We've moved our blog here! This page will be kept online as an archive for our decade of blog posts.
Met a stray cat that needs rescue? Go to our website to submit a Rescue Request
Want to adopt a cat from us? Here are the cats that are up for adoption!
Come volunteer to clean the foster space and play with kitties!
Wish to give to Love Kuching Project? Deposit to our DBS Current Account 027-907655-0 or find out other ways to give here


Friday, May 30, 2014

Great mews! We now have 20 free sterilisation slots per month from [@CatWelfareSG] Cat Welfare Society!

Our last Sterilisation Fund appeal raised $943.43 in total! But now, the first 20 cats Love Kuching Project sterilises every month will be free of charge! The Sterilisation Fund can now stretch further allowing us to sterilise more than 20 cats each month with such a healthy balance!

Thank you Mother Meow i.e. Cat Welfare Society!


Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.     


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#pawcircle for Mac from Tai Seng

We met Mac last Tuesday night when his rescuer Nafisa, with the help of our trapper, brought him to our foster home, from Tai Seng industrial area. He was very skinny, bleeding from his mouth and had a lot of mucus coming out from it. He was also very feral and didn't want to be touched. We brought him to the vet the next day.

Mac on the way to the vet

It turns out he has very bad gum disease, which was so painful he couldn't eat, hence his emaciated state. His lungs, heart, kidney and liver are fine, but he is FIV and FeLV positive, which means he has to stay inside his cage and not share food bowls, since his FeLV is already symptomatic with his weakness.

Dr Chong gave him a steroidal jab, and an antibiotics jab, after drawing blood from him to do the tests.

Andy helping to hold him still
It was difficult to get him to start eating again at first. His mouth was still bleeding and he was obviously still feeling some pain. We made him an aromatherapy pillow to put beside him, and then he finally started eating. Inside the pillow: helichrysum, myrrh, copaiba for pain, cistus (to stop bleeding), tea tree oil (for gum disease) and Ruta Vala (to calm him down).

We also found that he LOVES food with bonito flakes and at first wouldn't eat anything without it. Immediately we placed an order for bonito flakes just for him. He now eats his supplements in his food completely, as long as there is bonito flakes in it. He also has started to be less feral.

We couldn't bathe him, so in case he had fleas or mites, we had Revolution applied on every cat. Kudos to the volunteers for doing this, weighing every cat and dispensing the right amount (we buy the one for large dogs, cheaper, it is 0.05ml / kg of body weight).

He is however still drooling from his mouth, which means his gum disease needs long term management.

Despite meds, his gum disease is still not 100% ok
We have, together with our corporate sponsor The Water Dish, set up the #pawcircle fund. For every poor thing cat that we post about, you can go to this #pawcircle fund link and give a small sum (minimum $5) to strengthen the #pawcircle for the cats that need veterinary help.

Spread the word, Mac needs lots of help to tide him through what may be his last days here.


Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.   


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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Calling all cat lovers! Want to make eco-friendly cat themed jewellery? Alfie De Meow And Transitional____. will Show You How!

Alfie De Meow, whose creations you would have seen at Cat Socrates, Neko No Niwa cat cafe and Dulcetfig, is conducting a class on how to make the jewellery!

Learn how to make your very own bioresin (eco-friendly resin) cat jewellery from scratch! In this workshop, you will learn the basics of wax carving, mould making, and resin casting. Create your own cat shapes and turn them into statement brooches, or if you are more adventurous, you are more than welcome to design your own ring, pendant, or abstract masterpiece.




Date:
7 June 2014 + 14 June 2014

Time: 1300-1800 hrs on 7 June, 1300-1600 on 14 June

Duration: 5 hrs + 3 hrs

Location:




115A King George's Avenue
Singapore 208561
Nearest MRT: Lavender MRT

Price: *$200

All tools and materials are provided and no prior knowledge is necessary. At the end of the workshop, you will get to bring home a piece of jewellery that is truly your own creation, and better still, eco-friendly!

*We will be donating 10% of the course fees to our adopted cat charity, Love Kuching Project, a local cat rescue group that promotes cat adoption, rescues cats in need and conducts sterilisation of the community cats in Singapore.

Register by sending an email to: AlfieDeMeow@gmail.com



Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7. 


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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Next Sterilisation Project: Renci Nursing Home #TNR But we need your help to sterilise them

Update: Funds raised, date confirmed, Sunday afternoon 1 June

We have been doing Feline Therapy and have started work at Renci at a trial level, when we were approached by the operations guy, Rain, who happens to help feed the stray cat colony within the nursing home grounds itself. 

The cats are mostly at the rubbish collection point, where the cleaners also help to clear unfinished food. During the weekends, the cleaners help to feed the cats. 

Rubbish collection point, also feeding area
 
2 torbies

1 ginger and 1 tabby
1 tri-coloured cat
Another 2 tabbies
There is also a tuxedo male who sired some kittens but he often hides in the drains here:

The small drain is where some cats hide

We are hoping to trap at least 7 of the cats we sighted (plus the missing tuxedo) and hope to reduce the growth of the stray cat population in the nursing home.

But we need your help.

Our Sterilisation Fund balance right now is in deficit of $143.43.We cannot do this project without you.

It costs $30 to neuter a male cat, $40 to $60 to neuter a female cat, and $80 for trapping. Each cat also needs to board for post-op care and that is at $6 per cat. From what we recce-ed, we estimate there are 4 males and 3 females. That comes up to an estimate of $491. That is more than what we have in our Sterilisation Fund right now.


How you can help

Make a deposit to our POSB savings bank account 188-52652-7 and email us to say you have given to our Sterilisation Fund.

Once we have raised enough money to go ahead with the project, we will update when the TNR will begin.

If you cannot give, use the share buttons below to share this pressing need right now.






Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7. 

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
 

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Concluded #TNR project at Sims Drive: Final tally of cats neutered and how you can help us go further

Total number of cats sterilised at Sims Drive, 16 in all.

Cats neutered in Round 1

We did a round 2 in March, trapping another 6 cats to be neutered. 

Cats neutered in round 2

Then round 3 this month:
Cats neutered in round 3
Our bills:





How you can keep our Sterilisation efforts going:

If you wanna give towards sterilisation of the cats, here are some helpful donation amounts you can consider: It costs $30 to neuter a male cat, $40-$60 to neuter a female a cat. Transport costs are $80 in total inclusive of trapping services, and pre- and post-op for the cats are at $6 per cat. 

We -do- need more donations towards our Sterilisation Fund because after this project is concluded, we already have another one lined up at Renci Nursing Home, right will be starting another Feline Therapy project! Details soon! 

How to give: Deposit a sum of your choice to our POSB savings account188-52652-7 


Thank you for joining us in our work. 

Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.    
Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.  
and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.   
Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Emergency Response Fund: READY TO LAUNCH. #ERFund

Those of you who came through on pledging to the base level of $500 per month we want to achieve for the ER Fund. 

We are ready to receive your monthly donations based on the amount your pledged, be it $10 or $100.

Your online banking interface should be able to do this.

Assuming you are a DBS internet banking user, here is how you can set up a standing instruction to give monthly to Love Kuching Project. Log in to your account online and click on the circled links shown in the graphics below -



This will lead you to a page where you can fill in the details such as our bank account - POSB Savings 188-52652-7, and your pledge amount. If you can up the amount your pledged - this will be greatly welcomed because we fear some pledgers may back out...

When you come to the part which says payee name, we are unsure as to whether the bank means it is for your reference or it requires the actual account holders' names - to be safe, put either Chiam Elaine or Koh Zhen Jian. As long as you have got our Love Kuching account number right, the funds will not be accidentally routed to our personal accounts. Our branch is Kampung Ubi but the branch code is standardised across all POSB branches as 081.

The standing instruction set up is likely available on other banks' internet banking websites as well.

You can set it up to start in June of this year and this way we we can launch the ER Fund in that month. 


Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.   Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.   Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.    Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Adopt Jacqui, rescued from abandonment, rehabilitated from illness

:P


Jacqui may look like a very ordinary white and tabby cat, but her personality is amazing. Let us tell you all about it.

Jacqui posing purr-ily

She is now about 15 weeks old, and was rescued from Tampines as an abandoned kitten with diarrhoea and cat flu'. While rehabilitating her from illness, we got to know her personally. She is so easy-going. Medicines? Okay, blech, but scruffing and syringing her meds was easy. She is also super huggable. After every medication dose we will hug her and she loves it.

"Wish this couch was your lap, human."


After she got better, we realise she is not only affectionate, huggable, she is also super easy to befriend with other cats, and our Socialisation IC dog, Scotty.


Jacqui was comfy with a dog from the get-go

She is also now being penned with Lex, another rescue kitty for adoption, and she grooms him all the time. During play time with others, she is responsive and sociable, she respects the older foster cats too.

Want to adopt a super easy going lovable purring lap cat (even if you have a dog hor!)? Find out how by clicking here, or viewing our right side bar under 'How to adopt'.




See more pictures of Jacqui and other photos taken by Furry Photos for us here.



Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.  
Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.    
Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.     
Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Cat Care Talk by Love Kuching's President, Elaine - Keen or not?

We are hoping to organise a cat care talk in July for cat owners who want to learn more about caring for their cats better. 

It will not be at our foster home, but we will bring some of our foster kitties there, as we need a conducive environment for the talk itself: our foster lounge is small, cosy and warm when there are many people! 

You will get a goody bag, not only from sponsors but also trial sizes of the holistic remedies we use at Love Kuching. 



We'd like to know if you are keen on this because it would be really sad if we aim for 20 attendees and only 3 show up. 

Will it be free? No, unfortunately, as we do need to raise funds whenever we can. It will be an affordable fee that will be worth your money both for the talk and the goody bag. 

If you are keen, drop is a comment either on this blog post, Facebook, or Twitter. 

We will update the firmed up date and time once we secure the location, so now it is a matter of whether you would like to come or not!

Say yes...




Current fundraising need: Make a pledge to our ER Fund.
Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.   Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.   Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.    Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Do you own a shop? Sell kitty themed things? Pet accessories? We want you!

If you click our blog shop link on top you will find merchandise partners who have pledged amounts of their sales to us. These sales make a great impact on our income and we are so grateful that people out there want to incorporate CSR / social entrepreneurship into their business. 

Well, if you haven't joined us yet, become a merchandise partner for Love Kuching!

All you need to do is pledge a part of your sales/profits to Love Kuching, you can add our logo, and then when you have enough to make a deposit (it can be at any periodic amount you like) send us the funds to our account POSB savings 188-520652-7 and you can also request a receipt to be sent to you for filing, just give us your mailing address. Email elaine@lovekuchingproject.org if you need the receipts.


So, join us! Our only caveat is that, because we have a corporate sponsor who supplies pet food, you cannot be a pet shop that does the same business. (On that note we are hoping to go straight to distributors for further discounts, but that is another story.) Pet toys, customised accessories and such are not sold by our corporate sponsor but if you want to find out if there is any clash, search The Water Dish to see if they already have those items. This way we can minimise any conflict of interest. 

In fact you don't even need to be selling pet supplies. ANY item you sell can be part of a social enterprise partnership with us. 

More questions? Drop us a line. 90880785 Elaine (call/sms). 

 

Current fundraising need: Make a pledge to our ER Fund.
Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.   Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.   Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.    Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

The Use of Essential Oils for Cats

We usually buy our essential oils from iHerb, but not all the oils that will help cat conditions are available there; for those we need but are not available on iHerb, we buy from Young Living.

First of all, let's set the record straight: are essential oils safe for cats? The answer is YES. But it depends very much on the grade and purity of the essential oil in question. We studied the book written by a vet, Melissa Shelton DVM who writes on and advocates the use of essential oils for pets, not just cats alone. With her guide, we have incorporated the use of essential oils even more, and have seen surprising results that look like as if we applied pharmaceuticals instead!

Cats accept holistic remedies better than us humans because their systems metabolises these remedies quicker. This is also why they get poisoned more easily by things like chocolate and lilies, but that is another topic altogether.

Not all of you will be using the rarer essential oils because not all of us have very sick pets, but there are 2 Young Living ones you should consider buying because they are good must-haves to get.

The first, is RutaVala.



Ever since we started using this, we cannot work without it. It contains ingredients like lavender and valerian, which are very calming. What we do with it apart from diffusing it to calm cats down, is sprinkle some on the towel or pee pad that we use when we bring cats out, say to the vet. It really, really works. The cats become less angsty, and they smell good too. If you have hypervocal kittens that you are fostering, this also helps in calming them down. Lex, a new kitten, when he first came, was meowing away because he was lonely and scared. We diffused this, he calmed down, and slept.


The second essential oil you should consider getting, especially if you have allergies to cat fur and dander, is Thieves.



Thieves is not only antibacterial in nature, it also has antihistamine effects. Many of our volunteers actually have allergies (very ironic right?) but when Thieves is being diffused, they stop sneezing. It smells good and helps to cleanse the home of bacteria especially if your cat or kitties your are fostering have any form of illness.

How d0 you buy these oils from Young Living?

Go to their sign-up page, click on Member Sign Up



Then it will lead you to this page where you should enter these details and your own:




Using our code helps us gain some income, which is why we recommend you use our code as a referrer. We need all the funds we can get!

Usually your first purchase comes with a lot of free gifts too, such as a diffuser, depending on how much you buy.

We will do a series on essential oils for other conditions such as pain from illness. For now, these are the essential essential oils you should get!

Hope this was useful! If you need more information on essential oils feel free to leave comments. We regard holistic healing very seriously in our care for our sick and injured cats and with that have seen amazing results with using essential oils. Even to the point of reducing medication doses or without using medication at all.



Current fundraising need: Make a pledge to our ER Fund.
Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.    
 Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.    
Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.     
Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Message from Elaine, in the middle of the night no less

When in doubt, blog, they say, "they" meaning nonprofit marketing gurus, and I read as much as I can of what they say. 

Then I read one that says, " don't be afraid to share your obstacles." So here I am. 

This excel spreadsheet screen shot is my obstacle: 



It probably doesn't make any sense to anyone, but it meant we have to raise nearly a thousand dollars more per month. How are we supposed to increase our fundraising? I am fine with living hand to mouth but our recent committee meeting has proven this is not the way to go. 

So, we have raised an average of $2,419.01 in Q1, and have to raise an average of $3410,99 per month in Q2. 

The only way I can get that to happen to is to build a marketing team, because online appeals alone are no longer going to work if we want to raise a thousand dollars more each month. 

But there are no leaders. Be it because of aptitude, or availability.

So it has to be me.

As Mother Theresa would say: don't wait for leaders, do it person to person. 

This is of course causing me a lot more stress than usual and thus this blog post. I don't think we can achieve this target but I will start trying, for I already am, by sharing this obstacle with you.


Current fundraising need: Make a pledge to our ER Fund.
Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.  
Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.    
Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.     
Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Pawfection cat collars - now 10% sales goes to our Vet Fund!

Twitter/Instagram: PawfectionSG
Facebook: Pawfection.SG

 Pawfection cat collars come in pink with a cat charm, retails at only $8.99. 


To order: go to this link, their Pawfection online shop

 



Current fundraising need: Make a pledge to our ER Fund.
Make a financial gift via a deposit to our POSB savings account 188-52652-7.  Find out more.    
Become a monthly giver to help ensure our rescues continue getting their needs met.    
Feed and provide litter to the cats we foster via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish.   
Follow on us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Good News! Moca Is Now Jiro Because...


... his foster caregivers adopted him! Some of you may remember Moca from when he was rescued and brought to us. Our Treasurer, Vivien (shown in picture) offered to foster him as both Alvin and her work schedules will allow Moca's 3 hourly feedings. 

Not only was Moca infinitely cute, e.g. this: 

I be cute
 
The resident kitties were also very open to having him around. Jay especially (also adopted from us) was very brotherly towards him


"Must take care the small one."

Then Moca had a bacterial infection and needed some -more- care than his feeds.

Dr Dawn checking what happened to lil one
During this time the resident kitties became even more protective of Moca, the foster parents became more and more in love, and so, foster caregivers became adopters ;) 

Not every fostering scenario ends this way hor, so don't be afraid to foster, in case you end up keeping the cat when you already cannot. Always never fear to rise up and foster.