life after Maneki

thank you so much for all your kind words. i am happy that Maneki touched all your lives too as she did mine.

Maneki left us on 11 Oct 2005 3.20pm

she took a turn for the worse the next day. even with the heat pads and oxygen tank, she couldnt breathe and couldnt get her temperature up.

when we arrived at the hospital, she knew right away, made her tiny squeaking sound and tried to get up to greet us. she couldn't and slumped back down. as i stroked her, all she could do was answer me with a tail wag. it kept wagging as i stroked and spoke to her.

the vet told us it was time to let her go because she was in a lot of pain. the only things keeping her alive was the drip and the oxygen tank. it is with much anguish that we could accept that such a precious creature could not stay with us longer. we were supposed to take her home today! and it hasn't even been a year that we have had the joy of knowing her.

but she shouldnt have to suffer needlessly. goodbye my maneki, i love you so much.

In Memory of Maneki Neko

sickly me II

they come visit me the next day and i wish they didn't. i am exhausted, stressed and scared shitless.

apparently, my kidneys have completely collapsed, causing major toxin build-up in the body, infecting the lungs. this news distresses the man and woman greatly. the best the vets can do is to pump me with antibiotics and drip me to rehydrate the kidneys, hopefully to flush the toxins and bring my kidney values back down closer to normal.

the woman gets more and more upset as i continue to huddle at the back of the cage unresponsive. it doesn't help that a couple of cage doors down, a family is saying their final goodbyes to a goner cat. the whole room rings with silent prayers and misery.

the day vet drops in. full results are still out until they complete the in-hospital treatment. but with my kidneys gone, the man and woman are very likely looking at a lifelong commitment to drip me daily.

they have concerns about whether this may be artificially prolonging my life and cause me more suffering but the vet reassures otherwise. there is no doubt that the man and woman will do it but it weighs on them whether they are doing it for me or for them.

the following day, the woman visits me again. i am snoozing but hop up with a squeak when i hear her. i miss her and her fawnings and get a big dose of it. I would also have gladly escaped the cage if she hasn't stopped me. i forget i am still attached to the drip.

the vet comes round again and has good news. my kidney levels have dropped. i even ate today. this reaffirms the woman's convictions to help me live with the drip.

the woman's mood is also lightened when little puppy lounging just inside of the grill in the top cage pees and it drips down directly onto my head. glad she thinks it is so funny. she informs the orderly to watch the problem and cleans me up.

i sulk when i realise the woman isn't there to take me home and leaves without me. hopefully my tests tomorrow prove positive and i can get out of this depressing place.

sickly me

on and off i haven't been eating well for the past month. it all catches up on me one day and the woman finds me gasping for breath in a corner of the room when she wakes up. with more efficiency than usual, they call a cab, bundle me in a blanket and take me to the emergency clinic at mount pleasant.

they thought i might resist the prolonged manhandling as i usually do, but i don't. i sit quietly in the woman's arms and she grows gradually more and more afraid.

at the clinic, the smell is overpowering. when i am let down to stretch my leg, i choose a spot underneath the visitor's chair as i watch sick animals come and go until the vet is ready to see me. the vet pegs me for a cat way over 10 years old and gives a preliminary diagnosis of respitory and renal malfunction. he recommends that i be hospitalised for various tests as well as to be put on a drip immediately to rehydrate the kidneys.

the woman is reluctant to leave me all alone in the cold strange place but hasn't much choice about it. they leave to join friends and the woman gets emotional there thinking about the empty spot on the study table where i lay claim.

the woman is jealous

because after all she has done for them, the kittens always follow the man around, snuggle next to him on the bed and lick his feet (eeks).

i like the woman more of course because she is a sucker. i only have to make a little bit of noise and she will come running to pet me and stroke me. unless she is sleeping. then she will pretend not to hear.

why cats are cute

we get in the oddest places...

and we look odd when we sleep.

lana comes to visit

man's friend brings his new 3-mth old Shih Tzu pup over to visit our animal family. i watch from the dining table as they let the kittens out to play.

i am ashamed to say that tooty and fruity ran from her at sight. even though the pup does nothing but sprawl eagle spread on the floor the whole time. one to lana (lang). oh, but it does get up. it waddles behind the study table and wees there.

tooty gets braver as the night wears on, inching closer and closer to the pup. it crouches behind my litter box and crawls its way right up to lana, ready to pounce. it gets there just when lana raises its big flat head in curiosity. tooty scrams, two to lana.

i get a little tired of this sad scene and make my way to my favourite corner by the front door. everyone and animal stop what they are doing and their stare follow me as i step off the dining table onto the sofa arm and down onto the floor between the humans, kittens and pup. i stretch when i have their fullest attention and leap up on the study table. everyone breathes a sigh of relief. i enjoy that.

too something or other

Rabbeet and I would sooner be alone than have to oblige the other animals in the house. the man and woman accuses us of being too reclusive, too frigid. Rabbeet is worse (i judge too). he rejects the hands that feed him and that is, even to me, too depressing.

but gregariousness does not save the other animals or the humans from having their own labels. Tooty is too hyper, Fruity is too fat, the woman too zealous, the man too sardonic.

Leafty thinks he is perfect of course. he is cute, doesn't make any noise and plays well with others. but like any girl who finally finds her perfect guy discovers, somebody will find him too something or other.

personally, i find the albino rabbit too politically-correct, the sly bastard.

the place is too small for the 3 of us

i am talking about the kittens and me. i don't much mind the rabbits as they have the subterranean all to themselves. i get the high ground. jeremy doesn't go anywhere. but those kittens...

they are everywhere. they go on the bed and lick the man's head when he sleeps. they go on the sofa and curl up to the woman as she watches tv. they chase each other around the dining chair legs. they climb precariously on top of the chivas and vodka bottles. they tunnel into the laundry basket. they sniff around my litter pan and sit on my scratching board!

the woman tries her best to keep them away from me and my favourite things but she is getting tired and dreams of a big happy family. well, dream on!

i prefer the outdoors now where i choose a nice cool spot to watch the world go by. she still reserves her bed for me, throwing the kittens back in the utility room come bedtime. change the way i feel about them? i don't know. let me think about it.

i'm cute

i go for a check-up

woman worries when i start to sleep all the time. she takes me for a check-up and the vet has bad news. my kidneys are failing.

i am peeved. i am old. things are bound to start falling to pieces but leave me some dignity and some mystery. i try my best to keep cheery, the minute i slack off i am probed, felt up, held forcedly down while they take a picture of my insides.

it's not the check-up, i am just grumpy. it comes with age. i don't want her or anyone to know i am not at my best. when did it all creep up on me? the way she looks at me now. she cries at night as she strokes me. i love her and knead her stomach as she strokes me. its all i can do to be a better cat.

FOR SHAME!

dumb man dumb woman take me to the vet to be spayed. they open me up and guess what they found, I'VE ALREADY BEEN SPAYED! i could've told them but dumb humans don't speak cat. of course, my previous owner didn't bother to mark me as spayed. back then, they thought it might 'damage' my good looks so now i have to live with the stitches and a drafty bald spot all for nothing. for shame!

i arrive

i join the family in previously described fanfare on 16 feb 2005 and quickly establish myself as queen. once out of the cage (when it is clear that i have absolutely no interest to hunt bunnies) the woman can't get enough of me. i dine on their oversized dining table leaving suspicious brown stains and plenty of hair everywhere. this grouses their friends out when they are over.

i sleep on the bed with them, usually on the woman's side as it is much closer to the food, which is just a quick hop away from the bed onto the chair and then the dining table (yeah, their place is that small).

my swheat scoop (swear by it!) litter pan is in the middle of the living area. she likes to watch me take a dump. says i look so cute doing it.

life is good for me. but the bunnies, well...

i am what i am

this is me the day i came to the family. the woman's cousin drives us from SPCA to Mount Pleasant for a look-over and then to Holland V Pet Lovers for supplies. they both have to work so they get me a big tiered cage and leave me there in the pet wash line.

the pet shop people are nice and helped keep my water and food bowl filled. i am all cleaned up by the time the woman and her cousin are back. the groomer is concerned that my skin had next to no elasticity, a danger sign of dehydration.

the cousin got us back to my new home. she suggests to name me after the japanese beckoning cat. the woman googles it and that is how i became maneki neko. while the more popular white or red maneki neko beckons fortune, the black maneki neko is said to ward off evil. so that is probably what i do here.

my uncertain fate

i had a good meal in the night and i didn't have to share it. in the morning, they brought me to the vet on duty. i see the woman was back at the reception. the vet was nice. she told her that although i was old (over 8yrs. cats don't keep count but that would explain the stoop and the wonky paw-eye coordination) i was of *gentle* nature with some good years ahead of me with proper care. but there was something in the way she said 'old'. i don't blame her much, normal people would not adopt droopy old balding cat with no teeth when there are the sprightly selections in the next room. just they wait till they get where i am.

i looked up at the woman with my widest eyes of innocence. SPCA gave her back the surrender form and she took me home.

meet the woman

i am a cat. if you doubt, go look at my picture. i am starting this blog because i am increasingly disgruntled with my family and need to rant. read on at your own risk. it is not my intention to turn humankind against itself but if i do, well, you bloody deserve it.

since this blog is about the family, i will begin on the day i meet the woman. life as a stray is a bitch, especially for a cat like me that has had a good number of years in domestic bliss. i used to be cute but now people run from me ever since the street diet (when i get it) has given me a bad festering itch.

as with previous evenings, i wander towards the void deck where uncle leaves food out. its not bad when there's any left but wouldn't you know, cat with 1 tooth and no street skills is pretty low on the food chain so i wait for the others to finish.

woman gets off the cab and starts cooing like a nut. as the others scatter at her enthusiasm, i stuck to her leg meowing my sacharrine sweetest as she stoops and pets my head. she stops when she sees my bald scabby patches and runs. figures.

as i settle back into my wait, woman comes back with a beaten up brown box and puts me in it. it stank of rabbit, curses! what the hell does she think she is doing? i struggle, i yelp, i scream and i tear the box at the top, side and bottom. but she holds it together with all available parts of the body, while asking people at the bus stop to help flag a cab. not much luck there. a man grunted 'no' and slided away as i put a paw with hooked claws through the box and it stayed there because her hands were full with my nose jamming through the top and my hind leg breaking through the bottom. the box was a shambles, she was a wreck, people stayed away.

finally a man on a crutch hailed her a cab and helped put us in it. 'SPCA', she said. the cab driver sped us there while i yelped up a storm in the box.

at SPCA, the night staff picked me up by the skin behind the neck. excuse me peoples, i am no fresh itsy pussy so its gotta hurt! the woman tells the staff that i am in a bad condition (to put it mildly) and is there anything SPCA can do for me? when it is clear the woman is going to leave me there, he asked the woman to sign a condition of surrender 'on the understanding that it is left to the SPCA's discretion whether the animal/s will be selected for adoption or humanely destroyed'. she started to ask a lot of questions pertaining to 'humanely destroyed' and so she should. 'So how does SPCA decide whether the animal will be selected for adoption or destroyed?' The staff could not say. 'It is the vet's decision.' 'Can I call to check after the vet has seen it before i fully commit the animal?' 'No, signing the form means we have full discretion with regards to the animal.' ' Is there a vet nearby I can consult?' 'Yes, but at this hour, the charges are $250.' '....'

yo, i love the SPCA because it is the only real organisation doing anything about sad sods like me. problem is, there is just way too many of us out there getting lost, abandoned, abused. i would want distance too to stop from breaking down in a blinding defeating rage.

short of taking a filthy cat home with any amount of unknown creepies on it, the woman was out of options. she signed and left and i was brought to a room and placed in a cage alongside other animals. some of them are much worse off than a couple of scabs so i hope my chances aren't all that bad.