big Scooter

Scooter is now huge, like Sayang's size. In fact, he can now occupy the third storey of our cat condo all by himself with no room for other cats:



We will be bringing him for neutering next month in October, when he will be six months' old. Thankfully, he has already grown to be a huge boy; his physical development has already slowed down some.

While looking through our phone camera I came across a pic of Scooter when he was small, about 2 weeks old, with his siblings:

Can you spot him? Scroll down to see if you spot him correctly!

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water

Cats need to drink about 240ml of water daily as adult cats weighing about 4kg, using a formula of 60ml/kg of weight.

This can also be obtained through their food - dry diets have about 8-10% moisture, canned food about 70-80%. An ideal diet for your cat should contain both dry and wet food, as well as free access to drinking water at all times. The more wet food you feed your cat, the more moisture he will obtain through his food:

"Thus a 4 kg cat consuming a 240 kcal canned diet containing 78% moisture will consume 237 ml or 98% of its daily water need directly from the diet."

After we got our water fountain, which has a maximum capacity of 3l, I find that it lasts us about 5 days before I have to refill it again. This means that our cats are drinking about 200ml a day on average. Our cats have a diet of both wet and dry food, so this amount is still okay for them.

Remember also that if your cat is sick, he need to drink more water to replace any water loss through fever, flu or diarrhoea. To make sure he gets enough, rehydrate him frequently with water mixed with glucose and salt, add a bit more salt to his food to make him drink more water, or provide food with higher moisture content for him while he recovers.

Water is important for cats; lack of which has immediate effects on their health. Dehydration symptoms include teary eyes, with discharge from their eyes and nose. Long term ill-effects of a lack of water include urinary tract infection and kidney problems.

what to do with falls and knocks

Sometimes, especially for kittens, they might get injured through playing, falling without righting themselves in time, or playing till heavy objects drop on them. A variety of injuries may occur; at best, the kitten gets a blue-black, and experiences pain. Some injuries can be more dangerous, such as sprains and broken bones.

A few nights ago one of Aswat's cats, Wanda, (sibling of Sylvester), had injured herself when she tried to climb on top their dining table, resulting in a wooden stool placed on top to fall on her paw. She was limping, and when her paw was touched, she meowed in pain.

I did some research on what to do when such injuries occur. They are rare, as cats have amazing agility and are able to dodge and balance themselves, preventing injuries during accidents.

If this happens to your cat however, here are some pointers to take note:

• Check if the injury has changed colour, or if bones are protruding out, or if the cat is unable to extend or move the injured limb. These injuries require you to bring your cat to the vet.
  
• For immediate first aid, use an ice-pack for the injured area to reduce swelling and pain. You can use ice cubes wrapped in a towel, a pack of frozen vegetables, or the cooling packs sold in pharmacies.
  
• Do not try to make your own splint or bandage for the cat.
  

Thankfully, Wanda's injury was minor and she recovered within the next day.

neutering today

This evening we collected a few cats for neutering, a total of four. Our cat-neutering service provider, Danny, collected the cats from us and will be returning them tomorrow afternoon.

Among the cats brought in, one was Hobbes, who has previously boarded at Angels Pet Shop twice - the first was when he just got injured during the car accident, the second was when he was ill with liver infection. All his brothers are neutered, and he was the last to be sent because he is smaller in size and weaker.

Ali came along to help us, and he also brought along his kittens' mother for sterilisation. We invited Ubi residents to bring along their unsterilised cats along too, to encourage the community to neuter their pet cats. The cost of neutering in a joint scheme like this is about $50 per cat, with additional costs for female cats, and more if they are on heat and/or pregnant. Significantly cheaper, except that you can only collect your cat the next day, and that certification will not be provided (ears will be tipped). A total of 3 pet cats were brought in tonight, including Auntie Can's cat whom she adopted as a stray kitten.

Tonight was an easy night, as there are very few strays left in our area that need to be neutered, unlike some previous times where we worked till midnight to trap the cats. When some of the new stray kittens in our area grow up there will be another round again. It is never ending work, but meaningful indeed.

fellow animal lovers

One of mine and Andy's hobbies is meeting other animal lovers in Ubi. We often talk to fellow pet shop customers, hearing about their experiences with their pets or sharing our knowledge with them to further improve their pets' welfare. We also end up getting invited to some of their houses, to visit their animals, which we enjoy doing.

By and large, most of the people we meet in Ubi are great pet owners. Some may have old-fashioned thinking, feeding their animals incorrectly, but they are usually open, albeit slow, to changes in their thinking. The houses we visit in Ubi are also clean and well-maintained, which debunks the fact that animals mess up your house. It especially warms the heart to hear stories of successful adoptions, and also to see pets happy and well cared for.

Like today, one of the houses we visited is of a lady who has two dogs and many beautiful birds. Although she is Chinese-educated, she kept herself informed on her pets by buying pet books in Mandarin. She showed us a very impressive book on birds! She also provides beautiful cages and nesting boxes, hand-painted herself, for her collection of birds.

We also increase our own learning by meeting other pet lovers, as well as make lots of friends with a common interest. It is true that pet ownership improves your social well-being. I guess it also helps in general animal welfare, because through this we can find out if there any possible cases of animal mistreatment, as well as share knowledge among pet owners so that lives will be improved over time.

In fact, one of the reasons why we like to patronise Angels Pet Shop and hang out there is because Aswat is a very caring animal lover who is extremely knowledgeable about all kinds of pets. Through him we learnt a lot about our cats, as well as about dogs and other animals. Andy especially was extremely ecstatic to walk Aswat's dogs and help him to bathe dogs that visit the shop, because he has never owned a dog before. He has already learnt a lot about dogs even though he has yet to own one, which makes for great education for the future if we ever own a dog together.

walk the cat

We brought Sayang down for a walk today, seeing that it was lovely weather and that she has been such a good girl. She is the best of our cats to walk, as she loves grass and plants, and does not struggle or meow when I carry her.

We brought her to see the bubble tea shop uncle and auntie, who love animals (their dog and cat have already passed on) and asked for us to bring down our cats to visit them. Sayang, being naturally shy around strangers, wasn't very sociable but at least we brought a smile to their faces :D.

We also brought her to the pet shop, because she loves Aswat's plants and the grass patch outside. She had a great time nibbling on the leaves and hiding amongst the flower pots to closely inspect the plants.

She also enjoyed sitting on my lap while we humans chatted away. She is really a total lap-cat.

Aswat enjoyed hugging her, which Sayang didn't mind as Aswat was one of her rescuers. She unfortunately shivered and cowed away from other pet shop customers, because she is so unbearably shy around strangers.

Among all our cats, Sayang loves greenery the most, and is the tamest to bring around. Slinky is more outgoing towards people, but she is terrified of other cats and unknown territory. Plus she is too big to leash properly (she is similar to British Shorthairs, medium to large in size and quite stocky). Scooter never really grew up around grass and is quite satisfied with potted plants.

missing

Two of our neighbourhood strays have been missing for a long time. One is a cat we call Andie, who is a favourite stray among shop owners below our block, as she is very obedient. She has gone missing. She is less than a year old, and already sterilised.

Another is Uncle cat, who we recently sterilised as well.

After much asking around in our community, we found that many people have also said that they no longer see these cats around.

We wonder if any residents have complained about them, resulting in them being culled by AVA.

All we can do is continue to educate the people we meet in the neighbourhood about our efforts in sterilising the stray cats in Ubi, and how this manages cat problems. Thankfully, Ubi residents tend to be animal lovers, and are also very friendly: we often chat with the shop owners in the area, and with fellow pet shop customers.

I suppose it might be too fanatical to do much more than this for now. Thankfully, most of the strays in Ubi are doing well.

outrage

I believe myself to be quite a rational cat lover, as I am not over-zealous in cat welfare to the extent of making human enemies. However, something has come to light in the recent months that we the Ubi cat community feel we cannot shut up about any longer.

Remember Ashraf's kittens? His other un-neutered female cat has also given birth to a litter of three, making his kitten household a number of seven.

When we first viewed the kittens, to be honest, while they had the prettiest thick short fur and playful tendencies, they were actually very skinny.

When asked about the reason why the kittens were underfed, Ashraf said that his mother refused to feed the kittens too much (at that age they were requiring 6 - 10 meals a day) because they shat all over the house - they have no litter box at home. When we asked him to buy one he refused.

We were shocked, but as Ashraf is just a kid, we let it go because it was his mother who was taking care of the cats most of the time.

We lately found out that Ashraf's mother has decided to abandon all seven kittens with their mothers at a market nearby.

I was shocked to hear this, and felt outraged at the amount of irresponsibility of this family. In the first place, the cats only gave birth because they failed to neuter the cats early. In fact, Ashraf has previously asked Cat Welfare Society for funds to neuter his own cats, claiming that he has no money. This is not true, as he is the owner of pedigree cats, and comes from a middle-class family. Plus Cat Welfare funds should be reserved for disadvantaged and homeless cats, not for those who belong to people already. And in the first place if you have limited financial resources, don't adopt more animals than you can afford.

In fact, Ashraf has also spammed Aswat's phone, begging Aswat to foster all these cats for him at the shop, and if they cannot be rehomed, to send them to SPCA on his behalf.

To further accentuate the irresponsibility, Ashraf's begging included using the fact that it is now Ramadan and how God knows he needs Aswat's help.

I am outraged beyond words. While God forgives, He is not your excuse.

This post has been hard to write, as I have been upset to the point where I need to pause frequently, and regain my composure in order to not be vindictive in my choice of words.

I will be inviting SPCA over to his house for a surprise visit. I have also written to the Feline Fanciers of Singapore highlighting Ashraf's treatment of his animals, as he is a clerk at the twice-yearly nationwide cat shows, and also shows some of his pedigree cats. (You know what, one of his cats' names is Muezza.)

As for the kittens, we are trying to re-home them but 7 is a big number and his kittens are already now 2 and 3 months old, and not toilet-trained. It takes a big hearted owner to be able to adopt them because of their plight.

As for you our readers, there are a few things you can do if you feel similarly outraged: Help us to spread the word about these kittens that are facing abandonment and undernourishment - we are trying to do the same.

It is one thing to treat animals less than ideally because of lack of education or finances, and another to intentionally abandon and mistreat them. Pet owners of the former can be educated to better animal care, and to balance their ability to care for their animals with their finances. But people who intentionally ill-treat animals are a different breed altogether, one which I have very little sympathy for.

We have in our neighbourhood met so many animal lovers who may not be very rich or educated, but who are humane enough to educate themselves on how their animals can receive the best care. We have a stray cat feeder in our neighbourhood who feeds the strays Innova Evo cat food, and another who feeds Royal Canin. We met many housewives who care about their families' animals so much, showing so much love and giving them the attention and care they need. It warms the heart to see great pet owners in our neighbourhood, but it totally breaks my heart to witness irresponsible ones in action.

concerned

Edit: Silver's owner confirmed she is doing well at home, and going for sterilisation next month.
Berrie's fosterer replied to let us know more about her. Berrie was found in Teck Whye, which is not Silver's current home in Choa Chu Kang (yes, Silver's owner came all the way from Choa Chu Kang to Ubi to adopt her, even waiting while she was nursing to bring her home only after weaning).
Berrie has also been found to be pregnant, which could be why she was dumped. We hope Berrie finds a new home soon, she is really very pretty. Do keep the word out if you know someone who wants a doll-faced Persian that looks just like Silver.


Recently a regular blog reader of ours alerted us that there was a cat on Cat Welfare's website that looks a lot of like Silver.

We are concerned that it really might be her, and have asked Aswat to check with Silver's new owner Sam on whether Silver is okay: is she lost? or has she been abandoned again?

I have also sent a message to the fosterer to ask more details on where this cat was found, and if she looks like she was recently nursing.

Will update on Silver as soon as we know.

Meanwhile, here is another picture of Silver that was taken when she was found here in Ubi.

more on homecooked cat food

I found an excellent article on homemade cat food. This article gives a good guideline on the base ingredients that you can use in your cat food. It also advises on how much is too much of any ingredient, and the best ways to prepare them.

(Remember that a wholly homemade diet will not be balanced and should be used in conjunction with dry food or nutritional supplements.)

Another article I find informative is this table of potentially toxic ingredients that should not be included in homemade cat food.

So far the best ingredients I have repeatedly used with good result in my homemade cat foods are:

• Salmon
• Tuna
• Chicken
• Eggs
  
• Cranberry juice
  
• Carrots
• Apples
• Cat milk
  
• Rosemary for flavour, and to a less favourable extent, basil (related to catnip)

Ingredients that I have tried on my cats but are less favoured:

• Minced beef
• Minced pork
• Ikan bilis (i.e. anchovies)
  
• Cheese
• Prawns
• Sweet potatoes

As I am not a cook inclined towards complicated recipes, I have not tried anything that requires too much effort to prepare. But I am keen on experimenting with new ingredients, such as white fish, avocado, fresh sardine or mackerel, oats or wheatgerm, catnip and chamomile for flavour. Not everything is available at my supermarket downstairs, and I don't really know much about most white fish and how palatable or healthy they will be for my cats. As for catnip, I haven't tried any myself and cannot fully visualise the resulting taste of any food prepared with catnip.

Until then, when the mood strikes, I will be cooking again for my cats. It's really fun, and cost saving!