Cats who teach me to fly…

Romeo’s asthma has long been under control, however, he is still on Theophylline once daily. Just when everything seemed well, Romeo began to lose weight and appetite. We brought him to the vet two weeks ago for a blood test. His FIV has acted up. His red blood cell count was extremely low. Although our vet didn’t say it was due to stress living with other cats in the house somehow, her questions told me so.

Romeo has no issues with having other cats around. No one has attacked him and neither has he attacked anyone. Everyone seems to mind their own business. Romeo loves sleeping in the common room, especially on the cat stand and the wall-mounted cat box.

Most of the time I turn on the air purifier for him, both in the common room and the hall.

We’re giving him Eprex for his blood and Retromad1 for his FIV. Eprex costs $418 for 6 tubes and each tube can only be used 3 times according to Romeo’s weight. Mel and I nearly planned to buy it from Johor Bahru. Fortunately, someone donated 2 boxes of Eprex to us, each containing 6 tubes. The donor’s dog passed on before she could use it on her dog. We appreciate her generosity so much. A good deed done in memory of her dog.

Retromad1 didn’t come cheap as well. A 15ml bottle cost $80. I needed it urgently, so I got it for Romeo. Each time, I have to give him 1.2ml twice a day. 15ml can only last for 6 days. I asked my friend if she could get it cheaper elsewhere and she knows someone who sells it at $200 for 50ml, which is a lot cheaper. My budget only allows me to get a bottle that can last 20 days.

Romeo is starting to eat by himself. He is increasing his food intake very slowly and gradually but he is not out of the woods yet. We still have to monitor him closely.

I was peeping on Romeo when I wasn’t home. I snapped these from the IP camera. Hope Romeo continues to progress.

His name comes after my beloved cat Floofy! Enough names like “Blackie”. I’ve heard it so often and named it myself in the past 10 years. Whatever “fy” it is, it is better than the name “Blackie”. Mel started it! She asked me what “fy” would you want to call him, since he looks like Floofy, let’s call him Toofy. There is another orange cat we named Goofy:)).

Others call him Blackie, I call him Toooofy!

Every day when I looked out from my corridor, I would spot a tiny black shadow on the left hand side where the multi-storey carpark is. Toofy would sit in between two flights of stairs and look out. Out of curiosity, I decided to see what he is watching every day.

As we can see there’s a block on his right and that’s where I’m staying. So when I’m at my corridor and looking to my left, I can see a tiny bit of Toofy. That’s the view that Toofy is watching.

The view happened to be this beautiful that day. Usually it is filled with vehicles, motorcycles, Grab riders, bicycles and all sorts of transportation. Sadly, this is the place where I witnessed the whole episode of pigeons poisoning…

Though Toofy is a black cat, he is beautiful in many ways. Black cats can be very attractive!

Yes, that’s the life of Toofy. Now careful, they are no longer stray cats, they are community cats with caregivers taking very good care of them. The love giving to the community cats is no difference from home cats.