making your pet bowl stay cold

So I saw this cool pet bowl idea on - a bowl that can be pre-freezed and when used to serve canned food, milk or water, keeps the contents cool and fresh for longer.

For a while now, I have been making my own cold bowls for my cats. This is used to serve milk, keeping it fresh for longer, as well as to serve free-choice canned food when I am too busy to serve them individually. Cats take time to eat and canned food should ideally be thrown away when it has been out for three hours maximum.

Here is a way to make your own.


When you remove the bowl(s) from the freezer to use for serving, place the bowl on top of a cloth or towel to soak up the melted ice. Voila! A handy cool pet bowl, which you can make at home.

for the love of stray cats

Am applauding for Dr. Tan, well-known local cat advocate, writer of cat-blog Singapore Community Cats and also a one-time sponsor for an Ubi cat of ours. He submitted this article to the press which got published -

donating new/second-hand pet supplies

We constantly need the following:

• Blankets/towels for the animals, especially the young or rehabilitating
• Toys for the animals, because we want them to stay active

We often give away the blankets and toys that we do have with to the adoptive owners because it helps them integrate their new pet into their household. As such, the need for new blankets and toys is a continuous one.

We welcome donations of new and used toys or blankets (simple towels will do). If you have these items you wish to give to the animals, please drop them off at Angels Pet Shop.

Thank you!

Phoebe the Chihuahua

Phoebe's story is a long one. Previously named Freya, she had lived in the Philippines with her human daddy. When her daddy moved back to Singapore, he brought Freya back with him. But Freya could not get along with her Singapore cousins, two cocker spaniels.

We offered to give Freya a second chance by helping her find a new home, one where she will feel comfortable living in and be happy. We re-named her Phoebe.

After spending some time with Phoebe, we realised that she had a personality problem, likely due to physical abuse in the past. She would bite whoever tried to stroke her. She had obviously come to associate hands approaching her as reaching out to hit her.

It took us a long time, but we finally managed to rehabilitate her personality wise. We started to approach her with patience, always with a treat in hand or with a toy for her to play with. In time, she has become a happy doggy that has come to love us.

She is now ready to be re-homed.


Phoebe is about 4 years old, and she is vaccinated (papers available). Her new owner has to be a patient one that is willing to take time to know her and has to agree to sterilise her as she has possibly been used for illegal breeding before. She enjoys playing with her toys on her own and does not bark unnecessarily, be it when she meets strangers or sees her friends. She would do well in a single-dog household, otherwise, do bring along your current doggy-companion to visit Phoebe to see if they will gel, should you be interested to adopt her.

To visit and adopt Phoebe the Chihuahua, contact Aswat at 93378211.

Grover-boy is actually Uncle Grover

Our cutie Sheltie, Grover, was brought to the vet by his adopter. Turns out he is much older than expected - he is 9 years old! He has mild cataracts too.

His adopter changed their minds about adopting Grover because their family recently had a member who was hospitalised.

He was also scanned for his microchip number, it is 985100010744473 which I have reverted to SPCA with, in case the reportedly lost Sheltie they had on file was the same.

Otherwise, when Grover rehabilitates fully, we will be re-homing him again if we can find a potential adopter. He is now still with the lapsed-adoptive family where he is receiving medication.

Update: He is not SPCA's reportedly lost Sheltie. No reported-lost dog with Petcall matching Grover's number either. Grover is available for adoption.

another bunch of kittens

A month ago we received two rescued newborns (found orphaned in Kaki Bukit) from Angels' Royal Canin supplier who brought them to us because they knew we do animal rescue.

We had to put the two newborns with a foster mother cat we knew of in a neighbouring estate, because at the time we did not have the volunteer-strength to hand-rear them. SPCA-ing them meant a certain death, so we had to ask this mother cat's owner if we could tompang these two kittens.

In return, we offered to re-home the mother cat's other kittens as well, along with the two RC kittens.

The RC kittens arrived with their 'siblings' on Tuesday. There was 1 black, 1 one white, 1 tabby, and the RC kittens themselves were 1 tabby and 1 black.

This afternoon, the white one and the RC tabby have been adopted! Initially, they wanted to adopt just one, but kittens usually do better with companions, and true enough, the one they chose started meowing its heart out in loneliness in its box-carrier. So, this family from Jurong is now a proud owner of two new kittens!

There are still many kittens available for adoption at the shop - Coco and Coffee, the two new black ones we call Rudi and Dino, as well as the new tabby. If you are keen to adopt, do contact Aswat at 9337 8211.

P.S. We ourselves are very confused because there are so many tabby and black kittens coming into our custody these two weeks... it be best if you visit them and see for yourself who is who...

orange-gal - a happy kitten

We are so happy when we see a previously sad and sick kitten recover and become an active and playful cat! Andy caught a picture of her playing with this favourite toy of hers, which we had originally given to her 'sister' Tigi.

Orange-gal still available for adoption! To visit and adopt her, contact Aswat at 93378211.

our financial health - 17 Feb 10

The 30/70 Fund-Raising Efficiency Ratio

The fund-raising efficiency ratio is the total fund-raising expenses of an IPC to the total gross receipts from fund-raising and sponsorships of the IPC for that financial year. All IPCs are expected to keep their fund-raising efficiency ratio below 30%, which is commonly known as the 30/70 rule.

(Taken from MCYS's Charity Portal here.)

And although it is only mid-February, here is a snapshot of our Fund-raising Efficiency Ratio to date:
As of 2359hrs on 16 February 2010, we are currently operating at a deficit of $122.99 and the debt keeps growing everyday, every hour. Help us get out of debt by contributing financially to our cause here. We really need your help.

beyond ubi

• Joo Chiat
• Bedok Reservoir & Jalan Tenaga
• Upper Boon Keng
• Circuit Road
  

If you live near enough to Ubi and would like to be a star on our map - we can offer legwork on trapping strays if you are sponsoring sterilisation - do let us know if we can help. We may not have the funds to sponsor strays' feeding and sterilisation but in the very least we don't mind some cat-scratches to trap strays you arrange for sterilisation. You can return the favour to us in any way you like - through pet supplies donation, volunteering with us in return or linking us to your website to help us in our re-homing work.

Squirrel gave birth!

Squirrel, one of the mother cats from the streets of Bedok Reservoir Road, has finally given birth today!

The area in Bedok Reservoir, where cat-patron Felicia is the sole feeder, and trapper and sponsor for sterilisation of the stray cats

A little bit more about the place we rescued Squirrel from. Felicia, the sole cat patron here, has been diligently feeding and sterilising this area of cats. But last year-end she received an influx of cats being dumped in her cat-zone (see map above). She couldn't cope with having to feed and sterilise so many more cats at once, and two of the cats had become pregnant. After meeting up with Felicia, we promised to help her re-home the kittens after they were born and weaned, and help her tao-kar-chiu (lend a hand) with the trapping when she raises funds and plans the next sterilisation programme for the stray cats in her care. In the meanwhile, we felt the pregnant cats were too late to undergo abortion and Felicia took one pregger cat home, us the other, Squirrel. The mother cat now at Felicia's own home had given birth around the same time we took the cats in, and the kittens now about a month old. We want to help her to foster and re-home the kitties but we have no space at the moment.

When we first brought her back to foster her through her delivery, she was about one month pregnant, but we thought it was much later in the pregnancy because she was so huge. We made plans for the cats - we would foster Squirrel through her pregnancy, birth and weaning and thereafter cat-patron Felicia was to take back Squirrel and one kitten, Squirrel to be sterilised and moved to Felicia's other property.

Today, the birth was easy but Squirrel does not seem very experienced as a mother, possibly she was abandoned on the streets when she was on her first heat and this is likely her one of her first few pregnancies.

Anyway, Aswat felt her Squirrel's tummy when she was staying with us, estimating there to be four kittens. True enough, today, four kittens were born, but one tabby kitten passed away right after birth.

We then brought over the three orphaned kittens we rescued last night from Upper Boon Keng, and tompang-ed them with Squirrel, who took to them readily. So Squirrel is now nursing 6 kittens. You can see from the pictures taken here by Andy that there are some bigger kittens - those are the Upper Boon Keng orphans. The tortoiseshells look black here but will turn into beautiful mixed-Persian torties.



As for the three orphans - Skater, Sunshine and Spot - last night I stayed up all night to feed them while they were at our house, and in the morning (I fell sick, sheesh) I woke Andy up to take over the day shift. The kittens need to be fed every 2-hours for these first two weeks of their lives, but I timed it 1.5-hourly because the Cosi milk is less nutritious and filling, and because they have been starving the whole day we wanted to feed them through smaller and more frequent feedings. We are so happy Squirrel gave birth and can now help us in return for the shelter we have given her for the past month! At least tonight I can sleep...

Likewise, none of these kittens will be available for adoption until they reach partial weaning and have begun solid food. This will be in about 3 weeks' time for Skater, Sunshine and Spot, and 4 weeks' for Squirrel's own kittens. As for the other mother cat from Bedok Reservoir, we want to take her kittens in too but we are too full-house at the moment and will have to wait till the kittens - Orange-gal, Coco, Coffee, Cammy, Shine and Tricoloured - get adopted.

If you are keen on adopting a kitten now, do look to the kittens already available for adoption! These kitties really need new homes and families, and seeing their forlorn faces when we are too busy to cuddle them ourselves sometimes, makes my heart melt. Do come visit us if you are keen on adopting a kitten! See right sidebar for more information.