts when she sees the woman and doesn't get to the food fast enough when it is left out. hope she gets her groove soon.

animal hoarding in Singapore

2009-03-28T00:29:00.013+08:00

City density does have its advantages. No animal hoarder has been left isolated and undiscovered long enough for the situation to spiral out of complete control. Usually an irate neighbour does everyone a service by blowing their horn.

Proximity to neighbours aside, it is probably also a reflection of our society that hoarders are kept from their irreversible slide from eccentricity to psychosis by their own tenuous but indissoluble family ties, and our wide-reaching government mechanisms. Their situations have hardly escalated to the kind of horror and devastation that are reported in bigger, more far-flung countries.

At least as far as we know.

Animal hoarding traits and types

Pet News Examiner Helena Sung provides an inventory of animal hoarding traits in her article What is animal hoarding? Psychological profile of a hoarder. They are used here to make a comparison of our two recent cases:

Yesterday, the Seletar Hills multi-cat home was featured in The New Paper. Are they borderline hoarders? It is hard to say without insight into their situation. But certainly the widely reported stench is worrying.

In most cases, hoarder caregivers are dealing with what the Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium identifies as an Overwhelmed Caregiver. Their self-esteem is linked to their role as caregiver. They have some awareness of their situation, have problems triggered by change in circumstances and yet are unable to resolve them effectively. This could happen to any caregiver, even the woman, and this is the category that Auntie falls under.

According to a HARC report, “the overwhelmed caregiver is more likely to respond to a softer, more therapeutically-oriented approach. S/he has greater insight that the situation is out of control, and may actually find some relief at the prospect of help and downsizing.” Also, threat of action from the authorities may be sufficient to reduce the likelihood of repeat offending.

Ah Ma is trickier. She leans towards being a Rescuer Hoarder, whose mission to rescue leads to compulsion. She takes an active rather than passive role to acquisition and believes she is the only one who can care for them. She also has an extensive network of enablers - neighbourhood people who think she is the best resort to leaving kittens and cats on the street and even compensates her with little gifts and donations for her ‘work’.

If Ah Ma’s case is anything to go by, verbal persuasion, even threat of action from authorities, is unlikely to be effective with this type of hoarder. They are paranoid and they do not take kindly to criticisms. Caregivers need to spend time and energy to gain their trust, usually by injecting large doses of flattery about their compassionate nature and tireless work.

The last type of hoarder we hope never to encounter. The Exploiter Hoarder is sociopathic, lacks empathy for people and animals, lacks guilt and remorse and has a need to control.

Local animal hoarding situation

No one has as yet looked into the local animal hoarding problem in any great detail. Perhaps there are nuances unique to our society. Certainly, we need to build up a set of tried and true intervention methods that works in this country. Currently, there are at least 5 cases (update: 7 cases) surfaced and handled by caregivers. With a growing aging population, increasing uncertainty of a globalised economy and widespread breakdown in family bonds, we can expect more cases ahead.

HARC recommends a multi-disciplinary approach that focuses the law, law enforcement, animal welfare organizations health department and social service agencies on this issue.

Right here, right now, there are just HDB by-laws, eviction letters and amateur caregivers. IMH has no answer, social services have no clue. Govt agencies have but two solutions, removal of animals or removal of said person and animals. Nothing is halting the hoarder's mental deterioration nor stopping the hoarder from repeat offending, leaving little room for preventing the suffering of the animals except with the promise of death.

A preliminary guide to hoarder intervention in Singapore

Ideally, hoarders are reconnected with their families when their situation improves. This is the case with Auntie, whose sister and niece's family have come to visit after the intervention.

In Ah Ma’s case when reconciliation is a long rocky road, the burden on the befriending caregiver is a big one. As these hoarders largely fall into the elderly or needy boxes or both, it is not unreasonable to expect involvement by befrienders, social workers, psychologists and counselors to reach a shared commitment to this problem. Yet none has been forthcoming.

Until they are, we need more Jaimes and Janets in Singapore. If you think you can fit into one of the roles below, please come stand with the giants and bring hope to these lonely suffering lives, on two legs and on four.

hoarder crisis averted – for now

2009-03-23T18:25:00.008+08:00

It was inevitable. Our old hoarder neighbour got her eviction letter.

The woman negotiated with HDB to give her time to help resolve the situation, namely, the smell that caused an entire floor of residents to band together crying for blood. They gave her a week. Deadline: Today.

First visit

The flat had not had a change of air in years. There was no moving air as every single window was shut to keep the cats in and prying eyes out.

Both kitchen and yard sinks were clogged.

While the walls and tiles were yellow with age, the space at first glance did look tidy and neat but for the bits of cat biscuits scattered by moving paws. The old woman is a cleaner and really, no one can fault her for not cleaning her flat. She sweeps and she mops relentlessly. Unfortunately, she only cleans what she can see.

And no one taught her anything about cat litter. The cats were given a large metal cage, encrusted over the years with rust and dried shit. It had an unwieldy bottom tray that on the day of the woman’s first visit, was inch deep in cat urine. No litter, not even newspaper to soak it up.

The woman then inspected the toyogo boxes. In every one of them were pools of age old urine seeped through when the cats had good sense to avoid their designated litter space for greener pastures. Obviously, these boxes had not been opened for years as the old woman had no idea!

The woman’s nickname at Ah Ma’s is “Chu Liu Xiang” for being able to withstand the worst smells. This time, the woman’s eyes and nose went on strike with water pistols.

The cats

The old woman started with two and they bred to double digits. Fed primarily on Friskies, they are nonetheless all healthy, full-figured with thick coats.

But the woman witnessed the heartbreaking sight of a mother rejecting her babies. The old woman had to chase after her with the newborn, only to be rebuffed. One had already died and it looked like this one would not survive the night either. The place was no longer conducive for newborns and the mother knew it before the old woman did.

So intervention could not have come too soon and the cats were sterilised in a week-long mass logistical exercise. Three were pregnant.

It was apparent even to the old woman that she could not cope with this many cats so she released some of her cats downstairs under the auspices of our TC officer and our cat feeding community.

They are terrified of course but they will be looked out for. Whitey and Orange took turns to shield each other from loud noises.

The clean up

The grills went up on the windows for air.

Out went the cage. They saved what they could from the toyogo boxes, including some rather nice glassware and crockery, and chucked the rest. It’s a good thing this old woman is not the stubborn ox that Ah Ma is, adamant on keeping every shred of her croach-infested human history.

The TC cleaners came for the old rusted fridge and the rotten kitchen cabinet.

The plumber came, the painter came.

It was something the old woman never imagined. That she could have strangers come into her flat and it would be ok.

Although these two kitties were none too happy with the invasion!

The neighbours

The neighbours also came to look in on the commotion. One thought the woman was moving in.

It was a good opportunity to ask them for their understanding of the old woman’s situation. Obviously, no one knew she was alone with no children, looking after a retarded brother.

They in fact, came to their own conclusion that it was not possible to take away all the old woman’s cats without causing her much pain and suffering and finally only asked that the situation with the smell be resolved.

One neighbour even spoke up to say that even though she was affected, she would not complain against a lonely old woman, causing some sheepish looks from the others.

All in all, the situation still needs to be carefully monitored to assuage neighbourly frayed nerves. The HDB officer is giving her a second chance and we need to cherish it.

Smalley in the Hedge

2009-03-16T13:25:00.005+08:00

cat abuse at choa chu kang

2009-03-12T19:31:00.004+08:00

The 'worst case of cat mutilation' was discovered at Blk 550 Choa Chu Kang on Street 52 on 21 Feb 2009.

Last Sunday, a group of us went door to door in the vicinity to see what information we could find about the case as well as to ask the residents to participate in a petition for more security measures to be put in place in the area.

Most of the residents were not aware of what had happened in their neighbourhood, although a few had seen the SPCA reward posters on the notice boards or read the TNP article. But after being told what happened to the cat, many were noticeably shaken and eager to ask for something to be done.

This was not a case of a misguided hot-headed or frightened individual protecting themselves or their territory from an errant cat. Appalling as those cases are, many might shake their heads but ultimately, find no real bearing on their own safety. This crime on their doorstep is a grotesquely meticulous, pre-meditated act with a highly lethal weapon, very much the work of a troubled individual seeking release in the worst possible way. Enough studies have shown the correlation of such violence against animals to violence against humans and that message has made more than a few residents sit up and take notice.

And this was not an isolated case in Choa Chu Kang. Equally gruesome was the pregnant tri-colour cat found on 29 Nov 2008 at Blk 130 Choa Chu Kang Ave 1 with her stomach slit open and guts hanging out. That makes two cases in Choa Chu Kang where mutilation with a knife or sharp object is evident. Over the years in that estate, the caregiver has found and cared for countless more injured or dead cats, bashed in, run over by bicycles, thrown from high floors.

Statistics on animal abuse in Singapore number in the hundreds every year – 800 on average. Most of these are pet-related, outcomes of irresponsibility, negligence and plain old stupidity. These perpetrators are usually ordinary people with some vital deficiency and we know there are too many of them littering the earth. If education, threat of fines and public humiliation cannot get through to them, well, let’s hope there are enough busybodies in this world to call them out on their shortcomings.

Just as importantly, we need to take a magnifying glass to the actual number of violent crimes committed against animals every year and the mode of abuse. We’d like to think the individuals who would take these actions are few but they are also gallingly hard to apprehend. Better profiling and records can make all the difference. Perhaps SPCA or the police are monitoring these cases but as a lay person, the woman was not able to get much more information than the yearly reported statistics.

Hand in hand with that, we would like to remind people to report all abuse cases to SPCA or to the police, if only so that a comprehensive database of abuse can be built that might force authorities to take closer notice of this insidious underlying threat to society. It might one day even help build a case against a perpetrator.

As the woman was assigned the block directly next to Blk 550, she and another volunteer encountered quite a few households who heard distressed cat cries several nights in a row around the time the body of the kitten was found. Their hearts sank when they heard this. One young girl who told them about the cries was also visibly cut up. Let’s hope she never hears those cries again in her neighbourhood.

conversations on cat welfare II

2009-02-28T03:02:00.004+08:00

Several significant connections were made at the cat welfare meeting between active individuals immersed in cat management in one way or another – TNRM, rescue, fostering, feeding.

Beyond cat management practices, potential advocacy and education/awareness platforms were shared and discussed. These ideas are being ironed out before they can be usefully shared. There is one they can start working on that will benefit from inputs from the wider cat community – you.

They plan to produce and disseminate a smart little booklet for general public consumption. More specifically, for people who don’t like cats. The booklet will educate, entertain and more importantly, provide practical, humane solutions for avoiding cat encounters on the streets and on their lawns.

This, it is hoped, will work towards reducing human-cat conflicts. Working on it might even open cat advocators’ eyes to the predicaments of those who find us less than adorable, even sinister and menacing. Frustrating as their phobias and prejudices are, bashing them really hasn’t gotten us any further along in our goals of getting cats into HDB flats and for the government to stop culling. Satisfying, yes but here’s the much needed Plan B.

Through the next few weeks, drafts of the book will be put up on this blog for comments. The woman’s initial thinking is that it will be in a no-nonsense B/W format downloadable online, also easily printed on any printer by anyone and freely given out to family, colleagues and neighbours.

Owing to her animal welfare and eco interests, the woman has had the good fortune of meeting many socially conscious, passionate people like the cat activists and volunteers who attended “Conversations”. Justifiably, she has been encouraged to think that perhaps people in Singapore of her age and younger are differentiating themselves from those before them by becoming more engaged and more involved in the social and in the political.

If you think the same, you would be wrong. Findings from a recent study on local Y-Gen’s attitudes will knock you off your feet. Y-Geners (born 1977 to 1997) are found to be a very pragmatic lot – they want remuneration for their work. No surprises there. Yet while ability to make decisions and implement changes is cited as the main reason for choosing not to work for the government, a whopping 77% indicated that they should not have a voice/say in any government policies.

So let there be no lingering delusions of grandeur for us rabble-rousers. We have no audience. If the message is too robust for local sensitivities, we will be like a posthumously decorated JBJ making his final stand outside Raffles City, ignored.

That's why the book idea is worth a fair shot. Cat advocators need to speak the regular language of the general population and of the government. As important as words like ‘compassion’, ‘karma’ and ‘rights’ are, they really only work in novels, on TV series and in America. They don’t work in campaigns, on letters and in forums simply because they are too elusive, too vague to bridge the psychological gaps between the 23% and the larger 77%. we need grounded words like 'responsibility', 'co-operation' and 'mutual benefit'. It’s worth thinking about.

continuing stroke of luck with new TC officer

2009-02-26T17:43:00.004+08:00

We have a new TC officer and she is a cat-lover! There has been some complaints about the number of community cats in the estate but she lets it be known that the TC abides by the general rule that sterilised cats will not be removed.

The sun is finally shining on our estate.

But the area she is referring to is a problematic one that keeps us busy catching and sterilising every few months. There must be at least one chronic breeder upstairs if not more. The officer has spotted kittens in one of the corridors and the woman will hopefully be able to follow the lead this time to the culpable unit.

The woman also reconnected with a feeder who discovered an old hoarder in the neighbourhood. The old cleaner lives with her mentally challenged brother and 20 cats, although the number can’t be confirmed as the old woman opens her door only enough to speak through it. Even so, the putrid stench can fell a grown man. Only seasoned cat aunties like the woman and the feeder are able to stand their ground without so much as an involuntary nose twitch as they coax the old woman to let them sterilize and install grills for much-needed ventilation.

They met minor success when the old woman agreed to neuter her male cats. The whole experience brought forth geriatric tears as she passed the cats out to the woman one by one. It’s a start. She has still to relent on the females and help in cleaning and grilling. At least there will be no more new litters for now.

These are the small victories that the woman keeps her eyes on when the decision to fund cat welfare efforts becomes more complex in our present economic climate. Yet all the more, it calls for dedication and determination from volunteers and sponsors to stay the course. It will really be a crying shame if we let our collective labours be undone by a prolonged but ultimately temporary bad situation.

Ginger needs you!

conversations on cat welfare

2009-02-20T14:32:00.012+08:00

the cat blogosphere has been ablaze with fresh activity since ava’s banal “no easy response to stray cats” rejoinder to the spirited TODAY feature on Dr Tan Chek Wee “the outspoken doc”.

the govt’s arguments about cats being a nuisance and hazard are laundered yearly right down to its bare threads and so past its sell-by date, it’s heartening to see people still with politically-correct words left in their defense. i only have one, @#%.

then the grisly discovery of 45 cats buried in seletar stunned the nation. cat lovers grieved. seletar residents fretted. cat non-lovers were appropriately respectful. the media prepared for a bonanza. and how the authorities must have braced themselves for an impending public relations problem.

true to fashion, TNP sold many papers with their provocative features on cat aids and Tony Tan Tuan Khoon. they freaked the public and gave Tony and cousin Choo their cringe-worthy airtime. but they also ignited a coherent campaign against govt funding and support for vigilante cat trapping by ordinary citizens that might actually stick.

it is a point worth driving home to the powers upstairs: rubber-stamping culling as a reasonable method of reducing strays spawns the likes of Tony, one civic-minded law-abiding poster boy no respectable govt agency wants to be associated with.

while the cat community keeps the dialogue alive on blogs, on forums, on facebook, perhaps it is time for a parallel approach. as we continue the battle of words, letters and petitions, perhaps it is time to see it from the govt’s perspectives and offer concrete solutions to the sticky issues that they cite time and again as deterrents towards more progressive and humane policies. and this may actually require working alongside the govt to tackle their pet issue – reducing public complaints on strays. it’s a tall order but one worth pursuing.

already, AVA numbers show a definite down trend in nuisance calls. CWS should take the credit for that for their relentless effort in engaging TCs and AVA, providing support for caregivers and channeling resources to education, mediation and to sterilisation. that barrel needs to keep rolling.

and still there is always room for fresh ideas and platforms if the right people can come together on it. and that is where “Conversations on Cat Welfare” comes in. we are meeting tomorrow 21 Feb 3pm at Food#03 on 109 Rowell Rd.

this informal meeting hopes to identify current gaps in cat welfare practices, areas of collaboration and ultimately spin off projects that will help the cause. these can eventually be taken up individually or collectively.

to start the ball rolling, some information has been collated to provide perspective on the cat welfare ecosystem in singapore. this is by no means complete and inputs are welcomed to make this a robust repository for the benefit of everyone. if anything, our message is that it is time for the cat community to work together despite differences, share information as much as possible and to support each other’s ideas and efforts, because the stray cats downstairs can only benefit from more of them, not less.

click on images to enlarge
CCM = community cat management
AWO = animal welfare organisations

Before 1998
*150,000 stray cats
*13,000 stray cats culled annually
*14,000 cat nuisance calls

1998 – Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) (then PPD – Primary Production Dept) implemented Stray Cat Rehabilitation Scheme (SCRS)

2001 – 28,000 stray cats impounded

2003 – AVA terminates scheme
*80,000 stray cats (10,000 sterilised)
*16 Town Councils (TC) & 500 volunteers on TNRM
*Cat nuisance calls spike during SARS, sterilised cats also at risk
*AVA & TCs culling bill up 20% ($62,000) to $598,944 to catch and cull 7,682 cats and 4,744 dogs

2006 – AVA supports sterilisation by volunteers with subsidy and communication to TCs

if you have an interest in cat welfare, feel free to come join us.

slumcats can be millionaires too

2009-02-19T02:55:00.005+08:00

i can see the vivid unforgiving streets of mumbai in her thought cloud. in her 2am reverie, the woman tells me why she can’t go to india

she will come back to our flat with no less than

ten babies
five monkeys
eight dogs
twenty cats
and one elephant

three with four legs between them
two blind
one abused

she will raise the children as her own

four will be teachers
three counsellors
two social entrepreneurs
one politician

they will be religious

three as muslims
three as hindus
three as christians

in pairs, they will
save strays
save whales
champion the environment
champion the poor
while one writes about it

and her favourite child, the one with the unhappy eyes under a fringe of curls

he is the godless vigilante
she will raise him on gun justice for silky gangster, mercenary, criminal scalps

the thought sends serotonin bursts through her cheerless insomniac neural crevices. but just before her hand grows still on my tipped ear and she drifts away, another occurs to her

the children will more likely rebel against their crazy hippie adopted mother. they will be sterling citizens

four as lawyers
three as bankers
two integrated resort developers
and one game show host

sweet unhappy dreams

rule no. 5 - don’t balk at their poverty

2009-02-07T17:44:00.007+08:00

it is a shabby place with little creature comforts but there is nothing to despise, to pity or to be ashamed of here.

this is the kind of simplicity and pride that ah ma’s own children, closer to our generation, cannot embrace and shrink away from. maybe in the name of progress, maybe of conformity but mostly of this insane crippling quality called ‘face’.

but ah ma soldiers on. and she is laughing in our powdered faces. her home, with just that modest injection of human connection, is now one that rings of laughter, playful antics, new friends and romance.

you really can’t take away anything from anyone who doesn’t want to give it.

ah ma with ah orh gia

heng heng & mi mi the dog

heng heng the self-appointed protector of the weak and the small

ah orh was found tied with 4 other cats to ah ma's gate last month. it hurt her but ah ma released them downstairs. clever ah orh would not budge and becomes one of the family

cheeky little ah orh gia

ah ma's favourites - mi mi the cat & ni ni

tua tau in retirement

animal family retirement plan

2009-01-23T15:50:00.005+08:00

it’s pretty clear we will not reach solid ground in a while. the only certainty, in fact, is that we will be hit and we will lose – something – in this global financial meltdown. if we are lucky, it will be nothing more than our meticulously charted projection of a retirement with x dollars for a elderly-friendly flat, a tv, a fridge and a cat. but increasingly, it does look like we will lose a lot more than that.

if you have just tuned in, you are watching Tooty's self-help guide to navigating your uncertain future. lucky you. things are looking up already.

paramount rule number one in saving your future – save your money. don’t listen to the fools who are asking us to spend our way out of this rut. they put us there in the first place.

rule two and it cannot be said enough – don’t spend more than you earn. if you have broken rule two, don’t fret. we will let you know about our next flea market.

rule three – recycle. huh, you say? what’s that got to do with anything? when we are doddering on a walking cane, abandoned by our children, can’t afford healthcare, we don’t want to worry about the weather too. trust me.

rule four – if you lose money, let it go.

rule five – let go of your parents’ and politicians’ limiting definition of what a good life is. prosperous, comfortable, secure, enviable. with smug words and false sympathy, they shamed their peers with less and they made them hungry. and we are still doing it. stop.

rule six – if you lose your job, try and try again. and aren’t you glad you supported rule number five?

rule seven – plug in. don’t be left behind by technology. all the more, we need to connect to, learn from and find support in more people than it is physically possible to meet. let's make a date to play online mousehunt in about thirty years.

there you have it, the animal family retirement plan. thank you for watching.

Flea Mania, GN'R for the love of cats

2009-01-16T13:43:00.009+08:00

See you tomorrow on 17th Jan Saturday at Sculpture Square for Flea Mania, a flea market bazaar for the benefit of stray cats in Singapore. It takes place from 10am to 5pm. Sculpture Square is on Middle Road, beside Fortune Centre. Besides having many things to buy, there will also be kittens for adoption. Come come!

*
with that out of the way, allow me to indulge…

you know what makes this cat purr like a freight train, fly like an aeroplane? a sprawling wilderness of blackboard scratching affliction that is a guns n’ roses song.

for sure, these tunes aren’t pretty. they don’t end quite soon enough. and not without some hard swallowing. instead, they travel on a riotous musical trajectory not unlike the wheels of a human mind wandering through its cerebral crevices towards a concluding thought. and it still wouldn’t be close to the last word on the subject.

most songs are a pronouncement of the artists’ state of mind - simplified, contained and ultimately resolved. presented as a final proclamation of happiness, sorrow, remorse or whatever. a gn’r song injects you right in there with the artist, swimming, drowning, grasping for clarity, suffering for, and relishing every revelation and indecision.

there is something to be said about the unmade-up mind which is often not more appreciated. they are minds still engaged. for those whose worldview is well and truly set, those conversations are essentially dead and dried up. and where does that leave us?

recently, the woman encountered a clash of cultures between a cat foster and potential adopter. the foster is dead set against the potential adopter because she has heard too many stories. it’s not right she admits, but would you gamble away the life of a kitten on ideals about tolerance and harmony?

the woman looks at the kitten in her hands and she wavers. ultimately, she gave the kitten to the adopter.

while those of us who are more informed and involved have reached certain conclusions about how best a cat should be cared for and protected, we still shouldn't take them as the last final words on the subject.

the work of a cat welfare volunteer is to engage and to help all kinds of people along to new understanding and new revelations. if we are set and hardened as bricks, what we might do is save that one kitten. how about the many that we cannot reach with just one hand on the left and one on the right?

*

white grey and black curly well and fully recovered!

homeless by will

2009-01-06T18:26:00.008+08:00

after visiting ah ma’s place on saturday, the woman was brought along to visit a homeless mother and son who lives on the streets with their dog and a lame bird. their plight is unfortunate but up to a point, the woman became strangely unmoved.

two years ago when they owned a flat, the thirty year old son and his mother adopted a stray dog with a history of abuse. the story of the recovery of the dog under their care is a remarkable one.

then for reasons unknown, they sold their flat. to keep their dog who has a deep mistrust of people, they rented an apartment to themselves for a hefty $1300 per month. that depleted their savings completely and they were not yet eligible for the government rental flats.

options were given by the MP and by friends and relatives for shelter but none allowed the dog to stay with them. they opted for the streets.

our hearts go out to them who rather face the streets than to abandon their dog in a crisis. but just as unsettling as the deplorable lack of options for animal caregivers, especially poor animal caregivers, is their own stubborn, imprudent and reliant attitudes.

besides looking out for a cheap pet-friendly place for them to stay, Jaime found a sponsor willing to put the dog up at a farm. she is also scouring for job opportunities for the son who is currently unemployed.

but the mother did not want to leave the dog. when a job opening came up, the son said his mother could not handle being on the street on her own. by the way, they had nothing to eat, could Jaime come bring them some food?

this is classic circular defeatist reasoning. because you aren’t working you are living on the street. and because you are living on the street, you can’t work. to his credit, the son did make it to his first day at work and we hope he will keep it.

as for the dog, living on the run from residents, from authorities and other roving homeless people with existing claims on park benches and pavilions is no way to overcome his deep-seated emotional problems. being on a farm with experienced animal caregivers with regular visits from his owners may in fact save his sanity, if only the mother and son can see past their overwhelming need to keep it by their side.

quite frankly for a thirty year old man and his fifty year old mother, it is far too early to let go of their self-sufficiency, their dignity and their good sense. they are not a doddering 70 year old who can't be called upon to do much for herself.

but if they were a little wiser, they would not be in the predicament they are in now. what do you do?

adoptions & flea mania

2008-12-30T15:08:00.004+08:00

our four kittens have found new homes. one extraordinary family even took in the two whose eyes are a mess and will keep them even if they never fully recover. that is the kind of news that restores our faith in Christmas.

more festive news: FleaMania is organising a pre-CNY flea market where stall rental proceeds will go towards Pawpledge's stray cat sterilisation and care fund. do drop by if you are free to chat, to chill and to rummage!

FLEA MANIA
Saturday, 17 January 2009 10am - 5pm
Sculpture Square, 155 Middle Road (Outside My Secret Garden)

Cat Welfare Society, House Rabbit Society of Singapore and the NTU Cat Cafe will also be joining Pawpledge there. so will our woman and she is bringing 2 kittens from ah ma's place along. besides clean comfy new homes, they need all the hugs and kisses they can get!

come visit them on the 17th!

glut and brutality

2008-12-19T17:21:00.005+08:00

thanks ocha, for the link to internet users angry about cats on menu.

my heart sinks when i see my feline brothers and sisters caged like this to be bought, sold, weighed and finally eaten. then i remember our friends in poultry, cattle and other farms who suffer the same fate and i am not sure i have the right to complain.

but i say this for all of us who are lesser than the mighty men. i can understand if a starving person had to catch us to fill his family’s stomach. i can even understand if someone had no other livelihood but to farm us. because they are careful with what they have and they are grateful for what they are given.

for the rest of you, why are you so hungry? so hungry you have exchanged your natural abhorrence to glut and brutality that is shark’s fin soup, whale meat, foie gras, veal, fur coats and on and on, and for what? for that bloated esteem of living what is a good life. that is what it is. i hope you are happy.

slow recovery

2008-12-19T14:44:00.004+08:00

the 2 white ones are out of danger but white grey and black curly are still battling for their sight. even with the reduced swelling, what we can see of the eye is cloudy... :(

geriatric robin hood

2008-12-14T02:06:00.003+08:00

these months the woman spent at the old hoarder lady’s has been akin to falling down a rabbit hole into another world. just when she thought she had ah ma’s world all figured out, she throws her another surprise or two .

chatting with the ah ma while cleaning, jaime translated for the woman that she was happy that after many years of silence, her youngest son showed up and gave her pocket money. things did seem to be looking up. her other son, an ex-convict, has also been consistently working and close to getting his taxi license with jaime and janet’s help and encouragement.

then ah ma asked for money again. when they had lunch with her at her favourite kopitiam, they figured out why she is always short when she consistently receives money from several sources: her daughter, jaime and janet and some kind people in the neighbourhood.

they saw ah ma give a substantial sum of money on the side to the coffee shop cleaner, a mildly autistic middle-aged man who is also her errand boy when she needs help with the heavy lifting. the poor guy was always getting an earful from the volunteers because he is the one who gives ah ma her constant supply of chicken heads for the cats!

as it is, he is the sole provider for his elderly mother and a severely incapacitated sister. the kopitiam stall owners help him out by giving him work and food and a little extra collection from each stall every month. then last week, a con-woman came along and cleaned him out with her cheap promises.

so ah ma gave him an ear lashing and what money she had. they already knew she was her own one-woman soup kitchen in the neighbourhood. a motley bunch of people would crawl out of the woodwork everyday to take their meals with her at the kopitiam and she would pay. the volunteers thought she was probably lonely and needed the company but they could not have been more wrong. the instinct that compels her to take in all those sad animals is exactly the same as what compels her to spread what little she has around.

and she is smart about it. ah ma has no qualms taking, begging and even defrauding the haves just so she can give to the have-nots, like some kind of geriatric robin hood. she is also the kopitiam mafia, so luck to the con-woman if she shows up again!

___________________________

in another twist of this wonderland tale, someone left ah ma four kittens this week and they all suffer severe conjunctivitis. the woman has convinced herself and all of us that we have NO CHOICE but to offer them the hospitability of our utility room so here they are depriving us of our strategic neighbourhood look-out point, our vital evil plan headquarters above the wardrobe and sleep.

two have found adopters and two will go on the adoption boards as soon as they are pretty again.

get well soon kiddos and we will be glad to see you out of here!

harbourfront kitty savior

2008-12-04T10:55:00.004+08:00

on the way home yesterday, the woman came across a lady carrying a 1-plus-month kitty in her beaded sweater at the harbourfront bus terminal next to the seah im food centre. she found it wandering around and was taking it home! that put a smile on the woman's face.

speaking with a japanese or korean accent, the lady said that she already has 2 cats at home. so still ardent, still unhesitating. she is the woman post-fruitcake and pre-everyone else. good luck, pretty lady!

the woman did see an unsterilised cat there and wonders if anyone is looking after this area.

the cat, the elephant and the shopper/hero

2008-12-02T19:14:00.007+08:00

‘tis the season to be jolly…

it’s that time of the year again to overspend, overeat and if we remember, say a word of thanks to the Lord for what he’d done for us on the holiest of days. meow.

incidentally, the woman just attended a screening at The Other Side of “What Would Jesus Buy?”. goofy, hilarious, crass, inspiring and moving all at once, it chronicles the adventures of a colourful performance activist group who takes christmas shoppers by surprise in the mega malls across the u.s. of a with their message to STOP SHOPPING and start giving. an insanely noble human effort, which after three long years, may just have found traction if only because of the financial collapse.

so let us all act on what we know: mindless spending, bad. hoarding cash, also bad. so how about spending where it counts?

several doors down from The Other Side on rowell road is Post-Museum, an independent arts venue that is hosting “Shopper/Hero”, a bazaar cum exhibition for the charming, beautiful things created and promoted by NGOs and other cause-related organisations in Singapore that channels your hard-earned dollars where they are needed: widowed mothers, aids sufferers and landmine victims in cambodia, transient workers in singapore, antarctic whale defense, to name a few.

my christmas wishlist includes one of these! please, pretty please?

also racing for a piece of the collective consciousness is the very accomplished conservation-themed children’s book “The Elephant and The Tree” by Jin Pyn Lee. this illustrated story is a dark one because it is a real one. it speaks a truth that goes right to the gut of an adult as it does the imagination of a child and invites the kind of conversation a parent and child should have this christmas. to see beauty in reality and reality in beauty. for the thinking child, happily ever after is for them to pen by way of how they think and what they do after reading this story.

for the inspired, come up close with the author and elephant conservationists at the Botanic Garden’s Botany Centre on 13 dec from 10:30 to 16:30. “The Secret Affair of the Asian Elephant” promises to be a day of fun and learning with talks, free film screenings and photo exhibition.

finally, not forgetting our kinsmen are kucingcoast and pawpledge whose calendars and racers raise money for stray kitties. the animal family is on a spreeeeee…

so before you stock that tree this Christmas, i leave you with the catchy refrains of Rev Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping gospel choir:

“pack the malls with folks with money,
‘tis the season to be dummies…”

you figure the rest. merry christmas!

animal family hierarchy II

2008-11-23T16:36:00.003+08:00

2 years ago, i spoke about the animal family hierarchy in which i was the de facto leader to Rosie’s titled queen-ship in the family. about this, i have a sad tale of caution to all those of you out there who still hold on to the notion that you can aim to please everyone and still remain a cat of influence in a pecking order.

this is the wild west, baby. you may lay your whiskers on down cushions, manicure your spikes on ikea shelving boards and take your bread on a buffet line of vet-approved kibbles. don’t let such entrapments fool you for a second that primal catty nature does not reign like a God-given right in the big-eyed fur ball dozing next to you.

there are now 2 factions in the animal family. not conspicuous to the unobserving human eye but a game of life and death for a cat that is slowly falling out of favour with the queen bee and a tom that spots a certain ill-placed moustache.

the furr-her

yep, Chaplin the kitler is unleashing his mojo (or what’s left of it) on a predominantly matriarchal household up to now. the queen is not relinquishing her regal position just yet but there is definitely a truce treaty being negotiated between staring challenges, snarls, minor skirmishes and chalking of a school yard line down the middle of the animal family. and then unexpectedly, the adversaries give each other a tongue bath like Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.

this sophisticated rivalry between our queen and furr-her brings civilisation to animal family. bar room scuffles and brawls are replaced by parliamentary cunning, back-scratching and treachery as the new rules of engagement.

the black and white bishops are ordained. shrewdly-wired Blackie slides into Chaplin’s quarter while Suede makes good her life-long loyalty to the queen. it is Blackie that makes a direct line to everyone else that softens the clumsy hard edge of her bratty napoleonic furr-her. she is his perfect ally against the Rosie-Suede pairing that is formidably in size and chilly air of superiority.

the black bishop

Calico is the knight-ingale of grace, honour and a higher calling that takes no sides in a war she considers foolish and juvenile. she is the tragic hero that defends and licks wounded egos of fallen warriors as she mulls over their fallen nature.

the knight defends the white bishop

Papa and Fruity stands apart as towers. they are good alliances but they give none and they get none.

the tower

so finally, that leaves Tuxedo, Smally and me to be tossed around by the winds of change. Tuxedo and Smally are hapless but there is really no good excuse for a cat of ideals like me, however modest. ultimately, i was the bishop without the cunning and the knight without the principle that left me out cold with the rest of the peasantry.

the hapless pawn

but I am learning the diplomacy of making peace and keeping it. and soon, they will have to craft a new piece for this animal family chess board – a 12th century Conservator of the Peace to my antiquated counterparts-at-arms.

bak bak and leafty under a tree

2008-11-11T19:13:00.003+08:00

sounds like a title for a children's book. appropriate because for these two special friends, their story lives on. somewhere.

yes, Bak Bak has passed on and has since joined Leafty under the shade of a tree.

since his passing, our thoughts and feelings in the family waver from heartache at one moment and relief in another. we can’t believe he is gone but at the same time, it can be nothing but a timely flight from a body that refused to function a long time ago.

also, it leaves us not any more convicted for or against euthanasia. Bak Bak was a special case for whom the virus attacked the nerves such that he lost feeling in his leg and body. he continued to be same old Bak Bak from the waist up, wanting to be stroked, to be cuddled, to be loved.

the vet recommended that we put him down once he stopped eating but we couldn’t do it. even as he wasted away, he was still same old Bak Bak from the waist up. and then he drifted off into a coma and we thought it would be right to let him just pass away in his own time.

but it dragged. on and on for days as his body shrunk more and more. and doubt began to seep in. is he in pain? is he in a nightmarish septic delirium? is he at peace? who really knows?

on the last day, he woke up and he meowed for us. that was a shock. was he crying in pain? or was he trying for the last time to be same old Bak Bak, wanting to be stroked, to be cuddled, to be loved? but it dawned on us, most of all, he wanted to live.

he drifted back into a coma and was finally taken. we are at peace. he fought his fight in exactly the time it takes to say goodbye. as I write this, the tears are streaming but they are not sad tears. because we can smile at the legend he leaves behind. the same legend that precedes him where he is going.

but what kind of decision would we make for the next cat? we don’t know. the question of dying cannot be that easily solved. and in some odd way, we take comfort in that.

going to be soon, too soon

2008-11-01T19:37:00.000+08:00

sleep, my dear. sweet dreams.

which are you?

2008-10-31T18:32:00.001+08:00

if you are a person who has an uncommon feeling for the weak, the strays and the downtrodden and feel quite alone in your point of view, this piece of research might help shed some light on why when it seems so obvious that saving a life, ending suffering should be in the highest priority, others can look away citing what seems like watered down reasons for public good.

in a less elegant and scientific way, i, in my feline wisdom, have come up with my own observation about the different social attitudes that exist in Singapore. Jonathan Haidt made a very successful career studying the same phenomenon.

his Moral Foundations Theory looks at the way morality varies between cultures and identifies five fundamental moral values shared to a greater or lesser degree by different societies and individuals. these are
1. care for others, protecting them from harm
2. fairness, justice, treating others equally.
3. loyalty to your group, family, nation
4. respect for tradition and legitimate authority.
5. purity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions.

before you read on, rank these five moral values for yourself.

as the blogger and champion for this family who takes my cue mainly from the man and woman of this animal house, here’s how I rank
1. loyalty to your group, family, nation – this family is everything to me
2. respect for tradition and legitimate authority – man and woman, your wishes are my command, most of the time…
3. fairness, Justice, treating others equally – felines like fairness, no favouritisms please.
4. care for others, protecting them from harm – i do care but cats like our privacy and I am just respecting everyone else’s, yeah?
5. purity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions - I am pretty disgusting in my habits and lovin’ it.

this is how the woman ranks
1. care for others, protecting them from harm – non-negotiable
2. loyalty to your group, family, nation
3. fairness, Justice, treating others equally.
4. purity, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions.
5. respect for tradition and legitimate authority.

by american definitions, that makes me a down turf conservative and the woman a flaming left-wing liberal. why I think Sarah Palin is a hot folksy harmless hockey mom and the woman thinks McCain is on drugs to put her so close to the steps of the white house.

interestingly, my ranking mirrors the man’s.

he will lay down everything for the welfare of the family while the woman will be out throwing herself at the world in hopes of saving it. there is no right and wrong, of course. conservative thinkers preserve much needed structure and order to society: state, family, traditions, institutions. liberal thinkers buck it when they see the wreckage trailing behind these big shiny buses.

in all fairness, you need the both for society to progress spiritually and intellectually yet still in keeping to a pace that remains hospitable and tidy to most. in Singapore, my conversative voice certainly rings much louder in the hawker centres, in shenton way and in parliament. but if we are to become the vibrant city that we keep hearing about, it bodes well that while we retain the societal structures that serve us well in keeping us safe, organised and sparkling, we give room to these eccentric liberals who would not let go of a life, be it an old cranky old woman, a stray mangy cat or a tired misused elephant, room to do what no one else will, which is to plug the gaps left gaping open by the sharp unseeing corners of societal building blocks.

Bak Bak's hospital visit

2008-10-27T16:18:00.001+08:00

Bak Bak is starting to refuse food so they brought him to the vet yesterday to see what they can do to make him more comfortable.

he is as curious and as oblivious as ever to his condition, making eyes at a passing dog and taking a keen interest in the coys in the pond.

the vet recommended the drip twice a day and the man and woman decided they would do that at home where Bak Bak can still be in familiar surroundings amongst family with room to roam when he wants.

their first in-home-intravenous-attempt went well. he hardly protested like he did at the vet's.

he even took a short stroll afterwards!

old smoking feeder

2008-10-27T15:53:00.001+08:00

second stop this weekend, they visited *Wendy*'s ex-friend, old chain-smoking feeder. it's not the horror story they were expecting but certainly the air in the spartan but spotless apartment is pretty stale. the only windows open are the top vents above the casement windows.

the three kittens and their mother are very tame and at ease with people, a very good sign. the man and woman introduced themselves as cat welfare volunteers who will help to sterilise the cats when they are of age. that got them through the door. after offering to bring them back some eye and deworming meds, the man broached the subject of meshing the windows. it was surprisingly well-received so it must be the man's touch with old auntie types...

this one is so pretty and knows it. she has no qualms hogging all the attention and camera time!

busy long weekend

2008-10-27T15:27:00.001+08:00

it's the man's bday but there's work to be done. they visited Socks who is very happy in his new home. he now lives in the lap of luxury in a hip city studio with direct view of the singapore flyer. lucky cat!

yeah, we can see you are totally at home there!

at dinner

2008-10-25T02:40:00.003+08:00

dinner conversation turns to the topic of the animal family today. it is quite usual then for friends to start wondering about whether it is right to lock up cats. today, they also thought about whether it is right to let Bak Bak continue to face his fate. this mind you, coming from a doctor.

as cat welfare volunteers, we know our course of action. but it does throw up some food for thought. what is more important? to be free or to be free from suffering? in our crazy world, these two values are in increasing opposition. in many instances, you can only fulfill one to the detriment of the other.

humans usually have a choice, to live with abandonment or to live cloistered. to plead doctors to save you at all cost or to give them an advanced medical directive. us cats do not have that kind of control over our fate so these well-meaning moral wranglings about being free or free from suffering hold no real meaning for us. ultimately, survival and pain is just as much a part of life as everything else.

so if you have to make choices for us, we only ask that you make them with the conviction of your love. if you must keep us in, do it because you can give us your best. if you must help us along to a better place, let it be because you done your best. if you must allow us to hold on to this precious bitter sweet life to the very end, let it never be in darkness, away from your presence, your thoughts and your prayer.

already, to have you make any decisions about us makes us the lucky ones, over the many whose fates are left to blow in the wind.

saved from AVA, our community queen, Frazzle, still rules the roost.

Bak Bak's legs

2008-10-23T11:10:00.006+08:00

it's happening, as if losing one is not bad enough.

Bak Bak is losing control of his hind legs. while he still has sensation in them, they just won't prop him up anymore. it is therefore pretty amazing that with the partial lameness and blindness, Bak Bak hasn't once shown signs of being distressed. he eats, he is curious and he never fails to respond to affection. we wonder if he is oblivious to his condition. if the woman holds him up from behind, he will paddle his way around the house like it's any normal day, except that he has this clumsy person behind trying to keep up.

but we are not kidding ourselves here, the vet doesn't offer much hope...

so we take our blessings where they come. after the passing of our dear rabbit, Tuxedo rose to the challenge by making it a point to fill our rabbit's larger than life paws. he became the one who gave comfort to Bak Bak. it does present a painful dilemma. do we risk Tuxedo catching the virus? do we let Bak Bak live out the rest of his life alone? in the end, we let the two friends enjoy their time together as long as we dared. but Bak Bak is in his own space now.

Tuxedo is no doubt one of the least news-making member of this family. ever since they arrived as a bunch of kittens with a serious eye infection, he has lived in perpetual shadow of his sister, Calico. she was the one who needed more time and attention from being the more sickly and subsequently, from the sheer force of her personality. and Tuxedo remained the one who operated behind the scenes. he was Leafty's champion when most of the kittens have left or grown up and out of their childhood friend, he was and still is a giving big brother to a sister who isn't always appreciative. and now, he is an angel to a sickly Bak Bak.

being this quiet and unassuming makes it easy to get lost in this bustling household. when the more extroverted of us have tired of imposing ourselves on the woman with our chatter and antics, that is when he shows up to lie his head on her arm or leg. the woman makes it a point that his silent nudges for attention do not go unnoticed.

most of all, the woman will never forget how Tuxedo was the one that stood by her when she cried over Leafty and for that, he holds a very special place in her heart.

perils of a chain smoker

2008-10-21T14:07:00.002+08:00

woman hears about an old feeder in the neighbourhood who chain smokes with cats in the apartment. apparently she will not open a single window in the apartment for a variety of reasons.

this news comes from *Wendy* who knows her from their nightly rounds to feed strays. she wants the woman to mesh up the old feeder’s windows to let in a little air for the cats. that is the easy part. convincing the old feeder is quite another matter.

for a start, the old feeder sounds like your typical hardnosed, mistrustful, paranoid, cranky old woman. when wendy brought up the issue to her, she burned her bridges and slammed the door on her long time friend. and then there is wendy herself, who is working herself into a relapse. she is extremely agitated, constantly calling and smsing the woman to belabour her few circular points. i. "the cats are going to die" ii. "the old feeder is crazy" iii. "you must help" iv. "the cats are going to die" v. "the old feeder is crazy"... you get the picture.

there is no walking away from this, of course. what is the worst that can happen? the old feeder will wreck the door slamming it and wendy will scream blue murder that the woman did not follow her precise instructions to the tee. can't be worse than not trying.

even without smoke, we can't imagine closing a single window at our place!

last breath

2008-10-15T10:49:00.000+08:00

thanks everyone for your kind words.

Leafty’s peaceful passing at home is a real consolation to us but brings back a lot of guilty feelings towards the passing of Bobby. in their mindless attempt to save him, he was put through a lot of treatments at the hospital and the worse part was that he died there alone in the middle of the night, before the man and woman could get to the hospital.

animals don’t know the good intentions of hospitals and drips, they only know if you are there with them or you are not.

when the woman finally got to the hospital to see his lifeless body, his tortured expression haunts her to this day. We know he is in a better place now, waiting happily and patiently for the reunion of the family. but on his last breath on earth, he must have been thinking, “where are all of you?”

the end of an era

2008-10-14T14:27:00.001+08:00

the man and woman left Leafty in his favourite nook under Bak Bak's chin yesterday morning. that was their last memory of Leafty. he left us during the day.

it was his look of peace and quiet dignity that consoled the woman. the albino dwarf rabbit who arrived from spca with pee stains on his snow coat lived his life with his heart wide open and left it the same way, deeply connected to everyone around him. even ailing, he did for the kitten no less than what he had done for countless others before him. for Bak Bak, he showed that the cat's instinct to withdraw from the sense of our own weakness is no way to live at all.

and so your work here is done. rest now, little one.

Tuxedo stood by as the woman said her final goodbyes to that small bundle of love. Bak Bak has not gone back to the spot he shared these months with his special friend.

in preparation for their new journey

2008-10-13T15:25:00.003+08:00

everyday now is a gift. another day to say goodbye.

both leafty and bak bak have taken a turn for the worse. we only hope that leafty will not see bak bak go first as he is our rabbit's final comfort.

joo chiat auntie

2008-10-10T17:42:00.003+08:00

another old cat auntie has fallen on desperate times. a fire gutted hers and three other shophouses along joo chiat road, nearly burning her to death and taking away the lives of some 12 cats.

we can only imagine the trauma of this experience for the joo chiat auntie and her remaining animals. some of the cats are now in various stages of recovery. one dog is dying from smoke inhalation and exhaustion.

the woman spoke to the volunteer who has been helping this joo chiat auntie for the past 15 years. it is good people like her who have helped kept the sanity in this situation and gotten supplies enough to cobble up a decent existence for the auntie and her animals in a short amount of time.

but the sense of desperation and despair lingers, compounded by the fact that the auntie’s financial situation has taken an irreversible turn for the worse and finds it almost impossible to sustain the rent and food for the animals in the house as well as the ones on the streets that she dutifully feeds.

any financial help at this point will really make a difference. drop a line to the animal family if you can spare some loose change and we will hook you up.
__________________

this comes close on the tail of the old hoarder lady’s situation, which thankfully, has reached a kind of milestone with the clean-up, sterilization and rehoming. this massive exercise was able to build up a lot of momentum, bringing together a lot of people and seen tremendous results, for the condition of the flat, the many cats that went to good homes and the health of the remaining animals. mostly thanks to jaime, janet and lynn.

it did all end on a strained note over the tragic fate of Ezra. whatever lingering feelings of anguish, hurt and resentment, they do not take anything away from all the good that has come out of this collective effort. Ezra's loving nature won the hearts of all the people who came in contact with him. where he is now, he continues to smile down on ah ma and everyone that has been touched by him.

now, what is left for the living is the less glamourous task of maintenance. weekly visits and cleaning are still very much on the cards to give ah ma a few much needed pairs of extra hands as well as to keep her grounded and connected. there is also the question of where the next supply of cat and dog food will come from that will keep the animals properly fed and off the chicken heads.

heavy on the volunteer's minds right now is the unenviable task of bringing ah ma down to visit the last remaining cat at the vet’s. she screamed when she heard that Big Head will not make it. she has been shouting for the cat ever since.

the volunteers don’t know if bringing ah ma down is a good idea, but if any one of them were in her shoes, this would be what they would want, however unbearable the inevitable parting.

3am call; foster needed

2008-10-04T09:57:00.003+08:00

our eccentric neighbour *Wendy* woke us up with a 3am call railing about how her cats are giving her so much stress she is going nuts. in her unkind 3am 'you woke me up for that?!' state, the woman felt that NUTS was the operative word here...

against our advice, Wendy took in one more cat over the 3 she already has in the flat causing one of her existing ones to picket in protest by spraying her furniture any chance it got. at first, Wendy was appealing for the woman to take her offending cat in in hopes that we can toilet train before returning to her. but the cat is not losing its toilet training by accident here. as long as the new cat is in the flat, she is going to be upset and act up.

the woman's advice for Wendy is to give up one of the cats and is actively looking for a loving and patient foster right now who can give this distressed cat a break.
_____________________

this and the case of the old hoarder lady really drive home the fact that more needs to be done for our old and alone. and not just to provide the basics like food, hygiene and shelter. their solitary lifestyles give them no release for their stress and grief and the result is an inward imploding state and a string of irrational bad decisions. gone on long enough, any well-meaning people who want to help can do little more than wade through their woolly self-seeking obstinacy to an uneasy friendship that is frustrating for both parties.

the question the woman would like to ask is, is there a way back from where Wendy and the old lady have wandered?

cleaning out the old hoarder lady's roach-infested cabinet the other day, the woman came across all her old photos, all smeared with roach droppings, and sees a life full of potential, with people, family and events. the old lady was anxious to remind the volunteers not to throw them away. so they are cleaned and stored, all these imprints of people that are no longer there. there was a full-colour laminated A4 photoshop-ed poster of the old lady and her 2 dogs which seemed recent. the old lady told her it was done by friends, but they no longer come to visit.

in the process of cleaning and painting the old lady's flat, the woman has seen both the soft and the cold mercenary side of the old lady, been exceedingly frustrated and been touched. the way forward is still fraught with uncertainties but the transformation of the flat has motivated the old lady to try in her own small ways to maintain it that way. she is also more willing to listen to the volunteers' suggestions and to let go of some of her animals. the woman hopes in her heart that this progress will not be undone by them becoming yet another collection of friends who no longer come to visit.

the woman wonders how many of us would turn out like this? the statistics on the solitary elderly and the mentally volatile are certainly against us.

the best counters the woman can think of are to build up our networks while we can, keep akin to this changing world, and break our hard habit for the material. in the old lady's cabinet are bags, jewelery, liquor, ginseng and clothes from all eras. they probably meant something at some point. now all they do is clog up her world and her mind with their irrelevance.

leafty & the kitten

2008-09-29T11:46:00.002+08:00

always trust leafty to roll out the welcoming mat for new kittens. he is, however, in danger of being the mat with this one!

fingers crossed

2008-09-23T15:52:00.003+08:00

we have had 3 enquiries but no follow ups on the kitten. in the mean time, he is attaching himself to whoever will have him. don't get too comfortable there, boy!

our fren just told us that gremlin has been reclaimed by his family. but what kind of family loses a kitten?!

time of our lives

2008-09-16T11:01:00.006+08:00

Leafty is getting on in years. 3 months ago, he developed an alarming head tilt from which the vet wasn't confident he could recover. we were preparing for the worst but he came back strong like a second wave and is now skipping and hopping round the house like he is rediscovering it afresh. he also has a renewed fascination with us cats so the timing cannot be more perfect that we have a new kitten in the house. watching the child and the second child is enough to stir the forgotten adolescence in all of us!

there have been other signs that the family is more than maturing. some of us are quite certainly heading into full retirement. Papa is wheezing, barely perceptibly, but a wheeze nonetheless that wasn't there yesterday. and Bak Bak, the tom that chose to stay, has a full-blown infection from FELV.

so the woman's gentle giant is preparing for the final wind-down, responding enthusiastically with his trademark squeak when nuzzled, rubbed or carried but otherwise hardly stirring from his favourite spot in the laundry basket. he might yet pull a Leafty and surprise us all. whatever happens, we are glad he has been living out the best times of his life here with us. we can't ask for much more than that.

stay strong, Bak Bak!

whatever Leafty is doing, it's working. see the difference between Bak Bak's eyes now and the scary before (below)!

my oh my

2008-09-10T11:14:00.002+08:00

there are no pregnant cats in our area so where did this guy come from? the woman went hunting for the incessant meowing downstairs and found this little thing tucked in someone's shoe rack. the family says they have never seen the kitten before so this is a mystery.

yet another for the adoption boards.

in the mean time, that means camping in the utility room until the kitten stops waking the neighbours with its cacophony. he was spitting and hissing at the man and woman at first, then he cried when they went away. contrary little thing. but after a night in a warm spot under the sleeping bag next to the woman, he was finally quite ready to entertain himself and took over the sleeping bag with gusto when the woman left for work.

(update: Socks has been adopted!)

gremlin for adoption

2008-09-08T15:09:00.003+08:00

our friend had this little surprise waiting for him at his void deck when he went out for breakfast. the woman is not allowed to look at these pictures too closely or she will become singapore's next hoarder...

please contact us if you are interested to adopt, the kitten is absolutely adorable and more photos can be found here. you can also help us decide what sex it is, the friend can't tell but judging from the photos, the woman's guess is male...

(update: we were told the family that lost him claimed him back...)

nation of tattle-tales

2008-09-03T22:22:00.001+08:00

it’s a tough job being a good neighbour. your children should never be too loud or have too much fun, you as an example to them, should never have any fun at all throwing after-10 parties, enjoying loud music, indulging in insect-breeding plants, loving disease-carrying pets, have questionable lifestyles, questionable religious practices, non-singaporean-looking people stick around who speak all sorts of odd languages or show any interest in your neighbour as no one appreciates a busybody. (suck in breathe)

the best neighbours it seems, are working couples who don’t come home till late and have no time for hobbies, TV and sex.

if the town council officers think they are overwhelmed with complaints now, have they thought what it would be like when we do fulfill our national vision of a fertile vibrant diverse 6m-strong melting pot of cultures and lifestyles? If we are a nation of tattle-tales today, i shudder at the hubbub when our precious newborns and esteemed foreign friends take the pledge and become true blue Singaporeans tomorrow.

mr mah, you say you receive 530 complaints on cats every year from the residents. i hate to tell you but things are not likely to get better for either of us. 4.5m people = 530 complaints, 6m people = 706 complaints. 706 complaints, I can see, would be all the more reason you would say your stance is indeed the ideal one. the way i see it, we are looking at a long hard blistering road of discord between cat haters and cat lovers for as long as you are here and i am here. don’t forget, the numbers on my side will swell too.

and so the argument that the number of complaints that TCs receive is a good gauge of public sentiment and apt justification for curbs and restrictions is another fine example of rational reasoning that doesn’t do anyone any good. moreover, the attitude behind it frankly runs counter to the rhetoric about embracing a vibrant diverse gracious society.

for one thing, it tells people they have to be part of the majority or they are a problem. for another, it rewards a lot of people who simply do not make any effort to connect with neighbours who aren’t like them.

perhaps the way forward to resolving neighbourly angst is not to come up with more restricting laws and by-laws but to break this culture of complaints altogether, by helping to bridge differences and build relationships.

if it were deemed perfectly normal that some people keep cats as pets and care for strays, and perfectly understandable that some people fear and dislike cats, then everyone would have no choice but to find a middle ground. if we are to succeed as a model of multi-racial/faith/cultural graciousness to the rest of the world, finding middle ground is precisely what we all need to be good at.

proud to be a cat auntie

2008-08-26T19:27:00.009+08:00

if you have been following the local cat blogs, you might have heard about a hoarding case of an old woman in a roach/maggot-infested 3-rm flat, which she shares with 40 unsterilised cats, 2 dogs and 2 tortoises.

it is rightly called a house of horrors, with black streaked walls, cobwebs, flying roaches, sick animals, dead animals, broken tiles over which animals defecate, everywhere. and in the midst of all these, a stubborn cranky suspicious forgotten old woman.

a couple of cat aunties discovered this and with understandable trepidation but unusual courage, took it upon themselves to help her. jamie and janet, i don't know what classes you did at school, for darn sure, everyone else should have gone to the same!

they started the ball rolling and inspired a lot of people along the way to get involved, the woman being one of them. Babywail's Shelter gives a complete rundown of the events surrounding this case, Lynn being one of the pioneer volunteers herself.

for sure, a case like this draws much attention and on some forums, even on Lynn's blog, there has been some contentious comments. some said that the old woman should be locked up, some said the animals should be taken away from her, some said that the volunteers are taking things into their own hands and the authorities should be involved, one even hoped the old lady will die soon.

our woman won't even be bothered to answer the person who posted that last comment.

her initial reaction from discovering this case was also that the old woman should be in a home as she seems to have a condition, obviously can't take care of herself, much less the animals. but upon meeting the old woman, she did an about turn.

this old woman is far from being non-functioning. and the bond between her and her animals is undeniable. she is frail for sure but lucid she still is, sometimes to the point of sharpness. she understands, but she is unable. she feels, but she is resigned. she doesn't have a mental problem. she is just trapped in the unforgiving state of being old and alone.

the final nail in the coffin of despair would be to take away the last of her freedoms and in particular, the little ones who love her so dearly when everyone else had gone away. she simply needs warm human bodies with friendly faces and willing hands, which in a world population of 6.684 billion, is in short supply.

so until the day we have a solution for the helpless that wouldn't conclusively break their human spirit, no easy decision can be made in a case like this and for better or worse, the authorities and the organisations have stayed distantly silent.

and so the day is saved by a swat team of cat aunties armed with face masks, shower caps, mops and cat traps. partial to both human and animals, they don't choose one over the other and save them all. they fundraised, they scrubbed, they sterilised, they befriended. their special ability? having ears close to the ground (often an excellent source of information), great powers of persuasion (try outtalking a cat auntie), speaks all the local dialects, networks with handy people like taxi drivers and contractors, garang, gung-ho, and most importantly, not afraid to get hands dirty.

it is our hope that when the conditions of the flat and the animals have stabilised and the old woman's trust in people regained, people will come back, family, social workers, befrienders. in the mean time, she has the formidable cat aunties and that is nothing to turn your nose up at.

animal family mugshots

2008-07-22T14:08:00.005+08:00

HEADLINE: Constable Tooty Cleans Up The Family

suede - CAUGHT! gave false information to get $1m reward for capture of puss selamat "thorry lar thir, i thot i thaw a limp."

rosie - CAUGHT! forgery and abuse of animal family funds
"sir, i swear, not for personal gain."

chaplin a.k.a. chappy chap - CAUGHT! brokering kidney between downstairs stray cat and upstairs fat cat
"one want to buy, one want to sell, i only want to help."

calico - CAUGHT! stealing squirt bottle from utility camp
"i was confused."

Crime Boss Still At Large!

modern day cowboy

2008-07-17T12:34:00.002+08:00

the man and woman was introduced to a professional cat catcher recently who does work exclusively for TNRM. in less than an hour, he solved the problem of our wily carpark cats who have been eluding the woman's traps for months. with lightning speed, he has them in the cages before they even knew what hit them. for our particularly gangster-like white alpha cat, he used a net. with the feeder calming the cat, he took his time to case the periphery as the cat is lulled into complacency. in one blink-and-you-miss-it action, the cat was in the net and quickly transfered into the cage. *applause*

the woman can really use a lesson in this. the quick actions of the cat catcher minimises the trauma of being caught to the cat and they can quickly calm down in the safe darkness of the cage. it's more than a skill, it's a talent to have that kind of hand eye coordination and dexterity. if only we knew about Vincent earlier!

with far less style, the woman performed a stunt of her own this morning. as she left the house, chaplin made a dash for it and ended up on the locked 2nd floor landing where he froze with fear. after running around like a headless chicken for about 10 mins, the woman decided to climb onto the landing from the lift lobby. to get there, she had to lever off a railing onto a narrow decorative wall where she slid like a snake until she connected with the landing. there chaplin hardly protested as she passed him along to the man and safely back home. it will be sometime before chaplin lets his curiosity get the better of him, we think!

so far, vincent has been down twice and we had 5 carpark cats, white gansta and ginger tom snipped. 2 more coming of age cats to go...

best cat litter solution for multi-cat households

2008-06-14T03:24:00.008+08:00

seriously, this works like a dream and it saves money and so much effort.

sometime ago on recommendation, we switched to the PeeWee cat litter system. i must say it works very well if you have a 1 - 2 cat to litter box ratio. not forgetting that we have a serious cat-count here, it became just as much effort to keep sand-free as previously with a normal box unless we ramp up to 5 - 6 peewee boxes, which is not practical in our small space. and not to mention the cost!

so now instead of using the wood pellets as they prescribe, we only line the bottom catchment area with them as we still find that wood pellets offer the best absorption and odour control. and this works just as well with the cheaper Pinnacle brand wood pellets.

on the top layer, we use the sand-free Breeders Choice recycled paper pellets instead. instantly, this cuts our cost to at least a third because the woman doesn't need to change the litter as often. best part, no more sand. voila!

bad tooty

2008-06-14T01:58:00.004+08:00

oh my, has it been this long??

sorry my dears for not keeping up with this blog for a while. i blame our digital camera, which conked out on us and we had only our pathetic camera phone to fall back on. blogging just didn't seem worthwhile without nice handsome pics of the family to make all you people green with envy... :D

on the cat welfare front, the woman had some luck with the new TC officer who is sympathetic but understandably caught between a rock (the woman) and a hard place (cat hating complainers). sterilisation however, has been tricky as it is getting harder to catch the new younger cats in the neighbourhood. for some reason, they have become a lot more wary and clever, even of their feeders. a good combination for avoiding pest control but not good for TNRM. we had some luck with two prolific males that got hungry and complacent but at least three more are particularly hard cases that have time and again avoided capture. i don't think the conventional traps are working and the woman is on a look out for better ones.

on the home front, we are still an intact household of 2 beans, 11 cats and 1 leafty. it's probably time to update the "how we came by" section to add Tuxedo and Calico to the list as they are well and truly family now.

me slacking off
Chaplin is now our alpha male, never mind that he remains pint-sized compared to Papa, Bak Bak and Rosie. he even orders the woman around! so what do they say about size?
Rosie mellows with age... she is 6! we are sorry to hear about your brother baby blue who died of leukemia late last year. see you at the bridge, blue
Tuxedo graduates to adulthood

be my idol

2008-03-06T04:19:00.003+08:00

come 10pm on wed, thurs & fri, we are right where we should be. in a cushy spot watching simon skewer idol contestants...

fruity: "loved loved loved jason castro on the first week but he completely murdered Hallelujah, what was simon thinking?? hope they keep him around tho, if only for his cute cute face"
calico: "him? pleeeease. david archuleto all the way."

suede: "woah, i like what david cook did with the smarmy lionel ritchie song. that guys is a dark horse for sure if he keeps this up."
calico: "david archuleto all the way."

bak bak: "geez papa, those young things have really let idol fever go to their empty heads."
papa: "david archuleto all the way."

chaplin: "ramiele malubay is hot."
tuxedo: "no, kristy lee cook is."
chaplin: "malubay."
tuxedo: "cook."
chaplin: "MALUBAY."
tuxedo: "cook."
chaplin: "MALUBAY, DO DO DO DA DA DA, so there."

tuxedo: "leafty, you are my idol."

(update: cook wins!!! and suede wins the animal family wager of unlimited cat food, licks and rubs... wait, we ALL get that!)

giddy lunar

2008-02-03T14:58:00.001+08:00

outwitted, outmaneuvered, outdolled on Survivor: Bridesmaid... Rosie took my spot!

heady from wedding glee, man and woman splurged on a luxurious new sofa. never mind that there is no more space for walking. just dive and sink at the door and you don't even have to hit ground to prod the on switch for the TV. domestic bliss.

all this from the good folks at salvation army. definitely worth a trip to one near you this year.

Flower Mama is our first TNRM kitty for 2008.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-21T03:45:00.001+08:00

goodbyes

2007-11-22T04:02:00.001+08:00

remember the kitty flushed out by a storm? the crazy man and woman almost kept it because it had the uncanny knack of throwing them a head-in-tail curl, a belly-up, a hang-in-the-air-for-a-second hop and a carry-me-whichever-way-you-like flop when they are at their most vulnerable... they even named it - Monk... and then someone adopted it! muahahahaha, so long sucka.

you got to laugh. because when you stop...

Poppet the carpark cat went the way of toothless calico. the vet made her as comfortable as she could be, and she went. the feeder doesn't know how to carry on when her love and her labours isn't enough against the brutalities of life on the street, but she will. the woman doesn't know how she can give help and hope again when there is the chance she has to make a cat auntie cry, but she will.

catch up game

2007-11-13T19:27:00.001+08:00

i haven't been keeping up with this blog. that is because i am taking my role as maid-of-honour very seriously. as her bridesmaid (though she doesn't know it quite yet...), i want to get my sashay down the red carpet just right. and i am doing it with a posie on my head. she can't say no to that, surely!

so yes, my man and woman are finally walking down the aisle in good old traditional fashion in december. the gown is booked, the alcohol is shipped and the invites are in the mail, so it's all set barring the proper big bang proposal that the man still owes the woman.

the man and woman lent a hand recently at ACRES with the painting of the turtle enclosure. the place is looking really good! but they still need help so people out there who can spare an afternoon, look them up.

penny is louis' sweet sweet dog rescued from a breeding farm. she follows him everywhere!

thanks esther for the cat baskets. as you can see, tux is really lovin' it!

and so, while the man and woman work themselves into a frenzy, it is a day at a time back at the animal family. always.

makes me wanna bawl

2007-10-24T23:51:00.001+08:00

somewhere in china...

A dog was seen in the middle of busy street watching over its friend, which had been hit by a car. It kept trying to wake its already-dead friend...

and push it out of the road.

you'd do that for me, Rosie?
"hope i never have to."

long haired heaven

2007-10-21T15:46:00.001+08:00

Marble has a nice cuddly companion in Cream at her new home. she's been renamed Koffee after Cream's first companion, who expired of old age earlier this year. according to new owners, she looks exactly like her previous namesake. so, Koffee and Cream, anyone?

little maine coone also has it pretty good - a new home, a new arm and a new nick, the incessant meow-er.
_______________

our downstairs strays are not to be outdone. no hair, no home but they got something else...

Like the wallpaper sticks to the wall
Like the seashore clings to the sea
Like you'll never get rid of your shadow
You'll never get rid of me

Let all the others fight and fuss
Whatever happens, we've got us.

And now to repeat what I said at the start
You'll need a large crowbar to break us apart
We're alone but far from blue

Before we get finished, we'll make the town roar
We'll hit a few late spots, and then a few more
We'll start out at Stringy's and maybe Groucho
Life is gonna be wow-wow-whee!
For my shadow and me!
this happens to be the man and woman's song too... :)

eye of the storm

2007-10-18T00:52:00.001+08:00

yesterday's storm flushed this little thing out from the drain. too sadly drenched for the woman to leave outside so she spent the night in the back room drying out... great timing for next week's Free Spay Day, actually. fingers crossed that we secured our slots!

your bed are belong to us

2007-10-13T02:59:00.001+08:00

papa took 6 stitches in the ear to drain a burst capillary, causing it to curl like a pretzel. lets hope it will spring back to shape after the stitches come out...

comings and goings

2007-10-02T14:11:00.001+08:00

marble has been adopted!

she was sterilised together with carpark cat, Poppet, who is still with us until she fattens up a little. according to our malay neighbour, Poppet moved into the carpark about a month ago after toothless calico passed away. the vet was quite sure Poppet has had many litters in her lifetime as the ovarian tissues showed much wear and tear.

we just hope Poppet will be more resilient than dear toothless...

fluffy marble

2007-09-25T10:36:00.001+08:00

another fluffy cat in the neighbourhood? bet someone is breeding them... grrr

a neighbour found this cute kitty in a badly matted state but has cleaned her up and passed on to us to toilet train and look for an adopter. she is kind of timid at the moment, but adapting. very sweet face.

interested parties, please drop us a line.

(update: marble has been adopted!)

it was a stroke of luck. it did seem our 'for adoption' list is getting depressingly longer, but we have been told that ghim moh kitty facing eviction has found an adopter!

the benefits of pineapple juice

2007-09-24T17:56:00.001+08:00

Leafty is constipated of late. and wouldn't you believe it, this is an amazing home remedy for rabbits - 5 ml of pineapple juice every hour as recommended by Lea and Pookah. odd but strangely effective.

Bak Bak gives our bunny a little love.

when the big cats' away...

2007-09-10T12:46:00.001+08:00

the man and woman went to bangkok last week. thanks to paw workz for taking good care of us!

family album

2007-08-22T20:38:00.001+08:00

more on the elusive tuxedo, on your small screen soon...

childhood aspirations

2007-08-13T09:37:00.001+08:00

what will i be when i grow up?

comic strip writer?

party planner?

hawaiian surfer?

laze-about house cat!

update: Radcliff, Allie, Luna & Ozzie, you can say that again...

as you can see, we don't get much done around here.

honorary mention

2007-08-13T09:16:00.001+08:00

"Our Town Meows" honorary mention goes to

Changi Village!

cat adoption contract

2007-08-06T10:13:00.001+08:00

this is the cat adoption contract the man and woman use when we adopt our friends out to people. i have not known any one who has been brought to task on breach of this kind of contract in Singapore, for lack of legal grounds or lack of trying i don't know, but if you are in the business of fostering and rehoming cats, i think it is a good practice to be at least in agreement with the adopter about the care and treatment of the charges.

so with agreement and not enforcement in mind, our contract includes a laundry list of conditions, adapted from various sources, that are mostly useful/helpful but would be hard pressed for standing up to any scrutiny e.g. #3.

in some overseas adoption contracts, there is a statement that they are binding and enforceable under civil law. in view of that, they only include conditions of contract that relate to humane treatment with requirements for sterilisation and preventive medication for which there is a reasonable burden of proof, which makes sense. but until we know for sure that our civil law here would recognise such a contract or that it would not be negated because the adopter happens to be a hdb dweller, i guess ours will serve as well as any as a goodwill handshake and our friends will at least go out into the world with a little something more than a prayer.

Conditions of Contract

1. The Applicant agrees that cat will be kept as a home companion and will share Applicant’s home being given the same considerations, as would a human family member for the duration of the said cat’s life.

2. As such, the cat is to live in the same private residence as the applicant as companion animals.

3. To provide the cat with sufficient quantities of nutritious food and fresh water each day as stipulated in “Nutrient Requirements of Cats, Revised Edition, 1986; National Academy of Sciences, USA”

4. It is expressly understood that the Fosterer does not offer any warranty as to the physical condition or temperament of the cat.

5. The Applicant accepts this cat as is with all defects, either observable or unobservable, and assumes all risk and responsibility for the cat from the date of signing of this contract.

6. Never to strike or otherwise harm the cat.

7. Never to allow the cat to undergo any cosmetic procedures, surgical or non-surgical, such as declawing or extraction of teeth, unless for medical reasons at the advice of a veterinarian.

8. Spaying or neutering is required by five months of age.

9. To keep the cat indoors at all times.

10. Not to let the cat outdoors unless leashed and accompanied by the applicant.

11. Never to enclose the cat in a space smaller than 2500mm x 2500mm x 2500mm for a period longer than two hours a day.

12. Adopter agrees not to sell, give away, or dispose of the cat in any other manner (except euthanasia for medical reasons at the advice of a veterinarian) without prior consent in writing to the Fosterer.

13. To ensure that the cat’s vaccinations, as advised by the veterinarian, are current and to provide veterinary care upon sickness, disease or injury.

14. Adopter agrees that the cat will be confined in the house when there is no one at home, except for prolonged absences such as vacations when secure and proper care will be arranged for the cat.

15. To give the Fosterer visitation right at a reasonable time, without notice, to ensure that the terms of this adoption agreement are being observed.

16. If the cat must be relinquished for any reason by the Applicant, it is the Applicant’s responsibility to offer a Replacement Applicant.

17. The Applicant must seek the Fosterer’s consent to transfer responsibility for the cat to the Replacement Applicant. The Fosterer reserves the sole right to interview, approve or reject the Replacement Applicant.

18. The Applicant understands that it is illegal, by Singapore law, to abandon the cat.

19. If the phone number and/or address for the original Fosterer is no longer operative, the Applicant will make a good faith effort to locate and contact the original Fosterer.

20. To keep the Fosterer informed of any changes in the Applicant’s address or contact information.

i warn you...

2007-08-05T02:37:00.001+08:00

do not, i repeat, do not do this! i run away, i jump out window, i scratch u!
Japan's Hello Kitty Cat Humiliation System

can't get enough of calico?

2007-07-30T15:59:00.002+08:00

how about her endless "why" questions?

"smally, why do you prefer the toilet sink than say, the kitchen sink?"

"chaplin, why doesn't smally have a tail?

"tuxedo, why do you have these furry things growing on your behind? don't think i have any. why?"

"slide, why does your 8mm template turn everything green?"

"woman, why are some plastics recyclable and some not?

"man, why don't they all like cats?

(click on slide for captions)

exemplary community cats, exemplary communities

2007-07-25T14:11:00.001+08:00

news release | for immediate release

the ministry of social concerns recognises that well-integrated community cats are a testimony of their community's cohesiveness, cultural tolerance and sense of responsibility.

in recognition of the efforts of the exemplary townships that have overcome great odds to keep their cats tipped, fed and safe, we hereby present them with a much deserved "Our Town Meows" Award.

in third place, represented by Auntie Ah Lan and Auntie Ann's regal 'grandma' tabby, the "Our Town Meows" Award goes to...

Tanglin Halt 10-storey (zhap-lao)!

in second place, represented by this larger-than-life mascot of fuzzy black fur, the "Our Town Meows" Award goes to...

Lorong Ah Soo!

last but not least, and no small credit to this curiously and uncommonly rotund puff tortie, grand prize goes to...

Toa Payoh Lorong 4!

mayor ma receives award from minister with pride, "I am so proud of the people of toa payoh and the other winning towns, who are an example to all for their humanity towards the cats and to each other. on behalf of the cats, especially our lorong 4 puff tortie, i say a big thank you to them."

honorary mention

________________

whenever the woman visits lorong ah soo and sees the cat auntie, she always feels a sense of the unresolved. this arises from many years ago when she was much younger (and obviously stupid). coming home late one day, she saw the cat auntie scolded by a nasty man who told her that her feeding was a nuisance. the girl the woman was felt compelled to step forward to the cat auntie's aid, but her indignation rose as a hopeless jumble in her mind and turned to fear and cowardice before she could take the first step. now as an auntie herself, she is spoiling for just such a fight but the split second opportunity to stand up for what you believe in comes mostly once. miss it, it doesn't likely come knocking again.

annoying kid sister

2007-07-24T11:05:00.001+08:00

it's a little crowded here already, calico!

alright, have it your way...

they love big cats

2007-07-20T17:45:00.001+08:00

don't worry, calico is just yawning!

your results

2007-07-20T17:09:00.001+08:00

pristine forest - i know a place like this even though i have not seen it for myself. i see it in my mind and i go there sometimes in a private moment of pure desire, to look at who i am truly meant to be.

facing eviction

2007-07-18T19:17:00.001+08:00

this sweet faced kitty is facing eviction from a school in ghim moh. the caregiver has been given notice. if you can adopt or foster, please help!

we would if we could but we still have 2 to be rid of... sorry calico & tux.

(update: kitty has been adopted!)

Save the bears, Save the world

2007-07-18T17:47:00.001+08:00

Join the Save the Bears, Save the World Meme and pledge an action that will help free bears in China from being farmed for their bile.

It is a terrible life for them in cages so tiny they cannot stand or turn. In addition, catheters are permanently stuck in their side to drain bile from them.

Help Animals Asia rescue and rehabilitate these bears. Let them live out their lives with dignity and happiness in a sanctuary.

List yourself and your friends you have tagged here and add their permalinks (pledges optional):

1. My Cat's Cove
2. V's Spot
3. KXBC
4. Foster Cat
5. Cat Tales
6. Animal Family's meme

Spread the word and happy tagging!

calico dreams

2007-07-16T17:15:00.001+08:00

Tortie's new man

2007-07-14T08:49:00.001+08:00

What a day yesterday! As I was peacefully snuggling with Tuxedo and Calico, this couple came and put me in a bag and took me for a noisy ride on their scooter. Although is was exciting, I was a little bit scared, and it was nice when it was over. Then I get to this new apartment, with a bunch of new stuff I haven't seen before. The couple had prepared a room for me, but after having met with Keiko and Nikita (who tried to make an impression on me with little success…) I found my favorite place to be on the armrest of the sofa next to the man. How nice to get some rest again after all the excitement.

So far I really like it here, and I am getting used to being called Calipso, or Cali, and especially all the love and attention. I think I might just stay…

Say hi to the whole gang for me, and tell them that I miss them.

Tortie (Calipso)

Tortie goes to good home

2007-07-13T02:59:00.001+08:00

aunt Fruity gives Tortie one last groom so she looks nice for her new family.

tux and calico will be fine...

they found your substitute!

you are loved, we can tell. remember to send your prayers back to your bro and sis, Tortie, that they will find their families soon too.

let's bond

2007-07-09T19:31:00.001+08:00

sons of singapore

2007-07-05T15:53:00.001+08:00

Cadet Leafty protects the nation as we sleep.

Cadet Chaplin finds out standard issue green towel comes in handy during R & R.

Cadet Papa meets barrack barber (yeah, they do have an excellent sense of humour if not proper training!).

the poor man's jungle gym

2007-06-28T18:07:00.002+08:00

Calico, Tortie, Tuxedo up for adoption

2007-06-28T04:13:00.002+08:00

they have had a precarious start to life but our 3 kittens never let it hold them back from having the time of their lives for one second. we hope they will find love with a family who will take them as they are, a little flawed but all perfection when it comes to showering love on the one who will love them back.

interested adopters, drop us an email.

(update: Tortie has been adopted.)

no one ever reads the instruction manual

2007-06-28T03:47:00.001+08:00

you are supposed to sit on it, do-dos.

and Bak Bak, that's not how you shower love on teddy...

wild about earl

2007-06-25T12:30:00.001+08:00

you know the kind of girl always stiffed with the responsibility of picking up after everyone just because she is the oldest? well, that's me. i take my job seriously. i make them lick up their own stinking spills. my name is Rosie.

you know the kind of girl that gets by on the back of the queenest bee in town? that's me. call me pawlick, sidekick, genius... move it, i just called dibs on that sun spot, honey. my name is Tooty.

i may look like the hell angel's spawn but i am really the guy that bawled when Kenny with his newfound confidence was rescued from the trunk of his le car and whisked off for a romantic picnic in the wine country by his burly car-mechanic rescuer. my name is Bak Bak.

i stand out from this motley crowd and that makes the rest kind of jealous. it's really not my fault i am born big round and bring purrsexy back. i feel bad for them you know? just a little. Take em' to the bridge. (Go 'head be gone with it). my name is Fruity.

we itch and we scratch to leap wide and jump high. wood, grill, glass and flesh are all equal in this urban terrain. we are butch and sundance, starsky and hutch, rodgers & hammerstein. you best call us Blackie and Chaplin.

Rosie, Tooty, Suede and Blackie take karma out for a spin.

out on good behaviour

2007-06-22T11:49:00.001+08:00

kittens are finally let out to meet the family. we are so used by now to these occasional alien home invasions the man and woman don't much worry. but they have their eye on Bak Bak who may still be under the impression that these are new toys...

they will get their recreation time everyday from now on. so more kitten adventures ahead!

could we have done better?

2007-06-19T18:33:00.001+08:00

the kittens have fully recovered. one eye on calico however, did not heal well and is partially obscured by the third eye lid. she hops and plays, confident in her cuteness, without noticing. would a potential adopter? so sorry little darling... :(