Rudducks grooming powder

We received a gift from Ivy of a barely-used bottle of grooming powder that is absolutely superb.


Rudducks Grooming Powder is really great because it can be used even on kittens and puppies! I have just doused the P siblings with it, especially Panda because he is mostly white and therefore stained, and it can even be used on damp coats. Which speeds up the drying process after their frequent-but-necessary showers, therefore they won't catch cold.

I also intend to use it on Helga for grooming her easily matted coat; am going to try it on her later tonight. 

It says on the bottle that it deodorises, that it is non-toxic, and has a high absorption of oils and moisture.

Which leaves the kittens clean, dry and fresh, and is great for long-haired coats to comb out mattes.

I also learned from Weiling of NUS Cat Cafe that if you wish to use normal baby powder on combing out mattes in fur, use cornstarch based powder instead as it does not contain talcum which is not healthy for animals when they groom themselves.

This is a great product! Will definitely be on the lookout for it - think we saw it at Little Paws at Telok Kurau - once we finish this big bottle of grooming powder and need a top up. Far better than what I have been using on Helga which is an anti-flea-and-tick powder, useless because she doesn't have fleas having already been on Revolution.

weaning progress of Panda and Panther

It seems that the P brothers are not responding well to food and milk in a dish, and it saddens us to see them less tubby than before when they were fully on the bottle. So we are going to change tack with their weaning.

Since Panther is more able to learn to eat on his own, I have placed moistened kibbles only (so that they can learn the tactile feel of food, and lick without getting much moisture on their noses thus get wary of the dish), and moistened kibbles remain fresh for longer, which means that they can take their own slower time to learn to feel, lick and taste the food. We will be bringing back the bottle more often throughout the day, at 6-8 hour intervals instead of only twice a day so they can regain their chubbiness. And as per our practice, adding vitamins to their milk feedings.

In the meantime, here is a video of Panther scurrying around our kitchen. He is not as great a scurrier as Panda but Panda was being fed at the time this video was taken, so here is Panther meowing and walking-about in our kitchen!

ups and downs: KPIs comparing UKP to Love Kuching Project by @thewaterdish

Comparing Average Boarding Expenses per cat per month:
Ubi Kuching Project boarding at Angels Pet Shop (Jan to May) = $39.93
Love Kuching Project by The Water Dish (May to Jul) = $34.80
Average Boarding Expenses per cat per month decreased by 13%

Comparing Average Donation Amount per donor per month:
Ubi Kuching Project (Jan to May) = $104.94
Love Kuching Project by The Water Dish (Jun to Jul) = $104.67
Average Donation Amount per donor remained constant

Comparing Number of Donors per month:
Jan = 1
Feb = 3
Mar = 5
Apr = 7
May = 4
Jun = 9
Jul = 12
Number of Donors per month on the upward trend

Notes on the above KPI figures:
Our boarding expenses have decreased per cat per month since we switched from boarding at a pet shop premises to our Love Kuching foster home. This is largely due to the absence of having to pay a boarding fee to a pet shop per day per foster cat. Our boarding expenses at our Love Kuching foster home, apart from food and litter, also includes environmental comforts for the fosters such as calming products (Feliway, catnip, Pet Ease, Rescue Remedy), boarding equipment such as pee-pads and towels, and supplements such as Azmira Acidophilus. Considering the increase in expenditure on environmental items that don't include food and litter, the decrease in our boarding expenses per cat per month means that we are moving forward in providing more mileage for your financial contributions. It is also encouraging that our boarding expenses are lowering even though we have raised the bar in providing quality food and litter now to our fosters - for dry food, we have upgraded from Royal Canin to Solid Gold Indigo Moon which is a grain-free high-protein formula. For milk, we have upgraded from Animalac to KMR. For canned food, we have upgraded from lower grade brands (such as Fussie Cat and Angel) to Nutripe and recently Natural Balance. For litter, we are no longer using clay litter which is opined to be harmful for cats, and are using pine litter. We are also benefitting more from donations-in-kind from our sponsor The Water Dish and from individual donors, which directly reduce our boarding expenditure since we no longer have to pay a fixed rate of $3.50 per day per cat, regardless of donations-in-kind, to board rescues at a pet shop premises. Now, all donations-in-kind are directly factored into cost-savings in our boarding expenditure.

Our number of donors per month is on the increase, which means that we have maintained if not improved in inspiring trust, providing financial accountability and transparency, and increased awareness of our animal welfare work. We also need to thank all of you who have contributed financially, no matter the sum or frequency - you are greatly appreciated by us and the cats we help truly benefit from your gifts.

To view our KPIs from January to June 2010, see here.


For our non-financial KPIs: 
In the month of July 2010, we sterilised a total of 9 cats and re-homed a total of 3. The drop in number of cats sterilised from the 16 in June is due to the large amount of resistance we faced in our July TNRM project at Malay Village - tenants refusing to let us neuter strays and chasing the cats away from us, negotiating the urban terrain that is a maze of debris and heights in the village. While we re-homed only 3 cats, we actually fostered 7 in the month of July, including Serval whom we had to release back to his colony because he was too feral, Helga who is a long-term foster due to her CRF, and Panda and Panther because they are still too young to be re-homed. In general, our re-homing rate will continue to be maintained at this rate - lower than the numbers we used to re-home while we were Ubi Kuching Project with a pet shop front, however, we are endeavouring to increase our work on the sterilisation of stray cat colonies in estates around us. For the month of August, we have targeted to conduct two TNRM projects - one in Bendemeer and another in Ubi in a bid to up the ante in our work for the cats in our neighbourhoods.

panda and panther - 3 weeks old

The P siblings, both boys, eyes opened last week, are now being partially weaned off the bottle. We have been placing a dish of KMR milk and canned food in their pen so they can learn to lap food on their own. So far Panther has learned to lap more successfully than Panda. Panda on the other hand, while slow to learn eating, is a really active cat who loves to scurry around the house when let out of the pen for walkabout, grooming and such.

They get themselves really dirty when learning to eat, and they are still too young to be litter trained so they cover themselves with their pee and poo too! We have been using small animal shampoo (mild enough for kittens) to shower them at least once every two days.

When they get the bottle, they now can drink half a bottle each, and I add vitamins and probiotics for them in their milk too, so they can stay healthy. Handreared kittens might tend to be a bit weaker in immunity and such because they miss out on their mother's milk, so the supplements are necessary to ensure they are healthy.

I handmade a reheatable pillow - using a towel with barley grains inside, when microwaved stay warm for long - to keep them warm. Right now most of their pillows are already soiled, they have one for now in a small basket which they cuddle up within to keep warm.

They are consuming roughly one can of KMR milk a week, so we have just enough till they are weaned off milk hopefully by next week when they are four weeks old.

Once they learn how to eat, we will then proceed to litter training with a small litter pan to start. When that is finally successful, they be ready for adoption! Exciting couple of weeks ahead for the brothers!

update on Tysia

Tysia (Totty) was rescued from Ubi Techpark in April and adopted by @AngMoGirl Nen's adopters in the same month. Here are some pictures of them together now!

Hi Elaine,



Just to let you know Tysia and Nen are doing good. After initial bulling, hissing and fighting Nen accepted her as his side-kick ;). She is very sweet in nature, docile and calm (although she does murder plushie-toys ;)). She comes occasionally to demand cuddles, but most of the time she seems to be happy sleeping around or staring at the window. I'm not completely happy with the fact that she remains rather skinny, while Nen helps himself to her portion of food, and develops a significant fat rear ;P.



Cheers! I hope you and Andy are doing well!

canned food for Love Kuching temporary change

At our Love Kuching foster home we have opted to feed Nutripe Chicken canned food because it fulfills our main criteria -

1. It is a premium formula - we believe in feeding good quality food to our fosters
2. Chicken is digestible for kittens and hypoallergenic
3. It is priced the lowest among other premium brands

This is why if you would like to donate food to Love Kuching via our corporate sponsor The Water Dish the low donation prices only apply to Nutripe Chicken canned food.

However, at The Water Dish Nutripe Chicken is currently out of stock, and so are we, of canned food in our cache of food for our fosters, mainly Panda and Panther who are currently being weaned onto solid food being 3 weeks of age this week.

So, to alleviate the canned food crisis we are temporarily switching to Natural Balance Chicken formula so we can continue our weaning process for the P siblings.

This will elevate our boarding expenses a little - $0.45 more per can - because the cost price and thus the charity rates for Natural Balance offered by our sponsor are higher than for Nutripe.

TNRM reconnaissance at Bendemeer Road

Update 3 August 2010: We went to feed the cats at Bendemeer and met the cat-feeders. They are in agreement with our sterilisation plans and will be there on Thursday 5 August 8pm to help with the trapping for sterilisation. We also informed them that we will thereafter relocate the cats away from the construction site to the 4 point blocks opposite and they can manage the cats there after the return. We also rescued one kitten tonight and she currently rehabilitating at our Love Kuching foster home.

Update 31 July 2010: The trapping for neutering of the Bendemeer Road construction site will be carried out on 5 August 2010, Thursday at 8pm. We will be going there on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8pm to feed the cats pre-neutering in order to befriend them. If you would like to join us, do meet us there on those dates and times, and text Andy or Elaine to inform us that you will be volunteering to help.

Update 29 July 2010: We have raised enough funds to conduct the sterilisation thanks to cat-angels Alan, Haryati, Anna and Joanne, and Edmond. Any excess funds not used for the Bendemeer cats will be channelled to the sterilisation we are conducting in Ubi in August as well. We will be arranging the dates with Damy as soon as our schedules coincide with his. We are still looking for caregivers to step forward to take in some of these cats into your custody as a community cat.



Tonight we met with Edmond who alerted us about the Bendemeer stray cat colony at a construction site just off the PIE exit. We went to the site and checked out the cat welfare situation there.

The site is definitely not a habitable place for cats. Firstly, the old building that was there has already been demolished, providing little or no shelter. Secondly, piling works have already begun and it will be very soon that these cats will be homeless if not culled by pest control. Also, construction work will definitely be hazardous to the cats' safety.

There are 12 mature entire cats and about 2-3 kittens sighted, possibly more. Photos below.

These cats ideally need to be relocated to safer grounds with proper caregivers. Right now there are one or two drive-by feeders feeding at the gates of the construction site. We did not manage to spot them when we visited.

Critically, we need to neuter this colony of cats; then we need caregivers of other community cat colonies to step forward to volunteer to take on some of these cats post-neutering.

We will need $650 for the trapping, transport, sterilisation, and pre-neutering feeding for this colony of cats. We currently have $450 in our sterilisation fund. We need to raise $200 more.

If you are a caregiver of a community cat colony, we will need you to volunteer to take on any of the number of cats post-neutering. This is to complete the TNRM cycle.





We didn't manage to take very clear photos during tonight's recce unfortunately, because our camera is no longer working. Here's what we could capture on cellphone cameras -

Feeding the cats Fussie Cat Seafood Platter to befriend them

A calico kitten, who has a sibling that was too shy to eat

The calico kitten and her sibling

Most of the cats hang out at the gate closest to the PIE (Jurong) Upper Serangoon Exit. Almost all of them are wary of strangers.

To help us in this TNRM project -

1. Spread the word
2. Donate towards the cats' sterilisation expenses
3. Offer to take in some of these cats if you are a stray cat caregiver by contacting us
4. Volunteer with us for the pre-neutering feeding sessions

uber cat-angel Catherine

Catherine, our sponsor for Malay Village TNRM, who also contributed funds to our veterinary fund for Helga, brought over loads of gifts for Love Kuching cats yesterday!

Catherine works in a hospital, so she could buy hospital-use 'blue sheets' that is used in hospital beds for us to use as peepads for lining pens and carriers. Shown here are 30 pieces. She says she wants to bring us more!

She managed to locate also the supplier for Lysinium Max, the vitamin syrup we give to convalescing animals to increase their appetite and boost their immunity. Lysinium Max is not citrus flavoured and is only available at the vet or through human doctors for children.

Catherine's hubby works in the pet care industry - House of Chinchilla - and when I shared with her that we were having a pine litter crisis because the supplier of Rrao pine that we buy from The Water Dish was delaying shipment to SG. She immediately called a friend in the pet care industry and 6 bags of 15kg Tom & Pus Pine was delivered to our doorstep that night.

We feel so blessed! Donations-in-kind bring our boarding expenses down and thus provide more mileage for your donated funds. We deeply thank Catherine for her generosity.

transport fund!

For all this time, Andy and I have been paying for our Love Kuching related transport on our own, so it never gets recorded in our Love Kuching accounts. Sometimes Andy and I are so poor that we don't have enough to travel to run errands for our Love Kuching fosters, bring them to vet, go to recce stray cat colonies for TNRM. Like today, when I wanted to go and find low-sodium canned tuna for Helga to boost her appetite, and stock up on more pee pads but didn't have the money to go to Marketplace (where they have a wider selection of canned tuna including the low-sodium varieties) and to Daiso to stock up on our depleting amount of pee-pads. So we solved the problem by creating a transport partition fund for Love Kuching.

Well, most of the funds that pad the transport partition fund will still come from Andy and me. But creating this partition fund means that we can now record our transport expenses in the line of Love Kuching work. Also, it means that we can appropriate part of our general funds to transporting humans - i.e. ourselves when we do our Love Kuching work.

Expenses on transport will go into into the 30% of the maximum allowed for charity expenses on administrative and operative expenses. We are currently at 3% only for this ratio so we still are well below the limit for appropriating funds that are indirectly towards the animals.

We hope you support our idea for allowing human transport as an expense from our Love Kuching funds.

King has been adopted!

By this lovely couple, who can only bring King home on Friday after they move house. They have one other cat named Knox and because they do not let Knox outdoor access (yes, that's the way to keep your cat safe!) they feel Knox is in need of a kitty companion.

King was diligently showing us that this owner was The One for him - he sat for ages on Michael's lap, purring, blinking in contentment.

We put a harness on King because he gets edgy whenever he is being moved in and out of the pen, also to prevent him from hiding under the sofa. He seems to enjoy wearing our harness much more than the collar!

We will be boarding King at our Love Kuching foster home till Friday when Nadia and Michael ccome to pick him up. Great news for King incoming!

next TNRM project in August - pre-reconnaisance intelligence report

One of our blog readers Edmond, also the kind cat lover who assisted us in Mack's rescue, called us about a colony of cats he sighted - about 10 mature un-neutered cats and at least one kitten.

This is a construction site near the PIE where there are hoardings up in place, and the cats have access points out of the site to eat from apparent feeding stations set up by anonymous feeders. For a closer look at the site, visit this Google Map Link.

Edmond's initial intelligence gathering at this sight counted 10 cats that need to be neutered. There is also the possibility of kitten rescue. The feeders come around 8ish to 10pm at night. So we will be carrying out our first reconnaissance there next Wednesday night at 8pm with Edmond who will show us where he spotted the cats.

The cats are all very wary of strangers so we will be armed with food to lure them out of the hoardings and toward their feeding points hopefully just before the anonymous feeders arrive so the cats will be hungry. We can then count again how many mature cats need to be neutered and confirm if the cat count is more or less than the inital 10 sighted. After doing so, we will be hoping to run into the feeders to communicate to them that we would like to raise funds and neuter this colony of cats.

Edmond is concerned about the cats' safety being in a construction site - accidental deaths might occur. We are hoping to relocate some of the cats to other caregivers' sites. Perhaps 2-3 at different locations. If you are a caregiver and is willing to take in these construction sites after they have been neutered, do contact me. You just need to make sure the new cats know where your feeding stations are and when is the feeding time. If we are unable to relocate the cats we will be returning them to the construction site after neutering.

We hope to carry this out in August. Assuming 10 cats, the funds we would need would be about $670. We have about $450 in our sterilisation fund, which means we need to raise at least another $200.


Do let us know if you can help - we would need conduct reconnaissance trips, feeding trips, cat-spotting help would come in handy too. If you are a caregiver than can take on 2-3 of these construction site cats into your community cat colony after they have been sterilised, do let us know too. If you wish to donate to our sterilisation effort for the Bendemeer Road construction site cats' neutering, do donate to our bank account and SMS Elaine 90880675 to indicate that your donation is for this colony's neutering.

King the good boy kitty needs a new home!

After King's siblings got adopted King started to feel lonely. Albeit he was the most independent of all three, when we rescued him he was not found in the same spot as Lavender and Georgie were together. He is still hissy towards us, though not violent, and actually enjoyes being stroked and cuddled.

I found this out in the middle of the night as I picked King up to swaddle him in a makeshift cradle I made out of my blanket. He enjoyed the closeness and affection so much, knowing he was being cradled, he didn't want to let go. And he even started purring. First time we hear him purr!

Here are more pictures of King, the handsome one, cradled in my sarong -

King is still waiting for a good home to go to. If you are interested in visiting King, do contact us Elaine 90880675 or Andy 81277072. Read more about adopting from us on the right side-bar.

Lavender & Georgie have been adopted!

2 out of the rescued 3 from Lavender have been adopted today! Initially the adopters wanted to adopt only Lavender but found that she would be lonely without one of her brothers, so they adopted 2 of them.

Unfortunately we put the kittens in a cardboard box before we took their picture. But here are the sisters whose dad told them to adopt the kittens for the family.

The family is a first-time cat owning family, so we shared lots about where to buy wire-mesh for windows, vaccinations and deworming and how to feed them. After bringing the kittens home they are heading out to Vivo which is near where they live to buy their cat litter and food and other paraphernalia.

We are happy for Lavender and Georgie! We hope to hear from them again soon to find out how they are doing!

@AzmiraHAC Acidophilus - great for foster kittens!

Initially we purchased for Love Kuching at charity rates via @thewaterdish this acidophilus supplement for Helga, whose CRF condition also has symptoms of a poor digestive system - she sometimes has runny poo, but not anymore!

This supplement has been so useful, really. We fed it to King, Lavender and Georgie post-deworming since deworming usually causes diarrhoea after that. I also dosed them with loperamide which I usually need to for a few days before the diarrhoea abates. But combined with the Azmira Acidophilus, their diarrhoea cleared within a day!

On the package, it says give cats 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon a day, more if there is any medication being used at the same time, either mixed in food or water. It comes in powder form which means you can make it into gel capsules if you prefer pilling, and can be stored in the refrigerator.

This supplement is truly a must-have where young kittens are around - kittens are very prone to diarrhoea. We are so happy to have this supplement in our cache of kitty pharmaceuticals now! Giving the best to our foster cats is the goal of our Love Kuching foster home.

our next sterilisation project will be closer to home - in Ubi!

We are hoping to neuter the cats in the fringe area of Ubi's residential estate, an area where there is no designated caregiver. We have neutered a cat from this area before, and she is one of the only few that are tipped-eared there.

We call this the Fringe Area of Zone 4 because it is on the outskirts of where feeders in Zone 4 feed and neuter. This fringe area of cats are fed by shops along the block so for food they are not in want. However, many have cat flu' and most are not neutered. 

We will be going there often to do a cat count of how many yet to be sterilised, and also because there is a cat flu' outbreak there, to feed medicines and vitamins to the cats there, otherwise they cannot be neutered if ill.

For funds, we will be using the CWS reimbursements and if not enough we will have to raise more - will report on how much we may need from you, our donors, if the cat count exceeds the budget.

TNRM at Malay Village - round 2

We only managed to trap 3 cats last night, bringing our total neutered cat count to 9 cats. The remaining cats were difficult to reach - one climbed up a roof and never came down. Then again we encountered a tenant that stopped us mid-trap saying he did not agree with sterilisation. We had to let that one cat go -

These are the 3 cats we got last night -

Read about round 1 here.

Our cat-angel sponsor of the neutering at Malay Village has requested that her funds unused in this neutering drive at Malay V be transferred to our veterinary fund for Helga's use. We will do this accordingly once we get the total bill for the trappings at Malay V. 

The P siblings are now 10 days old!

Watch Panda and Panther meow for attention! Now that they can see, whenever I approach their pen, for feeding or otherwise, they get all hyper-excited and think it's milk or cuddle time!

KPIs for Love Kuching Project - Jan to Jun 2010

In May 2010 when we got adopted by @thewaterdish after Angels Pet Shop our corporate pet shop space provider for boarding animals closed down, we shifted our work towards a focus on conducting neutering projects in estates near us and scaled down our adoption work.

On the adoption front, we barely made it to cover the boarding expenses incurred for each animal rehomed with the adoption fees collected -

Our main fund-raising sources are via donations from the kind public and through our adoption fees. These funds raised further our work in promoting adoption of pets, animal rescue and rehabilitation and sterilisation of stray cat colonies around us.

To read more on our financial health read our Interim Financial Report and our Q1 Financial Report for the year of 2010.

Music for Cats CD - seed funding needed to purchase for fund-raising

Recall we wanted to sell Music for Cats CDs for fund-raising? We need to raise funds to purchase the CDs - the more we raise, the more we can save on shipping when we order more to sell through our blog.



We currently only have S$56.35 in our account for seed-funding, that is funds set aside specifically for publicity and fund-raising purposes. Other partition funds are earmarked for other purposes - boarding, veterinary and sterilisation. We need USD141 to bulk purchase 20 CDs to make available for sale to raise funds. As such we need to raise another S$137.67 to make a purchase.

If you would like to help us out in this fund-raising effort, do contribute directly to our bank account and SMS Elaine at 90880675 to inform us this is a seed-funding contribution. We will also send you a copy of the Music for Cats CD with free postage from us as gratitude from us - the CD retails for S$20.

an unusual wishlist

A list of items that we either constantly use or are in need, though not urgently, of, for our Love Kuching work.

• Petstages Cozy Calming Mat for newborn orphaned kittens. Update: I learned how to make our own warmed pillows!
• Peepads from Daiso, the small and medium sized ones. Update: One of our donors works in the hospital industry and can order us these pee pads in bulk! Thank you!
• Dematting tool for Helga
• Dettol and toilet-bleach-cleaner for cleaning floors, pens and litter boxes
• Digital camera, because ours has 'died' Update: Meng and Rina are giving us their camera! Thank you!
• Wetwipes for grooming kittens and wiping kitty messes. The cheapest best baby wipes we use are Kodomo Baby Wipes from Watsons - $1.95 each, buy 10 get 1 free. Update: Adelia is donating a cache of baby wipes tomorrow! Thank you!
• Lavender essential oil, diffused to calm cats down in the lounge area where they board
• Feliway diffuser refills, a monthly necessity

Do think of shopping for us when you hit the stores!

more pictures of Lavender and her brothers

Lavender, King, and Georgie are still looking for good homes to go to!

Lavender girl lounging in hammock

Shy Georgie boy

Handsome King

To arrange a visit for adoption, contact us - see right side bar for information on our contacts and on adoption.

TNRM at Malay Village - round 1

Tonight we went to Malay Village to trap for neutering the stray cats that were yet to be sterilised. On our previous reconnaissances we counted 17 cats, and have identified two major locales within the Village that the stray cats gather round at. We targetted one of the areas tonight and caught 6 cats to be neutered tomorrow.

It could have been 8 cats tonight but we had a minor altercation with a tenant in Malay Village that didn't want us to sterilise the cats. They shooed away one of the cats that nearly went into our trap and refused to let go of another, saying that they will bring home the cat and take care of the resulting kittens. The Malay Village management was there to mediate the situation but we still couldn't get hold of those two cats that were left out of count.

On Saturday we will release the cats from tonight and hopefully trap the remaining cats that are not yet neutered, nearer to the food court side of the Village.