Cats who teach me to fly…

I was feeding at Sembawang and saw a new pretty face looking at me deep in the drain. I used all my might to lure him( at first I thought it was a she) out of the drain. A newly abandoned cat is usually scared and hungry. He was very hungry. He looks so much like a female and his ear is not tipped and I was worried that he may get pregnant so I decided to bring him home, sterilise him and find him a home.

I took him home and bath for him. Upon bathing for him, I realised that he was actually a boy and I mistook him as a girl. It makes me wonder if I would leave him in the drain if I knew he was a boy…

He is everybody’s all time favourite, Bolster! Very cute! So many enquire about him. I took him in on 12 March which is the covid19 period.

Grayson came in next. Someone gave him up due to divorce issues. It is always the animals who got abandon first. I took him in. Grayson is not difficult to rehome. He gets along very well with Bolster and both became bullies in the house.

That’s Grayson. Lalu was behind the door.

When I first took over Grayson, his fur was horrible. Part of the fur was gone on his tail. We wondered if his fur would ever grow. As days went by, he bloomed!

Mel has been taking good care of them. We found an adopter who is willing to adopt both. Bolster and Grayson adapted well. Mummy is happy! Both cats looked relaxed in their new home. Mel and I will visit them in another two weeks!

I remember we brought her home when she was nine- months-old and she was diagnosed with FeLV. That was Nov 2014 and she became a citizen in my home.

I also remember very well how she slammed Shunshun on his head when she jumped down from the table and tapped Shunshun’s head as she landed. Shunshun fell back and Qi was the winner. Xiaoqi changed Shunshun into a better cat. Both love each other so much. We never separated them. Sadly, Shunshun left 3 years ago and I was glad that Sunshine was coping well.

A sweet girl she was. I always tell Mel, FeLV room without Sunshine will not be a cheerful room. Sunshine was so young and cancer hit her. She left yesterday morning. I was with her till she left.

Mel used to carry her out from the room to the Buddha altar and made her bow to the Buddha and Boddhisattvas from the pure land. Everytime when Mel made Sunshine bow, she would call out the Buddha’s name and so forth.

Before she left, I chanted for her and tried to help her to recall the Buddha’s and Boddhisattvas’ names and images that she bowed to. I believe it works for Sunshine cos I had three phenomena. 2 before Sunshine left and one shortly after she left.

Now 小起 has become 小禅。I miss her so much…

Ace was hit by a taxi last Oct. It was a hit and run case. I did not witness it. On that night, before I began packing the food and start my feeding rounds, the children at Whampoa rushed to me and told me about it.

I tried going round and round looking for him and I believed he couldn’t have gone far, still I was not able to find him for two days. There was a big drain which I suspected that he was hiding.

Ace came to me on the third night after he was knocked down by the taxi. Because of the slightly distorted face, Mel could not recognize him. Immediately when I saw Ace The first thing that came to my mind was to grab him into the carrier before he was gone again.

He was hungry. I served him food but he was unable to eat. So I put him in the carrier and got his ex-owner to keep him for a night. It was already very late that night, I didn’t want to spend that kind of money on after hour charges. We all know it didn’t come cheap.

I sent Ace to the vet the next day and we engaged a specialist to do a surgery.

Ace looked not so bad in the clinic. I think Dr Patrick stitched his opened wound on his… I forgot what that call. It was something above the tongue. We were told that Ace’s right eye was blind and his Jaw was crooked as well. The vet was unable to fixed his Jaw in fear that Ace may not be able to open his mouth again.

Ace was discharged. However, there was discharge from Ace’s nose. For less than a month after discharged, I notice Ace was breathing heavily. It was the kind of breathing that resembles a passing away cat. We sent Ace immediately to the clinic and was told to transfer him to VES immediately.

They found Ace’s lungs were accumulated with mucus which obstructed his breathing. The lungs were badly infected as well. The clinic did a CT scan, removed the mucus, inserted a tube for feeding.

Ace’s conditions started to improve day by day.

He is home now and putting weight. He was at VES early January. His blood test results says that his condition is stable.

His overall bill was around 14k and we managed to raise around 5k which we are really grateful. Thank you to those who contributed to Ace’s medical bill.

We hope that Ace could continue to stay healthy.

Regalia was found by my relieve feeder. We managed to find Regalia a good home in March this year.

Regalia was also abandoned at Whampoa and our government is still not doing anything about pets abandonment.

Like the rest, we had Regalia sterilised, vaccinated and did a blood test. Everything looks good and we had many people enquire about her when I posted her up for adoption. And Regalia gone to a loving home.

Kelly, Bento and Mr Slow were all from my feeding area at Whampoa. Kelly left on 2 Nov last year. The LTCI did not work on her or perhaps it was too late. She was cremated on the same day.

Bento appeared 2 to 3 years ago. We noticed that he lost a lot of weight and we decided to bring him home. It was early this year. He was suffering from kidney failure. He got along well with other cats. We tried our best to make him comfortable. He loved sitting on a high wall bed. We will let him be wherever he was comfortable. Bento left on 27 April. I remember on that early morning, while I was still sleeping, his image flashed in my mind and I thought to myself, Bento must have left us. Shortly, Mel informed me that he has left.

I remember when I first saw him in 2013, he was sitting on top of a motor bike. I told Mel that this cat was a female, Mr Slow immediately roared at me with disagreement and we both broke into laughter.

The reason why we named him Mr Slow was he was always the last one to finish his food. He eats slowly and walks slowly. Everything about his actions were slow. Sometimes I called him Slow Slow…and he responded to it.

Mr Slow went missing twice. The first one was for more than three months which I believed someone had took him in and released him again and I think I know who…

The second time he was relocated by someone for more than a month. A neighbour spotted him, informed me and I brought him back. In just one to two weeks time, Mr Slow has lost so much weight and with covid 19, many vet clinics were not opened for consultation. By looking at Mr Slow’s conditions, we believe that he has kidney issue. We gave him sub-cut fluid and all the supplements that we usually give to our kidney disease cats. After two days of fluid, he seemed to look better and started to eat.

Sadly, it didn’t last long. He was with us for less than two weeks. I found him breathing heavily yesterday and sent him to the clinic. He was diagnosed with end stage kidney failure. Our vet tried her best. Mr Slow left us this morning.

All my community cats are getting old. They were already adults when I started to feed them seven years ago. Therefore, many whom I am still feeding are more than 10 years of age and I am prepared for what is coming. I want to take care of them when they fall sick until the end of time…