Love Kuching Project @luvkuching - kitten adoption, rescue, TNR: February 2015

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Pawfection eco-friendly safety cat collars with heart buckle for sale | 100% proceeds to #IF2015

Pawfection, our pet supplies vendor, has donated us their house-brand eco-friendly collars. You can buy them from us, and #IF2015 gets 100% of the profit! Thank you Pawfection!

You may not need another cat collar, and maybe you are willing to donate to #IF2015 anyway. Just treat the collar as a thank you from us.

Go green with this high-quality, nylon cat collar that features a lovely, heart-shaped (because we heart cats!) biodegradable-breakaway-buckle. Pawfect Twilled-Nylon Cat Safety Collar repels water and made of eco-friendly materials. It comes with a matching colour bell. The collar comes in either red or pink.

Red

Pink

The collars are on sale for $8.95. Postage and packaging is borne by us. Your collar sent via regular snail mail (not registered mail) and should reach you within 2 working days of a confirmation SMS from us, excluding weekends and public holidays.

How to buy:
Transfer the payment to our corporate account, DBS current 027-905975-3. Go to this link and fill out an order form and fill in your payment amount (you can choose to pay more than $8.95), telephone number for receiving the confirmation SMS, mailing address we should post the collar to (it can be a gift!) and whether you want the red or the pink one, or even opt out of the collar.

Spread the word for us too, after buying! Thank you cat angels <3 p="">

Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our Love Kuching Project DBS Current Account 027-905975-3 or via Credit Card. Donate us food or litter at charity rates with free delivery via Pawfection

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Adopt: Jodi, kitten who was found in a vegetable lorry from Johor

| Jodi, a ticked tabby girl, now about 4 months old |

On 15 February one of our Foster Care Volunteers, Rashid, was ill and went to see the doctor. On his way there, he passed a vegetable lorry from Johor, and realised a kitty cat was inside and was really scared! He found out from the lorry driver that this cat must have hitchhiked secretly when he came into Singapore that day.

The vegetable lorry Jodi was in. Jodi didn't dare to come down.

The driver said he was going back to Johor and didn't want Jodi in his lorry, which isn't wise anyway. Rashid had no choice but to help the lorry driver out. Jodi came to us the next day. She was too huge to go and share the kitten suite with the other foster kittens so we had to let her roam. She was thankfully confident enough to not go and hide somewhere.

A definite outgoing cat

She did get into some quarrels with the other female foster cats roaming around, especially Gurly. But she got on well with Kitten IC Sealy, Kitten IC Emeritus Scooter, and Scotty the dog. She seems to like boys!

Temperament-wise she is also super duper affectionate and loves humans a lot. She is teething at the moment and likes to bite (gently) human hands but we started training her from the start of her stay here not to do that. She really loves to play with ball toys and toy mice (but in an elegant fashion), and when she is not playing, she loves to sleep a lot!

Jodi reaching for a toy

Jodi falling asleep

She is really pretty isn't she?

She is a ticked tabby with a mid length bent tail

She has gotten her first vaccination and vet-checked, and knows how to use the litter box and eat, drink on her own. She gets along well with boy cats more than girl cats and she likes dogs. Given her headstrong nature she is likely to do better if adopted with another cat. If you are keen on adopting Jodi, see right side bar under 'How to adopt' or click here.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Adopt: Juno, female brown tabby and white kitten found trapped in Junction 8

On 16 January we received a case about a stray kitten trapped between doors of Bishan's Junction 8. Her rescuer Joh Ju with the help of some passersby got the kitten out. She then brought the kitten to us, because releasing it without knowing where it came from originally, or if it was abandoned, was not the best course of action.

Found next to Coffee Bean

Trapped in a corner, scared

Juno arrived very scared and hissed at people all the time. She needed a lot of socialisation before she could become adoptable. It took a lot of effort, especially because the ideal window of socialisation - between the ages 3 and 7 weeks - had passed; Juno was about 2 mths old when she arrived.

Now she is totally cuddly and no longer hissing! Thanks to the help of all the Foster Care and play/clean volunteers she got used to human affection. She is still very reserved though, and will likely remain an intraverted cat. She prefers cuddles to play and is not hyperactive like some of our other foster kitties!

Juno, a shy quiet girl

Unfortunately by the time she was socialised just enough she came down with cat flu' and had to be rehabilitated. With a course of antibiotics and topical eye and nose medications, she recovered quite fast, especially since she had already received her first booster jab by the time she came down with the flu'.

Now she is totally all right and is awaiting a forever home! She has been dewormed, Revolution-ed, vet checked, litter trained and able to eat and drink on her own, both dry and wet food. She doesn't like the dog but is okay with other kitties.

Juno now, 3+ months old

If you would like to adopt Juno, click here or see right side bar under 'How to adopt'

Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our Love Kuching Project DBS Current Account 027-905975-3 or via Credit Card
Donate us food or litter at charity rates with free delivery via Pawfection

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Monday, February 23, 2015

Cat Care Talk | 22 March 2015 |

Edit 4 Mar 2015: Registration has closed.]

It is time for our first cat care talk of 2015! Proudly brought to you by our Cat Care Outreach and Foster Network teams. This event will be a hands-on workshop limited up to 10 participants only, so if you want to join in, sign up fast!

It is easy to care for a healthy kitten or cat, one that has clear eyes, clean ears, no injuries or sicknesses of any kind. But what if you had to suddenly learn to care for a sick kitty?

This workshop is here to teach you the basics of clinical care for cats that you could benefit from as a cat owner or as a foster caregiver for sick and injured stray cats. It will be a workshop based event that is participant led, so you can feel free to ask any questions pertaining to the the topics that will be covered.

Each participant will receive a door gift - a travel-sized first aid kit.

Details of the event:
Venue: LKP at Ubi Ave 1
Date: 22 March 2015, Sunday
Time: 3-5pm
Cost: $10

How to sign up:
Transfer the $10 cost per person to our DBS current account 027-905975-3, retain the transaction details, and go to this link to key in your information. If you are registering for more than one person, transfer the tallied amount and use the form to sign up as a pair/group.

Teo Heng: stray cat from Bedok that we rehabilitated from flu'

| Teo Heng when first found by his rescuers |

This handsome ginger red boy was found with severe conjunctivitis by Hsin Yee who lives in the Bedok area. Being inexperienced in cat care, she got us to help and we took Teo Heng in to help him recover from his flu'.

He is called Teo Heng, after the karaoke joint, because his meow is very melodic (and continuous).

Teo Heng in our foster space

We put Teo Heng on a course of antibiotics and medications, both oral and topical. He also had a blocked nose, so we gave him a humidifier to clear his nasal tracts. Because we already had all the meds required we didn't need to spend donors' money on a vet visit, just required our volunteers to administer his treatments right at base camp. He enjoyed human company a lot from the volunteers, but it was a good thing his sickness only required him to stay slightly over a week because he was not used to indoor life at all. He Teo-Henged almost every day wanting to go home.

Finally he got well, and was returned back to Bedok.

Teo Heng, fully recovered

His friends immediately came to check on him upon his return

Teo Heng eating at his void deck

Teo Heng still ok weeks later

We love this kind of rescue cases because we make a difference with as little cost as possible and with the shortest amount of stress of being penned in a shelter necessary. The misconception that all stray cats should be adopted/sheltered is incorrect because stray cats enjoy where they live - our neighbourhoods. Only in dire situations where survival is at stake health-wise do we take in rescue cases that stay till they pass on. Thank you for following Teo Heng's rehabilitation journey!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

#Nyanmade by Love Kuching Project - monthly gifts for monthly givers!

Over the last few weeks, a group of us have been meeting at LKP HQ to brainstorm on ideas for a new "subscription" based model of monthly gifts for donors.

Our group has some amazingly crafty individuals, and so many creative ideas have been suggested for consideration. As always, Scotty was on hand to check on the quality of ideas and for final approvals.

The basic idea is this: someone (possibly your good self) arranges a special monthly recurring payment of $18.75 (or more!) to Love Kuching Project. Then you fill out a nifty form (here) and the super craft ninjas activate their artistic kungfu and mail you a secret handmade gift.

The funds you donate will go to the general fund for expenses including vet fees, health supplements and other cat related expenses that support Love Kuching Project's missions - cat rescue, rehab, rehoming and sterilisation of strays. You can read more about Love Kuching Project's mission here.

What exactly will you get? Well, it's a secret. But these are just a few of the very early-stage prototypes we've experimented with. We do promise that all the items are for humans, and not cats, since we know that not all cat lovers are able to have the joy of having a cat companion.

We've even come up with themes for the months ahead.

THEMES:

March: Longhand

April: Everyday appreciation

May: The important things

June: Sprucing it up

July: Holding it together

August: Pause

September: Marking territory

October: Boo!

November: Journeying

December: Looking forward

The themes don't quite give away anything, but that's the whole point! We'd like to preserve some mystery and surprise our donors every month. The gifts definitely aren't supposed to make up the value of your donation. In fact, to ensure that the majority of the funds go to the kitties you want to help, most of the value of the gifts will come from our artistic flair (and a fair amount of bargaining and thoughtful thriftiness). You can also instruct us to send the gift to a friend, or opt out of the gift altogether.

Keen? Here are the steps to be part of the Nyanmade monthly subscription!

STEPS:

1) Make a recurring monthly payment to Love Kuching Project's bank account: DBS Current Acct 027-905975-3. The minimum is $18.75 until Dec 2015 to qualify for the monthly gift. You can always give more than the minimum... the more you give, the more kitties get!

2) Use your full name in the reference (and then use the same name when filling out this form so we know its you!)

3) Arrange for the contribution to be transacted on the 15th of every month (remember that some banks require 2-3 working days for the recurring payment to be activated). If you miss the date, your subscription will start the following month (or you can contact ami@lovekuchingproject.org to make special arrangements)

4) Once you have done the above, please fill out the form at bit.ly/nyanmade1!

Questions? Email ami@lovekuchingproject.org

Donate to our cause by making a deposit to our Love Kuching Project DBS Current Account 027-905975-3 or via Credit Card Donate us food or litter at charity rates with free delivery via Pawfection Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

#IF2015 Impossible Fund 2015 | Fundraising for a cattery space

[Edit 16 Mar 2015: We are still accepting one-time gifts for #IF2015 which at this stage is going towards the basic renovation works needed for the move into a new place. We are also appealing for monthly donors to pledge standing instruction donations towards our Boarding Fund to pay for the rental after the move. See here to find out more and how you can give.]

[Edit 3 Mar 2015: A -BIG- THANK YOU to all who gave towards the $4,500, we reached the first milestone of #IF2015 on 3 March 2015, ahead of deadline! The second leg of #IF2015 is to raise funds to pay a property agent, which is half a month's rental, $750.]

[Edit 25 Feb 2015: We need to raise the sum of $4,500 by 31 March 2015 instead of 30 April 2015 because we need one month to renovate the new premises in order to move in by 1 May 2015. Our co-tenant with whom is the reason why we can get low rental rates requires the space to be move in condition by 1 May which means renovation has to be done in April.]

We haven't revealed why the urgency for this specific sum of funds that is needed in a such a tight period of time. We will now, because we need all hands - yours - on deck to help us meet this challenge. We know that with all your support, we can rise up to make this fundraising target by the deadline.

We are mostly very inspired people here at Love Kuching but daunting tasks like this do scare us sometimes. This poem speaks well to address that fear:

It is well at every given moment to seek the limits in our lives.
And once those limits are understood
To understand that limitations no longer exist.
Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
But to practice with all the skill of our being
The art of making possible.

Excerpt from a poem by Nancy Scheibner

An impossible dream. We have had one for a while now, and that is to further expand our foster space, and be a full-fledged cattery we can work from, house more cats with the same cosy ambience, but also a office desk for Elaine, a meeting room for volunteer discussions on programmes and projects, and a quarantine area so cats with airborne transmitted diseases don't need to be in the same room as the others.

Here is a sketch impression of what the new Love Kuching Cattery might look like.

Possible floor plan

^The quarantine area is only set up when needed and will have surgical drapes (hospital style). This is because the quarantine numbers are usually low in cat-count and will be a waste of space if allocated one room. The maximum threshold of such a design will be 23 cats, with comfort level threshold at 14. Current threshold is 17max/12comfort.

This bigger space dream was so impossible to us last year, we pictured it only happening earliest in 2016. We even gave a name to the funds we need to raise for rental - the Impossible Fund, hashtag #IF2016.

But here is where the story changes from impossible, to something possible.

One of our merchandise partners Alfie de Meow is looking for a new studio office space to rent and would like to share it as owner Elaine Tan doesn't need a huge place, and yet the larger the space the cheaper the rent per square foot. To share a space with ADM makes a whole lot of monetary sense. Right now we are paying $490 for rental of the foster space in Andy and Elaine's home, the foster space is only about 100 sq. feet.. For about triple the price of that at $1,500, we can actually make our Love Kuching Cattery with more than 3 times the size of our current foster space. feet an actual reality. In 2015.

What this means is that by the time we find a suitable space and have to move in, we need to have 2 months' deposit and 1 month's rental ready. ADM needs to move out of its current space in April so we are planning to move into our Love Kuching Cattery / Alfie De Meow Studio by 1 May.

We also need to factor in renovation time, which means we need to raise the full sum of rental plus deposit by 31 March 2015.

#IF2016 will become #IF2015 if we can raise $4,500 before the renovation and move in date of 1 May. Can we rise up to the challenge? Practise with all the skill of our being, the art of making possible?

We need your help.

What you can do:
Give. Be part of #IF2015 and practise the art of making possible.

How:

Via bank transfer / ATM / CDM to our DBS current account 027-905975-3. Email us to indicate you have given to #IF2015.

Write a cheque out to Love Kuching Project and deposit it into any POSB/DBS cheque deposit box. Email us to check if your cheque has cleared and also to indicate you have given to #IF2015.

Give in cash whenever you visit our foster home in Ubi towards #IF2015. You should obtain a receipt for cash donations when you give in person.

Use your credit card to give on https://www.simplygiving.com/IF2015

Help us organise collections, activities and events to help us fundraise. Give us an email to discuss how you can do this for us.

Spread the word. You can either repost this on Facebook, retweet this on Twitter, repost on Instagram, or use the Simply Giving fundraiser page to hit the share buttons.

Let's make this happen.

Photo from Urban Pets Dubai

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Dine with cats @ Love Kuching's Foster Space #dwc | a rustic, homely, furry-love enclave

[1 March 2015: The silent auction for March's #DWC has started. Go to this link to place your bid. 4 places available only.]

Today's blog post comes with a background story. One day years ago, someone planned a surprise birthday for their friend Ami, who at that time was not yet a part of our 32-human-strong volunteer team. Her friend asked us this: Could we allow them the use of our foster home for a birthday party? Ami -really- loves cats. So we said yes and the party happened smoothly. Ami didn't guess where her friends were taking her to for her birthday surprise until they said, "We are going to Ubi."

Ami had a purrfectly wonderful evening, we are happy to report. Hence, now that she is one of our committee members, she proposed giving everyone else who loves cats the chance to have a special lounge-around cafe style at our foster space. Yes, Ami is also a mad cat evangelist! Share the love!

Lounge around in a rustic, homely, furry-love enclave

So we present to you, starting this March, available for all of you: a rustic cat cafe-like experience. Our foster space is located in Elaine and Andy's own home, so it is very laid back in its ambience. (It is... beyond hipster. We actually do have bicycles in our lounge, Which are actually used.) Andy and Elaine will brew coffee and tea for you to enjoy with your dinner, using freshly roasted beans or loose leaf teas, and you will have a vegan meal catered by The Garden Slug. Kitties that are allowed to roam outside their cat suites will hang around in the foster space with you while you dine. Feel free to get distracted by them!

Wanna sign up? Read on!

Dine With Cats
Because we are a nonprofit corporation, DWC is not going to be operated based on cat cafe charges, but by freewill donations starting at $50 per diner via a silent auction.

DWC will take place monthly, on the last Sunday evening of every month, starting in March. On the first of every month, we will start the auction, which is an online form you can fill in that looks like this:

Online silent auction form

You have to bid $50 or higher per person, in order to stand a chance to be one of our 4 guests per month for DWC. We only have 4 places available for reservations each month due to space constraints. The highest 4 bidders will be awarded the reservations for DWC, hence the higher the bid, the more likely you will get the reservation. The winners of the DWC silent auction will be announced on the second Thursday of the month, and will be contacted by our volunteers after announcement, to confirm the reservation and to tell you The Garden Slug specials that will be your main course.

Sample of a vegan meal served by The Garden Slug

The menu catered by The Garden Slug is vegan to suit all dietary needs, and will not contain onions because they are toxic to cats should they accidentally eat a food scrap. If you are already familiar with The Garden Slug menu, you will know they have vegetarian and vegan choices. For our DWC, they will be designing a special menu for us. Thank you Sluggies!

The first DWC is on 29th March 2015, Sunday, from 6:30pm to 8pm. The silent auction will start on 1st March, and the link to the online auction form will be blasted on our social media platforms. So follow us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook (links below) to keep a lookout for the link! Bidding will close on 12th March 2015 before midnight.

Secretly, although this will help in fundraising, we like that it also raises awareness of the strays in Singapore that we care for, in a happy, cosy setting. We want you to enjoy being cat-evangelised to! Spread the word so that we can have a successful first DWC this March!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Ah Niu from Dakota Crescent, stray cat lame from an accident

| Ah Niu, 15 year old stray cat |

On 21st January we invited Ah Niu to come and stay in our foster space. Ah Niu is a resident stray cat at Dakota Crescent, and one day his feeders found him unable to walk, he was dragging his hind legs. He also had blood around his nose and mouth. His rescuer, one of our Sterilisation Volunteers Liyin, brought him to the vet before he came to us.

Ah Niu on the day he arrived at ours

Ah Niu indeed could not rest on his hind legs well. When we massaged his spine, he yelped in pain. We got him an x-ray soon after, and it turned out he had a vertebral fracture from some kind of accident or trauma. This caused the nerves in his hind legs to be affected. He needed cage rest and acupuncture.

Ah Niu in a cat suite for him to rest

He did a lot better after cage rest for some time. He became more and more able to use his hind legs. Thankfully, unlike many nerve damage cats, he was not incontinent or constipated. He also ate well, even with supplements added.

He showed signs of colitis during his stay here recently, and is now on antibiotics to clear it until his poop is solid again.

Ah Niu is an excellent candidate for TCM and acupuncture. He sat still throughout the time the needles were in and even purred. He also does not mind eating his food mixed with TCM medication inside.

Ah Niu at acupuncture

As his legs grow strength he will need physiotherapy to make sure his muscles don't atrophy. He also needs pain relief for his spine which is injured. For now we cannot massage him using aromatherapy as it causes him pain. He is a good natured cat who enjoys his supervised walkabouts so the physiotherapy aspect is not that difficult.

Ah Niu, very comfortable in our foster space

In case you are wondering why he is called Ah Niu (cow) we suspect it is because he meows like a cow! Especially when he is being bathed. We hope he feels better soon.

Monday, February 16, 2015

In Meowmorium: #ERFund case, Maple from Mandai Road, was a sick stray found at a coffeeshop

Maple, stray cat found with UTI and kidney failure

Maple was found by Ed, who noticed a new cat at the coffeeshop in Mandai Road that he didn't recognise. She didn't look well or able to adjust in her surroundings, so Ed brought her home to foster and get her veterinary treatment. Unfortunately, she peed a lot of blood, and he was extremely worried he would not be able to afford her treatment due to the severity of her illness. Thus he turned to our ER Fund for help.

We got Maple to the vet, and got her antibiotics for treatment of her urinary disease. However, a kidney test showed her to be in late stage kidney failure. An x-ray also showed atrophy of her kidneys. It was an immediate hospitalisation case for her.

Maple at the vet

After she got discharged from the vet, she needed subcutaneous fluids daily and medication to keep her comfortable. We gave Ed the supplies he needed for the subcut fluids and taught him how to administer it. We also got Maple some Azodyl medication.

Her vet bill

Unfortunately, over the next few days, she did not improve much, was not eating. She passed away 8 days later, on 28 Jan 2014.

We hope we managed to give Maple some comfort before she left the world. Thank you to Ed for fostering her in her last days.

Maple left behind a bottle of Azodyl. If you have a renal failure cat and would like to have it, you can collect it from us for a freewill donation.

Azodyl, medication for renal failure

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

2015 - year of organic growth in our kitty work

For the past few months, we have thought, deliberated, discussed and voted over the things we want to do through LKP for cats in need in this year, and we would like to share them with you.

We want to grow in our existing work. This immediately conjures up dreams of a bigger space where we can provide care for more cats in need, but 2015 is simply not the year to do it. It will require a base fund of $60,000 as a pad for a year's rental and utilities, and thinking brick-and-mortar is limiting.

So we think of 'organic' growth. What is that really? It means we grow our existing programmes, beyond the constraints of the physical space we have.

In order to expand our rescue work beyond the 5 cat suites we can offer to sick and injured cats at a time, we need to grow our Foster Network. This is something we are already working on and you will find opportunities coming your way on how to be a part, big or small, in this. By expanding the number of Foster Caregivers we have, we can say YES to more rescue cases, because after we tend to their veterinary needs at the clinic, the cats will have somewhere to go to regardless of our brick-and-mortar limitations. We know your concerns. Can I foster a sick cat? Do I have the skills to? Do I have the time? We will quell all these fears in due course.

Another thing we are doing to expand our work, is in expanding our knowledge base. This started first off with the recruitment of Foster Care Volunteers to take shifts on non-play/clean days, focusing on the medical care of cats, and in administering supplements - nutraceutical, herbal, homeopathic, aromatherapy - to the cats to improve their base level of care beyond pharmaceuticals.

In light of increasing our Foster Network and in sharing our knowledge, we will give back more of what we have learned through the years of cat care with the public even more, so you can expect more cat care talks in 2015 that you can benefit from.

And in sharing our love for cats, specifically through feline therapy to humans that need it, we have found that this is a great need in our community. We as cat lovers in no way 'hate humans but love cats', instead we see that we need to share the love of cats more and more to people that need it, to expose myths about cats being dirty, to elevate their status as companions, to show the world they have much to give to humans just as we give to them. We will be doing more of our feline therapy outreach, don't you fear. Seeing how a human patient benefits from therapy from a cat is priceless.

All this, will require more funds, in some way. But we don't see it as a problem, we see a fun challenge instead! We will be launching more kitty-fun stuff for you to take part in, because love for cats is after all a feel-good, lovely thing we want to evangelise to the world about isn't it! We (secretly) see it as education and outreach, but to you it will be something fun you can be a part of with the LKP community. What are we talking about? Akan datang! *tease*

This has of course led to some number crunching and we have come to realise we need to raise a total of $6,000 per month to meet our budget requirements. As we always say, if you can't adopt, foster. If you can't foster, volunteer. If you can't volunteer, donate. There is always something - you - can do to reciprocate the love that the cats in our lives and neighbourhoods give us.

Regardless of space. Yes, the humble Love Kuching Foster Space, is small. But we won't be letting it deter us. We will continue to raise the bar, as we do every single year. For you, and most importantly, for the cats.