Bendemeer construction site TNR bills

We conducted 2 final rounds of TNR at the Bendemeer construction site where the old SCDF building used to be, this month - here are the bills:

These bills do not include the trapping/transport of $70 per trip, and the boarding pre- and post-op for each of the 11 cats at $5 each. But these bills shown above are the ones that we submit to Cat Welfare for the sterilisation reimbursement.

Just to share with you, our readers, how the sterilisation reimbursement is administered on our end: we fill in a printed copy of the reimbursement form, fill in the important details about the cats neutered, the invoice numbers, the billed amount from the clinic etc, like so -

Then we send out the form with the original vet receipts via snail mail to the CWS PO box address. Each cheque that comes back to us from CWS via sterilisation reimbursement goes straight back to our Sterilisation Fund.

Currently the limit of claims per month per person - CWS member or otherwise - is at $500 per month. So we have just used our General / Operations Fund to purchase another CWS annual membership to claim reimbursement for the Eunos Crescent TNRM project that is also taking place this month. Our current CWS membership is also expiring next month and we will be renewing that too so that we can keep replenishing our Sterilisation Fund.

And remember - Cat Welfare's sterilisation reimbursements for caregivers nationwide are possible only because of funds donated to CWS. So, if you haven't found a reason to sign up for CWS membership or to make regular donations to the leading cat welfare advocacy group in Singapore - it's time to do so today! (You can view CWS's annual financial reports here).

Junie passed away around noon today.

Ever since she arrived, she had been weak and small in size. We syringe-fed her until she knew how to eat on own, and placed her with foster mother Mary Lou. Mary Lou treated Junie as one of her own, grooming her and allowing her to suckle. But she continued to be a runt and sported a perpetual third eyelid which we had to medicate daily. Despite it all, she was still active and sported no other symptoms of illness. After deworming her at 4 weeks old, she showed signs of hookworm infection which might have been the cause of her passing. 

Mary Lou's own kittens, Bamboo, Barley and Berry, are doing well, and have started experimenting with solid food and at the water bowl. Junie's siblings, Joey and Wes, have already been weaned from Mary Lou's milk and are eating well and growing by the day - though they still have post-deworming diarrhoea (no blood in poo) and have yet to learn eating kibbles or how to use the litter box entirely.

1st round of TNRM at Eunos Crescent - Friday Mar 18 - 830pm

Our current Sterilisation Fund stands at $1,490 - just a tad shy of our target of $1,675 for Eunos Crescent - BIG thank you to all who gave generously! We have enough to start the TNRM project at Eunos Crescent for at least 3 rounds of trapping now.

First round of trapping begins tomorrow at Blk 25 at 8:30pm. After trapping and neutering the cats at Blk 25, we will be relocating some of the cats to other less cat-populated blocks nearby. Residents who complained about the stray cat situation at Blk 25 have been invited to join us for tomorrow's trapping as well. We aim to complete neutering all the cats at Blk 25 within the month of March which will necessitate 2 rounds of trapping.

For Blks 1 and 1A, we will be doing the TNRM in April, also at least 2 rounds of trapping necessary.

Thereafter, Eunos Crescent's stray cat colonies will no longer be in critical need and will be easier for the caregivers to manage. You made it happen!

Update on kittens rescued at Eunos Crescent Blk25

Update 21 March 2011: The full vet bill sums have been sponsored by Sue. We would like to thank her for her generosity and continual support of our work.

When we visited the cat colony at Eunos Crescent last Friday together with the caregiver of the estate, Lynn, 2 kittens were found at Blk 25 in severe need of veterinary attention and foster care. We had no boarding space for them so Lynn brought them to the vet, and she and another fosterer are caring for them in their own homes at the moment.

Black/white with infected tail and intestinal worms

Tortoiseshell with conjunctivitis

Both kittens were hospitalised at Joyous Vet and have just been discharged.

The black and white kitten is still eliminating a lot of dead worms every day after being dewormed, and is still having severe diarrhoea and needs daily medication. The skin infection on his rear end needs cleaning with antiseptic daily to prevent a secondary infection or abscesses from forming.

The tortoiseshell kitten's conjunctivitis has improved but she likely has permanent cornea damage. She is also still very weak, with poor appetite, and still very much on the verge of fading.

For those of you who would like to help out with the veterinary expenses that the caregiver Lynn paid for the kittens, here are the veterinary bills and how you can contribute.

Black and white kitten's veterinary bill - $100.25

Tortoiseshell kitten's veterinary bill - $137.80

How you can help:

If you would like to help share the veterinary expenses of the 2 kittens, here is how you can contribute.

Make a contribution to Lynn's bank account DBS savings plus 052-2-017750 and write an email to Lynn at lynnlam@catwelfare.org CC elaine@lovekuchingproject.org with the amount contributed. We will close the appeal for veterinary funds for these 2 kittens when donations have covered the amount spent at the vet on them, and report on the total funds raised for their case on our blog.

Because the kittens are not in Love Kuching's custody please do not deposit the veterinary donation for them into our Love Kuching bank account as Lynn was the one who paid for their veterinary expenses.

We are also hoping for volunteers to help foster the kittens because the current rescue cat load on Lynn is even higher than ours at Love Kuching. If you are keen on fostering either of these 2 kittens, please contact Lynn.

Final round of TNR at Bendemeer construction site

Last night we concluded bringing for sterilisation the remaining cats at the Bendemeer construction site where a government building is being erected. We trapped a total of 5 cats. They will be returned to the site tomorrow after their sterilisation operations today.

Trap placed at the gate, waiting for cats to exit

Trap placed near debris where some cats hid

We spotted 2 other cats that were not neutered but they were extremely difficult to trap and unwilling to come out from areas that humans could not access. 1 of them hid amongst the construction debris and the other went back inside the construction site - gates were closed - and refused to eat the Fussie Cat food in the traps. 

We discovered most of the returned neutered cats hung out at the second gate of the construction site, but 1 cat was spotted there, not neutered. He was okay with being handled and we managed to trap him.

1 of the neutered cats at the 2nd gate

The only un-neutered cat at the 2nd gate

We didn't see any cats under the flyover across the site, and even went behind the bushes in the dark to scope out if they were hiding there. The cats here do cross the road to enter the construction site, or they may have left the site altogether. If so, they are less in danger now from construction accidents.

Here are the 5 cats trapped on Sunday.

Black friendly male

Calico, still kitten, mature for neutering

Ginger/white longhair

Tabby/white

Tabby/white

Damy is still processing our bill for this TNRM round at Bendemeer's construction site but we should have some left over after in our Sterilisation to top up some funds needed for our next TNRM project at Eunos Crescent at least for the first round.

Critical TNRM need at Eunos Crescent - How you can help

On Friday night we went with our sterilisation volunteers Liyin and Imran to Eunos Crescent for a reconnaissance of the stray cat colonies there.

Eunos Crescent has been very well managed for awhile now by Lynn, the main caregiver of the area. Lynn handles the Marine Parade Town Council complaints from residents, manages the network of cat feeders, and conducts sterilisation for most of the blocks of Eunos Crescent where the cat feeders are unable to sterilise on their own.

But recently, the stray cat population spiralled out of control because of repeated cat abandonment, particularly at 2 main sites of Eunos Crescent: the central area of Blocks 1 and 1A, and Block 25 which flanks a big carpark and contains a substation and rubbish dump. We have identified these 2 sites to be in critical need of mass sterilisation immediately.


Eunos Crescent Site 1: Blk 1 and 1A

Blocks 1 and 1A are adjoining blocks that flank a small car park, located near the Eunos MRT station. There is a busy 24-hour coffee shop at this location and a lot of foot traffic.

Eunos Crescent Blocks 1 and 1A

We counted 16 unsterilised cats at this location, all identified as new to the area by caregivers. The sterilised cats at this location have been outnumbered and hang out at Blk 2 instead. The new 16 cats roam the car park, the void deck, and behind the coffeeshop at Blk 1A. There is a high incidence of killer litter in this area as well.

Main carpark between Blks 1 & 1A

16 cats congregate at this location in turns

Tipped ear sterilised cat, at Blk 2

We are planning to conduct neutering for this site in April, which will necessitate at least 2 rounds of trapping. The cats of this colony suffer from less problems than the second site, Blk 25, so we will need to act on Blk 25 first and foremost.




Eunos Crescent Site 2: Blk 25

At this block, 13 unsterilised cats were sighted at 4 main locations: beneath the block, at the carpark flanking the adjacent factories, throughout the main carpark, and at the rubbish dump. The rubbish dump is the favourite dump site where cats have been found abandoned which has caused the cat population here to escalate. Because of this, there have been a lot of resident complaints from this block.

We did identify a suspected cat dumper of this area based on witness reports, and did a stakeout to see if we could catch him in the act. Unfortunately, we did not see him dumping, but he did come to feed the cats in the area together with his wife. We communicated the message across about the high number of resident complaints about the cats and told them to keep a low profile when feeding, out of the sight of the block's windows. Also, that if they were to spot anyone dumping cats at this site, to contact us, and passed them our namecard.

Eunos Crescent Block 25

Block 25

The main carpark

The rubbish dump, on its right - a substation

The industrial carpark next to Blk 25

Regardless of who the persons responsible are behind the new cats dumped here, the cats need to be sterilised as soon as possible. The new 13 unsterilised cats at this block have been reproducing, and the kittens here have been falling gravely ill. There are a lot of rats from the rubbish dump, which have caused a lot of kittens born here to be infected with worms. We also suspect that the rats have been feeding on newborn kittens, because 2 kittens have been found here by Lynn with legs half missing - possibly chewed off by rats when the kittens were younger. There is also a bad cat flu' epidemic here affecting all the kittens born in this location, many have been rescued by Lynn and the caregiver of this block. When we were here, 2 more kittens-at-risk were found which Lynn brought home to foster and provide veterinary care. Regrettably we couldn't help because our foster cat count is already full to the brim.

(For all the kittens rescued here that need veterinary care, we will do a separate posting on their condition after rehabilitation - sponsors for their veterinary care, and fosterers, may be needed.)

This is one kitten we found with a very bad intestinal worm infection: a worm was being eliminated halfway by the kitten when it was found, and it was having such bad diarrhoea that the skin around its legs and anal area was infected that it couldn't walk properly.

Kitten with bad worm infestation

Worms caused skin infection

Another kitten found here was having such bad flu', conjunctivitis has sealed one of her eyes shut. She also has half a leg missing leaving only a stump.

Sick tortoiseshell kitten

Bad conjunctivitis in one eye

Has half a hind leg missing

We need to solve the problem of sick kittens being born at this location and resident complaints - through sterilising all the new entire cats that have been dumped here. There are currently no other sponsors for the sterilisation of these cats other than Lynn herself, which is why we need to conduct a mass TNRM project together as a team, with your help. After the bulk of the new cats have been neutered and returned here, it will be more manageable for the caregivers to continue - be it neutering of any new future cats or kittens that grow up here, or in handling the resident complaints.


What you can do:

We will be conducting sterilisation for Site 2 - Blk 25 first, targeting to do the first round at the end of this month. There were 13 adult cats counted at this site. We need funds to be able to conduct 2 rounds of trapping for sterilisation of these 13 cats. Assuming an equal ratio of male to female cats, the entire TNRM project for Eunos Crescent Blk 25 will cost around $775. For Site 1 - Blks 1 & 1A, the estimated cost for neutering the 16 cats there will be about $900 in 2 separate rounds of trapping. This means that we need a total of $1,675 to neuter all the 29 new cats spotted in Eunos Crescent.

You can help by contributing financially toward our Sterilisation Fund - 1 male cat costs $40 to trap and neuter, and 1 female cat costs $65-75 - including boarding and transportation to and from the vet.

We are currently having a shortfall in our Sterilisation Fund because Cat Welfare sterilisation reimbursements have have been delayed, and we heard word that it may be delayed even further. Your help will make a difference in helping us go on in our sterilisation efforts for stray cat colonies in dire need.

To contribute towards the sterilisation of the Eunos Crescent cats, make a deposit into our Love Kuching bank account POSB savings 188-52652-7 and contact Elaine at 90880675 / elaine@lovekuchingproject.org to indicate that your contribution is for our Sterilisation Fund.

Any amount you are able to contribute will go a long way. We will sterilise as many cats of Eunos Crescent as the funds are available. In order to start the first round of trapping at Site 2 - Blk 25, we will need about $350-$400. Once we can raise this amount we will immediately start work on conducting TNRM for the Eunos Crescent cats. 

Kit - abandoned kitten found in Joo Chiat

Melissa (@kitsune_shoujo) returned home close to midnight on Thursday only to find a beautiful tricoloured kitten all by herself at the restaurant near her home. Melissa is an active foster parent to rescue cats but Kit, being only 4 weeks old, needed to be fed wet food throughout the day; something that Melissa's work commitments these 2 weeks just cannot permit.

So, pretty Kit is now at our foster home, pen-mates with Joey and Wes.

Kit

Pretty face

Her tricolour markings

Exploring our couch

Kit is an active, vocal girl, who is headstrong and intelligent. She likes company, meows in a cute husky-toned way, and loves to play and climb. She is healthy and has been dewormed. However, she is still unable to eat dry food on its own and needs to be fed canned food with moistened kibbles throughout the day, and hasn't yet learned how to drink water on her own well. She will be ready for adoption when she has become more independent.

Final Round 2: Bendemeer Rd construction site

We will be making a final trapping round for neutering tomorrow Sunday, 13 March, at 9pm at the Bendemeer construction site colony of stray cats.

We will neuter and return Bree to the construction site as well, about 2 months later after she gives birth and finishes nursing.

#pawcircle for Palette and his adopters

We heard from the Woody and Palette's adopters today that Palette faded and passed away this morning in his new home.

Palette had poor appetite when he went to his new home, and subsequently diarrhoea. Mark and Chiu Yen brought him to The Animal Clinic (Clementi) and the vet administrated antibiotics via injection and another jab for his diarrhoea. He was given kaolin which the adopters administered 3 times a day, and syringe-fed him in the meanwhile. Last night, he was still doing okay. We advised the adopters to rush him to the vet again if he either became cold (hypothermia) or started running a fever. Palette showed no signs of body temperature irregularity.

Palette showed signs of poor appetite when he first came to our foster home but he picked up and became well, greedy too. We believe that the stress of a new environment suppressed his immune system when he went to his new home. Kittens below 3 months of age are still shedding their mother's antibodies and building their own, hence any kitten in this age range are always liable to sudden onset of illness and death.

Have collated here the condolences that just came in for Palette via our Twitter account which I have emailed to Mark and Chiu Yen who are still coping with the loss as new cat owners on their own.

• :'( rip baby palette..u'll be missed dearly #gonetoosoon u are nw in a much better place smewhr ovr the rainbow bridge! (",)
• RIP to the little sweetie. ): very very shocking.
• poor kitten T_T they are so fragile. Makes me remember the time had to rush lil Nen to vet in middle of night cuz he was fading
• R.I.P to pallette =(
• RIP baby Palette. :'(  http://twitpic.com/47o4yq
• oh no ;__; so sorry to hear about Palette. #pawcircle

Woody is doing well. Have advised Mark that if they worry about Woody getting any kind of contagious feline disease to bring a fecal sample they have of Palette and get Woody tested for any serious illness.

Update from Wine and Seven!

Fiza updated us on Wine and Seven, now named Crystal and Diamond respectively!

Wine (Crystal) no longer has bloating in her tummy, and her constipation has not returned - now pooing well! When Seven (Diamond) was still in our foster home, he had an allergic reaction to the seafood content in the new Nutripe Chicken (mussel powder). We took him off the Nutripe, administered antihistamines and spirulina (good for allergies) and passed the information on to Fiza. He has not had any puffy face or squinty eyes from food allergies since then! We are glad to hear that both are getting better!

They will be going to the vet this Thursday to get their vet-checks just to be sure.

Here are some pics of them in their new home!

Kitten entertainment centre!

Exploring their new bed

Playing together

Drinking kitten milk

Sleeping together