Cats who teach me to fly…

Her liver value was rocket high 4 days ago. She lost weight and was dehydrated. Swallowing water seemed to be hard for her, let alone swallowing food. I thought I was going to lose her. She looked way like a dying cat.

UU was diagnosed with diabetes 6 months ago. She didn’t gain much weight after that. However, she has great appetite. When she wasn’t eating on the third day, it was time to go to the vet.

Even though UU is 8-years-old, to me she’s still a young cat. Though her eyes look brighter today, she’s still not out of the woods yet. I still need to be careful.

I took UU home when she could barely open her eyes. She was so tiny like a mouse. Time flies and she’s 8 now. It is said that a cat’s average life span is between 10 and 15 years old. Actually, majority of the cats didn’t get to live beyond 10 years. Cats that get to live more than 10 years is considered fortunate.

I believe UU will get better in the next few days. The vet prescribed novofit and told me that this liver supplement is extremely helpful and with a new antibiotics as well. I added another supplement (optimus pet) for her, hoping it could boast her immune system. I’m glad that it works well for now.

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As my concentration gets better, I’m beginning to stop counting the minutes and hours. However, since I’ve made an aspiration to reach 3000 hours of meditation, I’d just stick to it and hope that I can reach the target while I’m alive.

Is 2023 a tough year? Every year is getting tougher for me as I age, both physically and mentally. Ajahn Thanissaro said as we get older and weaker, our practice in the Dhamma gets tougher. I guess it’s our daily obstacles that challenge our abilities to overcome our afflictions. But I’m all confident! And if it’s too tough, Ajahn Rahula said “it’s ok, this is nature. 吸气， 呼气(in cantonese), it’s okay.” Luang Por Viradhammo said to observe not ourselves but everything and all the things that is around us as object. It’s like this that causes and conditions work, anger arises and ceases. Pain arises and ceases. Happiness arises and ceases and etc… Luang Por Sucitto just said today when I was at the retreat, “Don’t let this human body go wasted. Make full use of it, practise the Dhamma”. And finally Ajahn Jutipanno reminds us that we’ve been to all six realms even in this life, that is when we experience anger, we’re in the hell realm. When we experience ill-will, we’re in the hungry ghost realm. When we’re greedy, we’re in the animal realm. When we practise loving-kindness and generosity, we’re in the heavenly realm and if we stablize the jhana meditation, we’re in much higher realms. A very good reminder to me and now I’m beginning to feel revulsion over anger.

There is so much that I’ve learnt from these spiritual teachers. The best of all is still Venerable Wuling’s patience. There is still so much to learn. These spiritual teachers are my inspiration. They never stop practising even though they get so old and suffer from physical conditions and I want to be like them.

Luang Por Sucitto’s 8 days meditation retreat just started today. It’s a good start of year 2024 to me. With the full day retreat and cats to take care of indoor and outdoor, it’s going to be tiring for me. However, attending all meditation retreat is definitely worthwhile to me!

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More than 2 weeks ago, Precious and Zoomie were at the adoption drive at Simei and they received the most number of adoption forms.

This was how they looked like in the adoption drive. Precious was so tired. Despite having a bald backside, he still attracted lots of attention. Zoomie was definitely vain, winning the hearts of many as well.

We were unable to get both of them to be adopted in pairs. Most of them were looking to adopt one cat.

According to Zoomie’s current adopter, Zoomie has been coping well. Very active as usual. The next challenge would be whether she is able to get along with their cat. However, her adopters are not expecting both to get along well. As long as they do not fight and mind their own business, all would be fine for them. But I do hope both enjoy each other’s company.

It was so weird on the first day when Zoomie wasn’t around. While I was cleaning their room, it felt like something that used to appear and disappear quickly right under my nose wasn’t happening.

This is how adorable she is. Active, playful and naughty.

For those who want to adopt Precious, there were issues with the window meshing so the adoption wasn’t successful. We did receive enquiries about Precious after the adoption drive. All we need to do is a little patience!

While waiting for a perfect adapter, I hope Precious’ fur would grow back again.

The reason why he remains attractive is because he’s a ginger. Sadly, no one went that far to fulfil the meshing requirements.

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We were supposed to put her up for adoption and because she was a great companion of Youyou and a great lap cat, we decided to adopt her.

We found her at Spring Leaf. Skinny as usual. She loved playing with Youyou at that time. Both were active and playful and it was such a joy to watch them chasing each other in the house. It was more than 8 years ago.

Baobao had a big growth in her lungs. After being told nothing can be done, we sent her for a second opinion. Yes, the mass in her lungs was cancerous. We could only support her by giving her steroids and supplements. Hopefully, it can relieve her pain. It was hard to see her getting skinnier and skinnier. We gave her whatever that can make her comfortable. She didn’t seem to struggle much.

May Baobao in her future lives meet the Dhamma, investigate, study, learn and practise it, liberate herself and others from samsara!

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I sent the link to her owner for free sterilisation. It’s simple. All he needed to do was just to click on his preferred vet clinic and the date that he wanted his cat to be sterilised and submit the form and that’s all! I hate to say this but he’s really a big fat lazy bum! Someone who tells lies without blinking his eyes. Unreliable! A jerk!

Two weeks ago, while I was feeding the cats, I saw another newly abandoned cat hiding under the car. I went to see if the cat was sterilised but it was too timid and hid under the car. I left the cat alone and carried on feeding the cats and when I was on my way back to my car, I saw the cat coming out from under the car and attempted to climb up the window of a unit which I believed was where the cat lived. Then I recalled this man having a mummy cat and three kittens. I was so furious! After sending him the link for free sterilisation, instead of fixing her, he abandoned her! How much I wish I could whack and punch him at that moment! In my mind, I had killed him a few times. However, that wouldn’t solve the issue. I calmed down and told myself this unworthy man isn’t worth staining my mind even for one nanosecond. I’ve helped him sterilise one cat, helped save his sister’s cat, Ayob, who is named Precious now and gave him cat food when he told his wife to ask for it. And now I believe people like him really exist in this world!

This is the cat. We named her Snow. Less than a year old. I don’t know what will happen to the kittens but I really hope they will be all well taken care of and sterilised when the time comes.

We had Snow sterilised on Tuesday. She was tested FIV/ FeLV negative. We’re arranging to vaccine her next week. She is active and friendly so finding her a home shouldn’t be difficult. Right now, we need to fatten her a little, she’s all too skinny.

I’m always happy when my mind focuses on solving the problem that is to rehome Snow to a better place and a responsible owner.

Precious is already up on the adoption notice. We’re preparing Snow’s as well and we’re going to do it fast.

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