Monster the insatiable

don't mess with mean boy!

Rex a close second

straggling hobbits

you got a lot of growing to do. try to keep up will ya?

as a fitting antithesis to the maudlin names of your siblings, you get illustrious ones straight out of the Lord of the Rings appendices. droopy-eyed stripling is Mungo Chubb and pointy-eared dollie, Bramblerose.

the woman wonders if Bramblerose is getting enough of her mummy's milk. she's a lot like Suede when they found her and Suede never seems to fatten up despite a voracious appetite.

"oh Tooty!"

once in a while the woman throws a fit when she discovers her favourite jewellery, her clean laundry set aside for ironing or contents of her purse all over the floor. she just has to look away for a split second. over time, she has learnt to be more zen about it. after all, she knows she signed up for this.
nice things or cats? CATS of course!

for zuleme

when you have kids there goes all your alone time. mummy wants to use the toilet and everyone starts piling themselves in there so she gives up.

mummy spends more time outside the cage now. she also tries not to have the little rascals fight for her nipples all at once and picks them out with her for feedings 2 at a time.

Monster on the move

leaving the rest in his dust, Monster is big cahuna of cage condo for sheer size. he is the first to open eyes, first to crawl and almost surely the first to climb everest and cure cancer.

still, right now, he is at the mercy of archnemesis who has him in a vice. (potentially incriminating graphical evidence if sent to SPCA, don't you think?)

naughty suede

leafty's new playpal.

leukemia and bendy tail go back on the streets

leukemia clamours to go out again soon after surgery. the woman releases her at her usual spot the next morning. late afternoon, she hears leukemia meowing from the second floor and goes out to lead her back downstairs and to give her some food and hugs.

bendy tail is released that afternoon after a good snooze. she follows the woman back upstairs a couple of times but wouldn't come back into our house of cats. she finds a warm spot on the 2nd floor roof landing to enjoy the sun. when the man and woman goes for supper in the night, they find her still there. the dilemma of strays.

i wish you all the best you two. come visit us if you feel like it.

responsible living is tough

the woman's vegetarian friend in australia sends her a Save Babe postcard and it reminds her that she has a lot to learn about living a responsible cruelty-free life. she hasn't even begun to scrap the surface.

already, based on whatever she knows, which is little, the task at hand is daunting, almost impossible. no shark's fin, no veal, no fur, no pet trade, no IAMS is easy. but BAN

* all Procter & Gamble products P&G Kills
* factory-farmed pork products Save Babe
* KFC KFC Cruelty
* all fish Fishing Hurts and
* all meat Case Against Meat

altogether, and she's wondering if life is worth living without Paulaner Brauhaus pork knuckles, salmon sashimi and Hot & Spicy chicken.

it's not just about missing the food, she is also exasperated by the divide that already exists between her and a lot of the people around her. friends and family are thinking what's with the compulsive recycling and saving of cats. so pushing the envelope further by going vegetarian or something will probably invite more well-intentioned concern about the woman's mental faculties. their diagnosis: histrionic, obsessive-compulsive, bleeding heart, too much time on hands.

quite la. and arrested development, i might add. but in this anthropocentric world, animals can't be choosy about who our champions and avengers are. right now, she works for me so i much like to keep her that way.

but conversely, if she doesn't push the envelope on animal cruelty issues, the same people cry hypocrisy. bring up animal welfare issues to them only, they say care so much about cats, what about the hainanese chicken rice you are eating? chicken not life meh?

human, you really a lot of excuse not to think about things much. i'm a cat and i know there is nothing to life but a constant striving. you strive for your luxuries and comforts, let others strive for what's important to them. nobody is asking them to save the whole world tomorrow and die trying. all the animals ask is for people to start somewhere and keep on going. if you choose not to be involved, is ok, just shut the fuck up then!

but all that is secondary. as the woman is finding, the struggle to live responsibly remains a gruelling personal one. when confronted with a new piece of information, she has to decide how she can best act on it, or not, weighing all her human baggage of circumstance, practicality, resources and priorities with her conscience.

i hope for her sake and mine that she is of strong mettle to carry through her convictions.

(Photos from Save Babe & GoVeg)

leukemia's back

after a couple of sluggish, embarrassing and ultimately failed attempts at using the cat traps leading up to the many festive distractions of december, woman completely forgets about her resolution to sterilise the community cats until today when in a fit of activity, she nabs 2 cats on the way back from late night shopping at mustafa. so leukemia is back. and a never before seen cat with a warped Escherisque tail, bent in 2 places to resemble a Penrose triangle.

the cats are quarantined in the toilet and that makes us one animal too many in our 7 residents, 7 squatters 2006 household census. and the woman is going on about how Escherisque tail is rare for a domestic short-hair, luxurious and soft to the touch. eh, don't get any funny ideas lady, one more resident and we are officially slumming.

i am in a mood today. letters to Town Council about potential animal abuse have come to naught. 2 times already, a certain politician comes back with standard replies on necessity of animal control and no feeding and allowing stray cats in our estates. excuse me, i am asking you what is being done about cleaners taking their own initiative to kill the cats by whatever means available to them. witnessed practices: poisoning of cats and bagging kittens alive and throwing them in the trash. he skirted the issue completely in his first reply, and only on further insistence does he say they will instruct cleaners accordingly.

that is an appalling lack of reading comprehension or respect. so estate beauty more important than value of life, is it? feedback on potential animal abuse case becomes another avenue for them to read residents their riot act.

this makes me more inflamed about their ridiculous stance on not allowing stray cats in our community, he says we need to take into consideration of others living in the community. HDB and Town Council have received many complaints on stray nuisance and we need to remove strays.

what about people who value the lives of strays animals and want to see them well taken care of? don't they have a voice in the community that also requires action from the authorities?

to be in keeping with the stray policy, it requires in most circumstances for people who care to consciously walk away from animals in destitute or distress. that's asking them to give up a part of who they are. Compassion and social conscience are not attributes that can be turned on for politically correct causes and off for unpopular ones. you want to promote volunteerism and philanthropy in Singapore, here's your citizens, auntie and uncle giving of own time and money everyday, others trapping and neutering, still others rehoming. but what the authorities are saying is sorry hoh, only for the causes we like, ok? no wonder so many disillusioned, complacent, indifferent people here.

if you are as inflamed as i am, give a shout to your Town Councils today: set guidelines, not DEADlines.

stuntcats

before you start getting all impressed, just remember who was there first. ME. Tooty says: from back of swivel chair good place to leap to fragile glass cabinet causing pretty trinkets to shake and woman's teeth to rattle. to come down again, computer monitor makes good landing pad, especially when man is using computer. thank you.

they can see now

the babies have all opened their eyes
and starting to crawl around in
curiosity. soon, mummy will want
more space. hmm...

couch potatoes

new year babies

Singapore's 2006 first baby born at Thomson Medical Centre


rambo rabbeet has a new charge. mummy and 4 tiny newborns.

man and woman find them on new year's day through the cleaner's tip off. it is so beautiful watching mummy with her babies after reading about Scarlett. and so heartbreaking at the same time. the way she hurdles over her babies when she senses a potential threat. the way she nudges and licks them, drawing them around her. the way she flops down laden and exhausted as she turns her nipples towards her wailing babies.

the gift of life especially on this day of days should be an exciting, joyous affair but it is instead a bitter one as we watch a young mother shackled by the cruel fate of nature. she is a protective, tenacious mother who would do anything to safeguard her young. yet she is entirely powerless to safe her babies from the brutal circumstances of her own life.

before they even have a fighting chance, the babies already face grave danger. it would not be the first time a vulnerable mother and her little newborns are put into a plastic bag and thrown into the garbage in this neighbourhood. a source points to one of the cleaners. if only the Town Council is taking this seriously but they are not. their standard reply is, "we will look into it".

mummy will be sterilised before being released back to the community. hopefully afterall, her babies will escape her fate.

cats, cats, everywhere!