CatDonna's Cats

Not a pretty picture ahead. You might want to skip this one.
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This pic has been featured on several blogs. I got this version off Blinkymummy's.

Another recent and fatal incident of animal abuse in Singapore. I only hope the end was quick, if not entirely painless, for the kitten.

I look at my eight little [some not so little] brats lounging around the house, furred little kings and queens. And think, there but for the grace of God.

I am angry. I hope the culprits are caught and given the punishment they deserve.

And God help these people if I ever get my hands on them before anyone else does.

Just a note to say that a fun time was had by all at the cat blogger meet-up last Saturday. We should do this more often. Woot!

++UPDATE++ I just realised I don't have auntie p's email addie!!! Doh!!! If you read this, please send me a mail [addie's in my profile] and I'll forward you my mobile number. Thanks!!!

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Ta-ra Ta-dahhhhhhh!!!!!!!

SG Cat Bloggers are meeting up at Marche @ Suntec on Saturday 22 July from 1:30 pm.

Here is the final list of those who are coming:

CAN Make It: CatDonna, kuro.shiro.neko, kxbc, 5-Cat Style & The Flyer, Mrs Animal Family, Mama Piggy of Kootoo and M&M

MAY BE Dropping By: auntie p

We'll meet outside and go in as a group at 1:30 pm. If you get to Marche after 1:30 pm just grab a card and walk in, I have a feeling we're not hard to find. Heh heh. Marche doesn't accept table reservations so you won't be led to our table - we'll all have to keep an eye out for each other!

I'll be mailing my mobile number to all you lovelies in case something crops up and you need to make contact.

If anyone else would like to join us let me know asap!

Lalala.

CatDonna

Remember me?

I realise that I still haven't mentioned Fiver's adoption. So here goes.

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Some things you may like to know about Fiver:


Fiver: 48 hours old

Hazel and Fiver were born on 31 March, 2006.

Fiver was the runt. Granted there were only two kittens in Pip's litter, it was still pretty obvious that Fiver got the wrong end of the deal. Hazel was almost twice as large at birth, and much more active.

Pip clearly favoured Hazel, grooming him incessantly, and she didn't pay as much attention to Fiver. It was easy to ignore Fiver after all. He was shrivelled, small, quiet and slow, while Hazel was a squealing ball of flesh and downy fur.

By the second day it became obvious that little Fiver was having problems latching onto Pip's teats. He lay in a tiny crumpled heap at the far corner of the box, whimpering miserably. Pip didn't seem to bother. Hazel was suckling well and had already grown visibly fatter.

The vet said Fiver had a 50-50 chance of survival. I had to decide: whether to let nature take its course and kill off the runt, or to give Fiver that chance.


The tube and syringe used to feed non-thriving newborn Fiver

I gave Fiver the chance. And he lived.

[I also hope I will never have to feed a neonatal through a stomach tube for the rest of my life, ever again. Imagine stuffing a tube down the throat of a tiny screaming baby kitten no longer than your index finger, and praying you didn't go in the wrong way and puncture his lung by accident. The trauma.]


Made it!

By the end of the first week Fiver grew strong enough to suckle. So he was returned to Pip. And Pip accepted him, though she never quite gave him the preferential treatment she gave Hazel. But never mind, survival was all that mattered.


Welcome back

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So the kittens grew. Their eyes opened, their ears unfolded. They learnt to walk, to run and jump and play. They learnt to use the litter box, suffered a bout of diarrhoea from coccidiosis, were de-wormed and vaccinated, got weaned.


Baby Fiver and Daddy Teddy


Fiver [L] and Hazel [R] trying to explore outside the box

Their personalities developed. Hazel was a temperamental Pip-like terror, whilst Fiver was timid, gentle and friendly like his father Teddy. Naturally, Fiver was bullied for his size and personality. But it was also Fiver who made friends first with us and the rest of the cats, napping with them on the couch as we read, while Hazel reigned proud and alone [with Pip watching close by] in his cold, hard bathroom.


So young and already getting into trouble

Fiver is the kind of kitten who, when you pick him up, would curl his little front paws in and nuzzle against your neck. He's the sweetest, most trusting little fellow you could ever find. The cats loved him. So did we.


Happy family [L-R]: Big Boy Hazel, Mummy Pip, Little Boy Fiver

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Fiver got adopted at an adoption drive in early July.

Fiver's would-be adopters wanted Hazel at first. Again, it's no surprise - besides being bigger and stronger, Hazel was also more handsome. The adopters explained that they wanted a sweet cat, because their older cat was very gentle and submissive.

Then, while N [Mrs Adopter] was still cuddling a struggling Hazel and talking to me, we caught a glimpse of the way Hazel was staring at her.
It wasn't endearing, it was threatening.
Hazel was glaring death-rays and starting to snarl. Like a little cat demon.
N put Hazel back in the cage. Fast.

So I offered Fiver instead, who as usual melted and purred into N's arms, and that was it.

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Here are some last pics of Fiver, just before we sent him off to the adopters the next day.


A goodbye kiss from Polly


"I'm a big boy now"

I don't think Pip misses Fiver much. Hazel hardly seems to have noticed any change.


Good times: Teddy messing around with Fiver

But Teddy was a bit sad for a while, I think.


One last shot before we go

Bye bye Fiver. Have a wonderful life with your new family.


Goodbye

Be a furry purry little blessing wherever you go.
We love you too. Take care.

CatDonna and Cats

Just received a letter from my former employers. They've probably conducted an investigation and realised the whole fiasco was their mistake.

The liquidated damages I allegedly owed them are now waived, and I don't even have to serve the remaining twenty days they were going on about.

So basically I've been let off, scot-free. Which is only right, after all, it wasn't my fault I quit early.

Whee-heeeeee.

The letter's a bit vague on some details, though, so I'll need to check with them again tomorrow.

I'm free, I'm free. Woot!

Some of us have responded [yay!] and so here are tentative details of our meet-up. Please note the date has been changed cos some people couldn't make it, so it's NEXT weekend, not this coming one. Really really hope as many of us as possible can come.




Here are the responses we've got so far.

CAN Make It:

• CatDonna
• kuro.shiro.neko
• kxbc
• 5-Cat Style
• Mrs Animal Family [is Mr AF joining us?]
  

AWAITING Confirmation:

• Mama Piggy of Kootoo and M&M [is Papa Porky joining us?]

MAY BE Dropping By:

• auntie p

ABSENT with regrets [but with us in spirit]:

• Cat Aunty
• San of the Three Amigos
• Chaos Cat
• Marina, Zeus and Isis of the Zeus Excuse :)
• Victor Tabbycat and Bonnie Underfoot :)

Please spread the word. And OF COURSE spouses and significant others are free to join us. Dun pai seh. Just let me know beforehand so I can give the right number for booking tables. [Do they allow table bookings at Marche?]

So everyone, please leave a comment to let me know your confirmed attendance, and I'll update the list periodically.

So fun! So fun!
*skips away singing silly la-la songs*
CatDonna

++Update++ Okay, it's either you all are super busy or you guys don't want to meet? Say something leh, so at least I know what's the score. If you want another date/time just say. Dun keep quiet lah.

Always so quiet. Wah lau, Singaporeans.

Me down with flu. Fever, sinusitis, fatigue, the usual symptoms.
Grouchy. Bleargh.
On the bright side though, insomnia's over.

++End Update++

Hey hey hey!

Some time back kuro.shiro.neko and I were casually discussing the possibility of meeting up.

Sooo.......

If we were to throw out an open invite to the Singapore cat blogosphere [bloggers and readers/commenters] for a late lunch this weekend, say, how many of you would be interested?

Leave a note in the comments section and let me know.

Bye bye for now!
CatDonna

ps- Hazel's fallen in the toilet bowl after a failed attempt at jumping up the sink. He's called Smelly Hazel now. At least until his shower.

Hazel [L] with Mother Pip. I wish I had someone to lick my weary head too.

What an awful week it has been.

It all started last Monday after I'd dropped off Fiver at his new home. I was supposed to start a new temp job the very next day, and was awaiting the phone call to confirm details and arrangements.

I did get the call, but it was bad and totally unexpected news: I couldn't be employed because of some major screw-up with my previous organisation and the terms of my bond. Basically, because of the wrong information disseminated by one of their people, I had inadvertently breached my contract.

So now I've appealed to their personnel division for an investigation and I've offered to return and serve out the remaining TWENTY FLIPPIN' DAYS so I'll owe them nothing and they can kindly get off my back.

What I really can't stand is how someone up there has seriously messed up, but they expect me to pay the penalty for it.

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So. Until this issue is resolved I can't find another job.
And as you can guess, this doesn't help the insomnia.
I've hardly been sleeping the entire week.

Yesterday, in the fog of eternal sleeplessness I made a couple of boo-boos:

In the car
Husband: So where are we going for dinner?
Me: Oh, I'm okay. Why don't you ask Rusty at the back.
Friend at the back: I'm Ryan, and I'm not your dog!!!

Back home
Me: [To Pip] Hey honey, where's your little baby kitten? Whatshisname. Wallace? Wally? No, it's something to do with nuts... Walnut?


Hazel expresses his admiration for my powerful memory


"Tough Nut" Hazel [L]: Standing in street corners conferring with infamous thug, "Last Laugh" Lucie

Speaking of whom, little Hazel is clearly taking after his mad and savage mother Pip. He's only half the size of the other cats, but he's already standing his ground in fights and even picking some of his own.

Pip, unfortunately, has also taught him some strange lessons. Hazel's not very sociable at all. He's so happy being alone, hiding under the sink cupboard. That's very not cute, not kittenish at all. Hazel's weird.

Pip, as you darlings all know, was brought up by myself pretty much all her life, so she's formed this obsessive attachment to me and an overwhelming delusion that she's human, not feline. I don't know if I've ever told you this, but Pip hardly meows. She whines, mutters, grunts, groans, purrs, and shrieks when angry. Very, very occasionally, Pip mews when she really wants something done.

Like mother, like son. My point is I hardly heard Hazel meow. He grunts and "talks" a lot, like a cranky little old man. Except he's not an old man, he's a kitten and supposed to be all cute and fluffy like.

I dunno if potential adopters will find a muttering kitten cute or just freaky?

A quick digression: Kudos to clever Cat Aunty for identifying the profile pic kitty! My profile pic is of baby Pip at 3 weeks. No Photoshop was used. Baby Pip's smile is entirely natural. Heheheh.

More pics coming up soon.
CatDonna

Taken from Yahoo! videos

"Patty cake, patty cake, patty cake man,
Make me a patty cake quick as you can."

The voiceover's about some cat giving a dog a massage, but it doesn't do anything for me so I prefer to watch it mute.

That's because when a cat does that to me, I call it making patty cakes.


Taken from www.ingestandimbibe.com

It's far easier on the imagination to think that a cat would knead dough to make its own tuna puffs [or bait for rats?], rather than do me a nice, de-stressing favour.

According to animal behavourists, cats knead to show affection.
So the question for today is, when cats knead us, do they need us?
Heh heh.

More to come after I drop Fiver off at his new adopter's.

CatDonna

Random thought in Fiver's little head:
"Now do I or do I not rip this sofa entirely to shreds?"


++Update++ Found the pics and added 'em. You can see them in the latter half of this post.

Insomnia is a pain.

It's not jet lag: with jet lag you feel exhausted at the wrong time of day and want to sleep. But I can't sleep at all.

I'm tired, yes, but that's only natural because this is the second night of my insomniac attack and I've slept only about 4 hours in the past 48.

When I was younger, back in university, I used to get insomniac attacks once in a while. One memorable occasion lasted 5 weeks and entailed me watching dang sunrises way too many times. Now I hate sunrises.

My insomniac episodes usually come and go without any warning or discernible cause. But I think I can pinpoint the cause this time: it's my heart.

The heart is heavy.

Returning to Singapore to read about two, three weeks' records of other local bloggers' lives proved to be simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking.

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Belated congratulations to the family of Five Cats' Blog and your new arrival, Jack! May he be a purrfect bundle of joy.

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On a more sombre note, The House of Cat lost its darling kitty heart, Dim Sum, to FIP. This occurred while I was still in the UK and I didn't know until I returned to Singapore.

Cat, I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. It seems that Dim Sum died peacefully, though, and that is a comfort.

An electronic hug for you. Take care.

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We here at CatDonna's Cats are keeping 5-Cat Style and the Flyer in our thoughts and prayers as they come to grips with a very difficult situation and the loss of a beloved kitten, Tiffy.

We're also mindful of recent media reports on the re-arrest of David Hooi, serial animal abuser.

I've decided against commenting on these sad events. Not because I haven't got anything to say, or I don't care.

But sometimes the heart is too weighed down to speak.
People are both frighteningly complex and terribly fragile.
I cannot even begin to discuss these issues. I am almost afraid to.
There is too much to say.

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Oh God, it's 5:13 a.m. already.

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There's another reason for the sleeplessness.

Boonie and Lucie, Hazel and Fiver are going to participate in an adoption drive at Eunos Community Centre this Sunday from 10 to 4. Boonie and Lucie will actually be there, whilst Hazel and Fiver will have their pictures put on display. I'll be there, of course, to help out with the drive and to screen the potential adopters for my cats.

Personally, I'm not keen on adoption drives - it's too stressful for the cats and you don't get to see the potential adopters interact with the animals sufficiently before you make a decision. Plus, many people who go for these shows aren't serious about adopting.

That's why I've held out against placing my cats in any of these things: I never saw the point, really.
Unfortunately, Boon and Luce are already 8 months old. They're almost adults, and getting huge.
Hazel and Fiver are 3 months old and I swear they've grown every time I look at them.

I love my foster cats to bits, but until I get rid of them, I can't help other cats.
On the other hand, I've got to ensure that my babies end up in good hands, and this is no simple feat.
I'm anxious for their welfare. Adoption drives are, frankly, a last resort [I've never had to come to this till now], and I'm very concerned for how everything will turn out.

I hate this.

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I'm making a last-ditch attempt here, and any help will be appreciated:

If anyone wants to adopt a kitten or young cat, or two, PLEASE let me know. Here they are.



Boonie Blackbear: black tabby male, 8 months




Lucie Luckystar: tortoiseshell tabby female, 8 months

Boonie and Lucie were born around about 15 Oct 2005. Abandoned at about 3 days old, they were rescued and hand-raised by me. They have grown up in a multi-cat household, are comfortable with other animals and trustful with humans.

Boonie is outgoing, sociable and talkative. Lucie is quieter, but sweet as honey and very loving. They grew up together and need to be adopted together.

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Fiver [L] and Hazel [R] lazing on the ironing board


Hazel and Fiver: size in perspective

[How to tell them apart: Hazel's nose is pink, and Fiver's is brown.]

Hazel and Fiver are both 3-month-old male, brown-and-white bicolour tabbies. Their personalities are developing: Hazel is aloof and courageous, a tiny little Simba lion; Fiver is friendly and affectionate and very endearing.

They can be adopted together or separately, although together is always best.

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Please contact me by email. It's in my profile.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Sigh.

CatDonna

ps - Pip just returned from sterilisation. I'll let her tell you about it when she's ready.


"Oh crud, I've just had my insides dug out of me and you 3-month-old twerps still want to suckle"