hoarder crisis averted – for now

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.

continuing stroke of luck with new TC officer

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!

old smoking feeder

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!

perils of a chain smoker

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!

3am call; foster needed

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.

star performer

this ginger tom is a diva. it's all in a day's work when he finesses a captive audience in the open quadrangle with bunny hops and belly flops. the kids are a little afraid of him at first because he is a big cat. but his innocent effervescence wins them over again and again as they laugh at his and their own youthful playfulness. the adults look on.



quite often, the man and woman have seen this tom curling up to sleep by the feet of couples courting on park benches or peek-a-booing out of bushes at friendly faces. there's no doubt people love him.

we need more cats like this who transcends psychological barriers and elevates himself from mere stray to community resident. he makes people reevaluate their assumptions and that is good for everybody.


on the home front, our own ginger Suede has lifted out of her melancholy. she is still the woman's best lap cat.

community lost & found

man and woman saw this dog wandering around the neighbourhood coffee shop at lunch. several people, including the stall owner, were worried that it could be knocked down by a car and had it tied to the rail outside the shop in hopes that the owner will show up. the dog looks well taken care of so could not have been lost for too long. shortly after, she was thankfully reunited with her family so all's well that ends well.

speaking of dogs, the woman visited Cookie recently. she is much calmer now through the care of her new family but some things are the same, she hasn't lost her taste for ice and muffin crumbs :) Rachel, you have strength enough for the ones you love and certainly what it takes to take good care them. chat anytime.

they just can't leave well enough alone

Singapore's closest thing to the sign of spring

kooky squinty cutie

these are *Wendy*'s kitties who're off to the vet today to be fixed. the kooky squinty one in the front greets the woman at the door by rolling over and arching her bum up. so you are the one calling the toms around from a 5-mile radius.

normally, the woman puts cats scheduled for sterilisation in cages on a trolley and wheels them to the vet who is about 15 minutes away. today, she sees the 2 cats are pretty light and decides to take the short cut along the canal with the 2 cats in the one carrier, a route she normally takes on the return journey empty-handed. anyone could have told her it is an incredibly stupid idea lugging the cats this way when the ground is sloped some of the ways and there are 2 low rails to climb over. but no, she only realises her folly when the carrier starts to get excruciatingly heavy to throw off counterbalancing on the steep section and it is as impossible going forward as it is going back. with no choice but to press on, she grits it and finally emerges on the other side unscathed. you know you are this close to being a cat killer, you stupid woman.

woman normally cabs the return journey after the surgery to give the cats a break and to get them settled in comfortably as soon as possible. but today, she loses her keys in the cab and locks them all out of the house for over an hour until the man comes to the rescue, once again, proving herself worthy of the Bonehead-Of-The-Day Award (standing ovation).

we are our own tv show

the neighbour's kids would love to play with us but their grandma does not allow them to come in so they take their little stools and sit outside the gate whenever they can to tune in to the provocative life and times of the idle and the bored. poor things. but never say we don't put on a helluva show for their sakes. showbiz rule #1: reality is never real when there is an audience.

so what's normal?

the woman has been trying to arrange for a home visit with the Family Service to our schizophrenic(?) neighbour for some time now but the time the social worker does come down, they find *Wendy* not home. the neighbour says she found work.

the next day, Wendy calls the woman to ask if she told the neighbour anything about her, not to do it, as they will use the information against her. it is another one-sided conversation. the woman manages to interject enough to ask if she and the man can visit her some time.

so it comes to be that in the evening, the man and woman make their way to Wendy's. without back up. with much trepidation.

Wendy welcomes them warmly and immediately, the man and woman know they have been acting like fools.

two beautiful cats greet them at the door. big shining eyes and gorgeous gleaming coats. one white and orange. one with the same colour and markings as leukemia.

the cats lounge content in the 'garden' that stretches from the front door into the apartment, amidst a botanical spectacle of luscious, robust potted plants that culminates at a fish pond with a fountain spring. birdcages with faux birds and little trinkets inside hang decorative from the ceiling.

Wendy's home is similarly bedecked with a myriad ornaments and curiosities in soft warm light. Wendy's taste is decidedly english. there are oil portraits, victorian-inspired cushions and lampshades and a million cat and dog figurines. worn and cluttered, it is strangely attractive with a soothing lavender scent.

Wendy shows them pictures of her dogs, a golden retriever and a collie, who lived to 12 and 14 respectively and died in her arms. she talks about her cats, her plants, never once mentions the spy-hole in the wall that she said she would show the woman when she comes.

after they leave, the man wonders if the woman will be like that one day with her knickknacks, her disdain for the apathy in the world and her obsession with nature and animals. yep, who knows. for now, it is all they can do to look in on Wendy once in a while, because maybe one day, when they need it, someone might look in on them.

possible blood on our hands

oh no. one of the community cat feeders that the woman has befriended tells her her cats are sick and having diarrhea. as she is unemployed she asks if the woman has any medication on hand as she cannot afford to bring them to the vet. the woman gives her some kaolin.

the feeder is in her 50s and lives on her own in a top floor extended corner unit. before she was unemployed, she was a secretary. she has family at Upper Bukit Timah. her english is above average. the woman presumes she is temporarily down on her luck. and lonely. whenever they encounter each other, the feeder will be so happy for company that she will talk at length about her life and her cats.

then yesterday, she shows up at our door to ask for more medication. her gushing chatter turns into a monologue and then the most bizarre tirade. she says her ground floor neighbour is in cohorts with her top floor neighbour to humiliate her. she says her neighbour has drilled a hole into her living room to spy on her. she asks the woman to help her write her story to the press about the time when her neighbour's maid, a vampire, bit her but the police covered up all the evidence and put her in jail instead.

oh my god. they believe the feeder is having a schizophrenic episode. so now, the man and woman are not sure her cats are sick in the first place or she even have cats at all or dead cats (by now).

stupid. they should have gone to take a look in the first instance before giving away medicine. but typical Singaporean mentality - they didn't want to be too involved in their neighbour's life. their goodwill stops at hellos and inane banter.

the woman calls the Institute of Mental Health to see if they can send someone to check on whether the feeder is a hazard to herself. now that they know she is not right in the head, they are periodically observing her apartment from downstairs and see flickering candlelight in an otherwise dark apartment. IMH refers them to the police.

yesterday, the officer says they work closely with the Resident's Committee. they will check on her and if something is amiss, they will get a doctor in to assess her. today, they change their story. only if her conduct is considered a public nuisance will they send someone up to check on her. otherwise, she is her family's responsibility.

so suspect flickering candle not police responsibility. building burns down then it is police responsibility.

the woman's next avenue is Family Centre. hopefully she will get a more decent response. of course, the woman can always go check on the feeder herself but she doesn't have that kind of guts.

our town sparkles

not.

drugs, contrabands, prostitution, violence, poverty. and we are just 5 minutes from sparkling orchard road, not exactly heartland. in the 2 years that the man and woman have stayed here, they have seen and heard some weird shit.

their cleaner friend finds drug needles on his cleaning rounds ever so often. we actually had a drug user come to our door once to borrow $400. all bleary eyed, he says it is for his sister's medical bills. he bargains down to $80, then $4, then leaves when he isn't getting anywhere with the man. he says his sister stays upstairs on the 12th floor. there's only 10 floors in this block.

the woman goes round to the neighbouring block again to look for Mummy. she takes the stairs up 3 floors, in case. every floor has ah long notices spray painted, repainted and spray painted again. more than one person is in some serious trouble.

(she does eventually find Mummy hanging out with what looks unmistakably like Bramblerose's Daddy. he has some balls on him so that marks him as next month's target.)

you wouldn't believe it but we have a police post right next door. but that doesn't stop this auntie from plying the streets with contraband cigarettes in a grocery push cart. and if you know where to look, the market rate for a romp here is $30 a pop. welcome to singapore.

so cats are the least of everyone's problems. for the ones who do care, namely the feeders that the woman has encountered, they are either the elderly living alone, unemployed or hanging on by the skin of their teeth. much respect to them that the cats here still get to enjoy meat and fish portions rain or shine. but talk about sterilisation, they say yeah great, can you help us ask _____ (substitute SPCA, Cat Welfare Society, AVA, Town Council, PAP) for money?

so the idea of rallying a resident cat sterilisation and management squad sounds almost like comedy. to the tune of Police Academy - ragtag underdog team of ah long, mee pok man, cleaner, grandmother, school dropout, saves day cat.

funny. and then we remember it's not that funny. the animal family is only one step removed from the sudden death russian roulette many around here play. chalk it to some poor human judgement.