Baggy's coming home to me today

Baloo's sudden demise has been a shock to me, and I think, also to many of our readers who have been following the Blueys' story since Day One.

Last night, Andy wrote to say that perhaps the office environment isn't so suitable for Baggy, so he wanted to know my opinion on rehoming Baggy.

I offered to take Baggy back.

Mr Teh also offered to adopt Baggy but the last time Baggy went to Mr Teh's house, she was terrified of one of his bigger cats. Apparently, Baggy had become rather timid as she grew. Baloo was the brave one.

I think my elders might not be as aggressive as they used to be now that they are older. The only problem would be Indy. If you remember, Indy ran away from home when I was fostering the Blueys. Hence, the urgency to get them rehomed. The original arrangement was just to foster over the weekend, and later for a few weeks, but after that, the rescuer could not take back the Blueys, and they ended up with me. Indy ran further and further away from home each day, and that was really worrying. I think you remember how bad it was at that time.

Maybe Indy would be more accepting now. Maybe Baggy can find a friend in Tabs as they are about the same age. Tabs is a very good-natured cat.

All "maybe"s.

Andy and Emily will be leaving on Tuesday for overseas for a month. There isn't enough time to look for a home for Baggy, so I thought it best if I took her back first. We'll manage somehow.

One day at a time.

This morning, I woke up in the morning, and the first thing I wished for was that Baloo's death had only been a nightmare. But of course I knew it was real. You know how it is when you first awake in the morning, and your mind is just crossing over from sleep mode (in another world) to reality, and you are not sure where you are for a few moments? I was there, and I wished everything had been just a bad, bad dream. It is called being in denial, which is a natural part of grieving. I am aware of that, and I know what is going on in my mind.

It is not a bad dream. Baloo is gone. We have to take care of Baggy now.

Acceptance will come later, after denial and all the bargaining has been done.

I went off to work, and I've long learnt to properly delineate my life into compartments so that one role does not cross over to another. I play many roles in life. When at work, work. Do nothing else but work. When teaching, teach. You owe it to your students. Smile, joke, teach, put aside everything and do your duty, no matter how you are feeling and what is going on in another part of your life, put that aside.

I've long acquired that "skill", for want of a better word. I feel we owe it to the task at hand, to do our very best. We cannot let anything else disturb or jeopardise that.

I remember the night Suki passed away in a car accident, it was absolutely shocking, and I had a public talk that next morning. I went and I delivered the talk. After the talk, I sat in my car, called my friend and cried my heart out. Then, I drove home. When driving, just drive. Do nothing else but drive.

So, after work today, I drove to the petstore to buy supplies for Baggy - some toys, a litter box, another food bowl.

Last night, Terry brought over a small 3-tiered cage and set it up for me. This is just in case I need the cage for quarantine.

 I hosed the cage down, washed it and all the platforms and ladders too.

The cats watched, wondering what was happening.

You know, you don't want to let emotions take over as you do these things. Just focus and do. Wash, scrub, wash, scrub, until everything is clean. Do nothing else, think about nothing else.

I already had time to cry yesterday; it wasn't a good cry, but it was good enough. I think I need a "good cry" for me to move on, but that has to wait. I need my strength to do what I have to do today. Baggy is coming back.

 The cage is all ready. There is a light blue feather toy.

I would have preferred a blue litter tray, but this was the last one of this size.

The cage came with a black litter tray, but no, no black. Black is not a good colour right now.

The plan was Mr Teh would bring Baggy straight to my vet for a check-up and I'll meet them at the clinic. I've made an appointment at 5pm. But Mr Teh wanted to discuss certain things about Baggy with me, so he will bring Baggy to my house first, at 4pm. I had wanted to minimise the change of environment for Baggy and the unnecessary traveling, hence, straight to the vet's and then back home.

But it's ok, we'll do what we can.

I'm waiting for Baggy now.

Those who look after Bobby

As you all know, Bobby has looked after every single kitten I brought back, and as I was doing a check-list the other day, 48 animals have actually been fostered in our home (mostly kittens) in these 3 years.

So, now that Bobby is old and grey, who looks after him?

 Cow, being the eldest (or so we think) is always near. Cow has always taken it upon himself to be the "big brother" of the feline clan.

 Nowadays, Bobby feels much better (after all regular acupuncture sessions), so he refuses to be handfed anymore. In fact, he resists it (like saying, "I can eat by myself, so please...I do not need you to feed me anymore"). So, once in a while, Cow resumes his duty of taking Bobby to his foodbowl again as he had done in the past.

But on a daily basis, it's not Cow's duty.

It's Tabs'!

Yes, I don't know who taught her, but she seems to know all the ropes and procedures.

 First, you must start by eating a bit of the food.

That would attract Bobby towards his foodbowl.

 The moment Bobby starts eating, you must move away.

 But if Bobby wanders off, you start eating again. You must be on standby to do the job.

 Then, as Bobby comes back to eat, you move away again.

 Nobody does it as well as the veteran.

 Bunny has also resumed his dog-herding duty of making sure Bobby doesn't bump into walls and cupboards.

 

 Tiger too.

And so, Gratitude is the fairest blossom that springs from the soul.

Even animals know it...and practise it.

Baloo Bluey is not well (Andy Lew's)

Two days ago, Andy Lew called to say Baloo did not look well and he had already scheduled an appointment for her.

Yesterday morning, he brought Baloo to see the vet and the vet did not quite find anything wrong. Maybe it was just a cold. So Baloo was given antibiotics (Clavomox) and Vetri DMG.

Just now, Andy called to say Baloo had not eaten today but is still alert.

I've given Andy the phone contact of the vet in PJ with the call-back service, just in case. I've also suggested that Andy force feeds a bit of wetfood so that he can feed the antibiotic and syringe-feed glucose water as we would want to prevent hypoglycemia from happening.

Another appointment has been scheduled tomorrow and X-Rays will be taken to further investigate what is wrong.

Get well soon, Baloo.

Photos taken yesterday, after the visit to the vet's:

 I'm Baggy.

 I'm not the sick one.

 I'm Baloo. I don't feel very well.

 So I sleep all day.

 

Indy says "thank you"!

I'm feeling much better now.

Thank you, Aunties and Uncles, for praying for me.

And mum can go to Dataran Merdeka tomorrow....I'll be fine, I have my Ultraman with me.

And there's Silvervine powder as well....

Bernice bought my cats a treat...

 A Daiso product

 It comes in sachets.

 Tabs went absolutely crazy over it!

 

 Indy wanted to know what the commotion was all about.

 Sniff, Cleo.

 Cleo, our very own Bastet Queen, also "let her hair down" and went completely gaga. You'd never catch her going gaga over anything, not even the P-Lows.

 Bunny?

 

 I sprinkled some on the cushion, and it was non-stop!

 Everyone went crazy over it and we had like half hour of "high" time last night!

Thank you, Aunty Bernice!!

Mr G's owner comes a-knocking....

My doorbell rang just now and a lady was at my gate. She was looking for her cat, "Ten" and wonders if Ten had come into my house. She said she lives behind my house.

Well, what do you know, she is Mr G's owner!

And here's Mr G's real name - "Jelly", and guess how old he is....

Mr G a.k.a. Jelly is only 5 years old!!

This means Cow, Bunny, Pole and Tiger are older! Maybe Cleo is also older.

"Ten" is Ginrella. He had gone missing, and it's her daughter's favourite cat.

Apparently, Ten had been mewing last night (I heard kittens mewing, which I often hear, but I could not find the kittens). Apparently, according to her, it's not kittens. It's Ten. He mews like a kitten. And Ten is only about 2 years old. Gee...they are all so big. They are offsprings from a Persian that she has, who mated with street cats.

She spotted Ten on my roof last night, mewing. And she climbed onto my roof to get him, but he ran away.

She even called the Bomba last night, but they only came at 9am this morning. They climbed up but could not find Ten.

Initially I thought Ten was Mr G, so I assured her Mr G would be safe, but it turned out later, when I showed her Mr G's photo, she said that's Jelly, not Ten.

She has ten cats and Ten is No.10, hence, the name.

We had a good chat about cats and all, and apparently, she alleges that her cats had been poisoned before. She further alleges that people even throw stones at her cats. Oh dear...just as well that we had built the cat fence and confined our cats.

I hope Ten will return home soon. Meanwhile, when Mr G comes next, we'll call him Jelly.

Mr Jelly? Mr J sounds more cool, eh?

And he is ONLY 5 years old?

By the way, all her cats are not neutered except one. So, we talked about neutering and I encouraged her to get it done for her cats.

Indy's acupuncture today

Indy had his acupuncture treatment today...

 After the needles went in, he was put in the carrier, as usual.

He complained and tried to open the lock.

I think he was already feeling better compared to the last two days when all he did was to sleep. Well, sleep is very healing; that's when the body heals itself as much as it can.

 Time's up. The needles can come off now.

Dr Susanna said Indy has a weak-qi and weak-blood problem, in Chinese medical terms. It is not anaemia, though. It is rather hard to explain something as intangible as the qi and the "blood" (not the red liquid kind of blood, but something else again). The closest explanation would be like this: qi is the vapour and blood is the cloud (a denser form of qi).

And Indy appears to have some stagnation, again, metophored as "rocks" in the river. If qi is the water, then the stagnation is the rocks that is blocking the flow. This stagnation is at his lower back, which is where the pain is, and that is causing the limping.

The aim now is to clear that stagnation or reduce it, so that the qi can flow and hopefully, a better qi-flow will strengthen the qi and the blood.

Makes sense?

It does to me.

And repeated acupuncture will help work the body towards this, so whenever Bobby has his sessions now, Indy will have one too.

Bobby may be blind, but he thought Dr Susanna had come to acupuncture him, so he nudged at her legs, as though saying, "What about me?"

Of course, Tabs was the perfect host, as usual. She also does a customs check on everyone's belongings when they enter the room. One can never be sure if any unauthorised or cat-unfriendly objects have been brought in, right?  So, one must check, but one must also do so politely.

 Indy went out to get some sun after the session.

 Tabs, too.

 Pole, too, but in her condo.

 Later, Bobby went to check on Indy, but poor Bobby got scratched.

Note: the bodyguard is asleep.

 The bodyguard is still asleep.

 This evening, Bobby checked on Indy again, and got scratched...again!

I think Indy's worst is over. He can already walk properly today.

We'll start him on the monthly acupuncture and hopefully, his qi-flow will increase.

I think (I hope!) the 4 months of homecooked food and wetfood have made a significant difference to Indy's health. I think it has as his urine test this round is the "best" it has ever been - the closest to normal. Previously, his urine had always been very dilute. This time it is nicely concentrated. I hope this means the kidneys are functioning well.

Our greatest fear is always a malfunction of the kidneys. The liver can repair itself but not the kidneys. When Bobby was 8 years old, he had a bad liver infection which caused 80% of his liver to fail. He was given a natural liver supplement and he recovered. He is 16 years old this year.

One day at at time, then. That's all we have.

If Indy is well enough, I can head down to Dataran Merdeka this Saturday!

Indy eats on his own!

Last night was, thankfully, uneventful, so Indy and I slept through the night.

This morning, I awoke early as I had made a fresh batch of homecooked food late last night and I was going to blend it all this morning as it was too hot last night. It was sealed tightly in the pressure cooker, so no worries about bacteria contamination there.

I got everything blended while everyone else watched from the grille.

I dished out the food to the 6 of them plus Bobby, and was going to feed Indy.

But he decided he'd join the breakfast group this morning...

So, he jumped down from his box.

 I gave him both - homecooked and Natural Balance. He licked half of the homecooked broth and then went for the canned food.

 I guess canned food is more tasty!

I plopped the Methycobal in in between his eating. It was a breeze as it is so small compared to the Neurobion.

 He scratched a bit, which is a good sign. He is doing cat things again.
This rattan trunk is their favourite scratching trunk.

Tabs was not following him this morning. I HOPE that is an indication that Indy is better now and does not need a bodyguard anymore.

 Tabs decided to play "Follow the Leader" with Tiger.

 We're following the leader, the leader, the leader,
We're following the leader, wherever he may go...
(sung by The Lost Boys in Peter Pan)

Those bald patches on the grass - it's all thanks to Cow!

 Indy's pee-ing. Another good sign. I did not see him pee at all yesterday.

 Bunny is not done with his 3rd or 4th helping yet.

 Waste not, want not. Times are hard, folks, I do not believe in wasting good food.

 Indy went back to his box.

 Groomed a bit, and he's asleep now.

Thank you, everyone, for your emails of good wishes for Indy. I'm sure your positive vibes helped a lot.

Thank you!

 Sound asleep...

 And Penthouse Girl needs a rest too, she's been playing her role as bodyguard to perfection for the past two days.

 Yes, we all know how good you've been, Tabs.

 Good girl, Tabs.