Indy RULES...in his red cape!!

Ever since Indy started wearing clothes (not for fun, but because he had a lacerated wound on his underside (his chest area) and the only way to prevent him from biting it was to put a tshirt on him), he has been behaving rather strangely...like he was the big boss!

He struts around showing off his cape (either the yellow rock star one with the smileys or his chili red one) and not once did he even try or want to take them off.

It was like his second skin, so to speak...

The other day, I was outside the room, speaking on the phone and it was a rather long call. Indy was waiting at the grille for me and when I finally came in, he bit me!

Yes, the moment I stepped into the room, he grabbed my leg real hard, clamped it and bit me. Believe me, it was VERY painful but thank goodness I was wearing long pants.

That'll teach you to leave me alone for SO LONG, I could almost hear him say.

Gosh, this is the very first time Indy had ever bitten me...and I blame it totally on the red cape.

Don't disturb me, I'm having my nap... 

Yes, what do you want from me? 

 Changing clothes.

It has to be done really fast because he would start licking and his skin is so tender, the wound would start to bleed again...

...although it has healed very well and is already very small.

(This was taken a few days ago.)

Today's photo...the wound is already very tiny.

Just imagine, it takes SO long for this reasonably minor wound to heal and this is with antibiotics and Vetri DMG. What if street cats had such a wound and no medical aid is given to them?

 Indy grooms himself with the clothes on. He grooms the clothes too.

 And when he has the red cape on, he rules.

Here, he is stalking and watching the outside gang...

What are they doing there? How dare they invade into MY territory??

Indy's green raincoat now belongs to Catoyaki!

Since Indy did not have any use for his green raincoat, he instructed me post it to Catoyaki, Adele's cat in KL.

And here is Catoyaki, looking so supremely handsome in the green raincoat!

Amboi! Bergaya betul...!

The call for dinner...from the patio!

Yesterday, there was suddenly a loud noise in the kitchen...

 Timmy had come into the kitchen and pulled the whole bag of food down, dragged it along the floor until the clip came off!

Ok, ok, I get it...you are hungry.

 Why is Starry facing the wrong way, you may ask....

Well, that's the only way to prevent Rosie from attacking him. Poor fella. Rosie won't let him eat in the same direction as the rest. He's still not "fully accepted" yet. I guess he has not passed all the "tests" to be initiated into the patio family?

The red-caped masked hero!

Who??  Who??

Who else?

I just had to wash the yellow smiley tshirt today. It's been 5 days now. So I took it off Indy and quickly washed it. Meanwhile, Indy groomed himself but the wound started bleeding again.

 Sorry, Indy, this a temporary measure.

 No can do, it's not going to dry in this weather, so I ironed it.

 But the seams were still wet. There was no other way.
I put the smiley tshirt (quite dry except for the seams) back on Indy and drove out to get another tshirt for him.

 Here we are now...

Angry Bird?

 Nope, it's got a teddy bear on it.

 Our masked hero is now red-caped!

The wound, though it started bleeding when Indy licked it, is much smaller in size now. Looks like Indy has to continue wearing his tshirts until it heals completely.

Meanwhile, I'm so glad a reader has written in to take over Indy's green raincoat. Apparently, the reader's cat likes to play in the rain!

Is it Liberace? Elton John? Elvis?? No, it's Indy!!

The other day, when Indy started wearing his smiley-tshirt, a reader remarked that Indy looked like a "gay rock star"!  I was tickled to bits (rolled on floor laughing) but the more I looked at Indy, the more I tend to agree that the smiley-tshirt on Indy reminds me of Elvis, Elton John or Liberace!

Anyway, it's been four days now, and I felt sorry for Indy, not being able to groom himself with the tshirt on. The wound had healed remarkably well on the very next day itself, but I didn't want to take the chance of Indy licking it again so I kept the tshirt on him.

This morning, after breakfast, I took the tshirt off Indy to let him groom. I can't say Indy was overjoyed, though. He appeared nonchalant about it. I have strong reasons to believe he actually likes the tshirt...very much, too. Not once did he complain or try to tear it off.

So, with the tshirt off, Indy started grooming. Not feverishly. Just nonchalantly, just as he would any other non-tshirted day. I was watching him and he did lick the wound a bit. Not excessively too.

After about half an hour, I checked his wound and would you know....it was lacerated again!  But the area was much smaller than it was previously so I think this is a good indication that the wound IS healing.

He is still on antibiotics.

So, I put the tshirt back on before I left for work and our masked hero appeared to be quite happy with it.

And to think I was so worried if he would feel ostracised by the rest of the cats because he looked different, etc. Would it affect his feline self-esteem, etc. You'll never know, right?

Looks like I worried for nothing....

 Hey man...call me Elton Indy for now...

It's a little bit funny this feeling inside. I'm not one of those who can easily hide...

 I don't have much money, but boy if I did, I'd buy a big house where we both could live...

And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world...

(The above are lyrics from one of Elton John's biggest hits in 1970, "Your Song". The man can sing anything and it will be a hit!)

 Meanwhile, talking about homes, we've had a hierarchy change in the ownership of the condo....
Cleo and Bunny had been seen taking over the condo lately...

Gosh...what's going on?

Just take a look at this condo. It's big, isn't it? But no two cats can occupy it at any one time. Only one is permitted. One and only one. And the penthouse occupancy, now that is another story altogether...

You'll never be bored when you have cats in your life...

Indy's wound is much better!

 

 Hi everyone!! Look at my wound!!

It's so, so much better today. It's completely dried up!

I'd like to believe that the RM17.80 all-cotton tshirt contributed massively to the healing because it prevented the wound from being in contact with the floor. Of course the antibiotics are doing the work too.

 We'll keep the tshirt on since Indy isn't complaining, until the wound heals a bit more.

 With Friend Bunny last night. Aww...

Indy's little green raincoat

I just gave Indy's his second dose of antibiotics and took a peek at the wound. From our untrained eye, it looks drier (yay!!).  Pray, pray, pray it's just a wound and not mast cell tumour.

I managed to dab some povidone iodine on it too, and Indy didn't make a fuss. I didn't want to push my luck with cleansing it with Dermacyn this time. Also, I read the bottle, after 30 days of opening, the oxygen in the solution would be all gone and it's just normal saline (that's what the pharmacy people told me when I checked with them).

 Indy having his dinner.

 Here's the little green raincoat.

Any cat out there wants it for fun (those who like to dress up or play in the rain)?
You're most welcome to have it. Just write to me.

Indy, Indy, what happened??

This morning, I noticed a big wound on Indy's underside, on his chest area. It looked like a lacerated wound to me, so I first cleaned it with Dermacyn and then applied povidone iodine on it. But Indy, being Indy, instantly licked up all the iodine. Of course when I was cleaning the wound, I got scratched and would you know it, Cleo also came to scratch me (for "doing something" to upset Indy!). Oh well, at least there is some camaraderie in place amongst them, which is good.

When the vet opened, I carted Indy off for a consultation.

The vet asked if Indy could have injured himself. I couldn't think of anything except two nights ago when Indy insisted on coming out of the room (to accompany me to watch TV) and I had put the harness on him. The spot where the wound is coincides with a buckle on the harness. The next night, he insisted on coming out, but this time, we closed all the windows and let him out to roam the whole house.

I had not noticed any wound until this morning.

 Looks pretty bad, right?

  You see that buckle? I think the buckle could have lacerated his tender skin.

The vet said it is definitely not a bite wound. He then took a scrape sample, looked at it under the microscope and examined it for a long time. The wound was found to be already infected (has lots of bacteria and white blood cells), but here's the worrying news - there was also the presence of some mast cells. As such, the vet could not rule out the possibility of mast cell tumour (http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/cancer/c_ct_mast_cell_tumor). Mast cell is a form of skin cancer which is common in dogs, but not in cats. Yet, we have seen one such case before previously in 2011 (http://myanimalcare.org/2011/08/23/not-sporo-or-crypto-but-something-else/).

However, there were only a few mast cells in the sample and the vet explained that in some ordinary wounds, mast cells can be present. The plan now is to put Indy on 10 days' antibiotics and he must not aggravate the wound by licking it further. If the wound starts to dry up and heal, then we just proceed with the antibiotics without further investigation and diagnosis. But if the wound does not heal, further diagnosis would be required.

The vet will also consult with a more senior colleague on this and let me know by next week.

I was a little unprepared for this as I had thought it was just a superficial wound. Luckily I didn't take any chances and brought Indy straight to the vet's. The vet says that if it is mast cell tumour, there is treatment with medications or surgery to remove the entire patch.

Meanwhile, I have to stop Indy from licking the wound. The vet said I could put on the e-collar for Indy but agreed that in some cats, it causes massive stress. Indy is a highly and easily stressed cat. In all the previous times he had been ill, he would be so seriously ill and in most times, no vet could correctly diagnose what was wrong with him. The last was more than a year ago when he was hospitalised and on drips.

Indy is a mysterious cat. Has always been so. And he is also very easily stressed.

Based on this, the vet said another alternative would be to put a cat-tshirt on him. Just cover the wound for 2 days to give it a chance to heal.

 I have 3 pieces of e-collars.

So we tried the e-collar first. Indy went TOTALLY berserk, jumped 5 feet high (yes, as high as me), flipped several acrobatic somersaults in the air and out flew the collar, leaving us completely stunned. Actually, I was the one who was stunned. Husband was impressed and said we should have video-recorded the whole remarkable "performance".

Verdict on e-collar: No go.

 Indy, after the acrobatic acts.

Then, he started licking himself feverishly (yes, because the e-collar had "violated" him so badly, I understand). And there was no point in trying to stop him as he needed to cleanse himself of the e-collar so we left him to groom. Meanwhile, I asked husband to go out to buy him a cat tshirt.

Husband came back saying all the cat tshirts had been sold out (for the CNY?) so he could only get this cat raincoat. He said it had velcro and we could cut it to size and wear it "upside-down".

 So we put it on Indy loosely and it fitted well.

 It also covered the wound well.

And all was well...

....for less than five minutes.

Verdict on cat raincoat: No go.

Then I called other pet-stores to ask if they had anymore cat tshirts.

None.

Finally, we went out to two more stores.

One only sold dog tshirts and it was ridiculously priced. The second store had more reasonably priced ones. After all, I only need it for 2 days. And so I chose the 100% cotton one.

It fitted very nicely, and not too tightly so that there is room for the wound to "breathe".

The whole idea is to prevent Indy from licking the wound, that's all. And also to prevent the wound from being in contact with the floor as it is on the chest area. If Indy lies down, the wound would be directly in contact with the floor.

I noticed he only licks the wound feverishly when we meddle with it. If we don't, he doesn't too.

Tiger (bless his kind soul) was very concerned about his friend, so he followed Indy around to make sure Indy was okay.

 Indy seemed quite comfortable with his tshirt.

Well, maybe he has no choice, because he cannot worm his way out of it.

 He seems at home with his tshirt now. It's still intact after 2 hours, so it should be Indy-proof.

I really hope it isn't mast cell tumour. The cause of mast cell tumour is unknown.

Now, to hope the antibiotics (Clavomox) will work and the wound will heal in the next few days.

Get well soon, little Indy.

Oh gosh, slithery encounters on the first day of the Snake Year?

I am not superstitious and I do not observe taboos, so I shall tell the story as it is.

You know how it is that this year is the Year of the Snake and people send wishes saying "May the Year of the Water Snake bring you....(all the blessings for a good year)"?

Well, late last night, as I was closing the patio door, I saw Rosie, Daffodil, Timmy and Ginger surrounding a dead snake near the patio.

Again?

Yes, again.

And this one was big. Not huge, just bigger than the last one.

As I have a phobia of snakes, dead, alive or cartoon drawings, luckily both my children were around to take care of things. I knew it was dead as it wasn't moving at all and all four cats were surrounding it and poking at it.

So my children went out and managed to put the carcass into a plastic bag.

By then, my husband was back, so the three of them went across the road to bury the carcass.

As they were burying the carcass, Timmy was found tossing another small snake into the air.

Yes, another one. Also dead and with a triangle head.

I suspect there is a nest nearby or a neighbour might have killed the snakes, tossed them across the road and the cats found them?

Just then, I remembered that kampung folks never bury snake carcasses. They usually either burn them or put the carcass on the highway.  The belief is that the entire family will come looking for the dead one if there is a scent. This may be a myth (I'm told it is, but I'd rather be safe than sorry).

So to be safe, I told my husband to dig up the two carcasses and throw them far away, away from any inhabited area.

That was done last night and this morning, we poured chlorox over the burial plot of the first snake (two weeks ago).  That's what an elderly headmaster taught me last time. He said to use chlorox - they are afraid of the strong scent.

I have alerted the whole neighbourhood about this incident and one of the neighbours said he might get Bomba to help locate the nest.

The following might help too:

Getting rid of:
Low-growing hiding spots near your house (shrubs, plants, etc.)
Thickly-planted gardens
Mulch (especially straw mulch) in the gardens
Tall grass
Bird feeders (which attract mice & insects, which attract snakes)
Ground-level water sources (birdbaths, ponds, puddles, etc.)
Compost piles
Wood and brush piles (any wood on the ground where they can hide)

And so, may all beings be well and happy, keep to their own habitat and live and let live.

And may this New Year keep everyone safe and healthy.

Peaceful and happy get-togethers

Gong Xi Fa Cai, everyone!

 This morning was indeed special because Mr G and Rosie allowed Starry to join in for breakfast!

So, here's the Patio-Family having their Chinese New Year breakfast all together.

Daffodil, the matriarch of the clan.
She's the smallest in size, but the wisest and she puts peace above all else.
Nothing beats age when it comes to wisdom, even for cats!

 The inside brood, after breakfast.

Pole also puts peace above all else. Maybe the female felines are wiser?

 Human brother-and-sister, and feline brother-and-sister!

The "Alphas"(!) and me.

Three generations wishing you Happy New Year!

 Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Interring Bobby's ashes

Bobby passed away on 5th September 2012: http://myanimalcare.org/2012/09/06/in-loving-memory-of-bobby-october-1996-6th-september-2012/

Today, our whole human family is back home so we thought it's time to inter Bobby's ashes.

Bunny came to see.

 

 We know Bobby is always with us in spirit.

But for the living (meaning us), we also wanted his remains to be near us. It didn't make any sense to us to have his remains scattered anywhere else. Bobby looked after all of us (humans and every single cat) while he was alive, right up to his very last day.

Cow, the all-knowing one.

I wanted to have a serai (lemongrass) plant planted in Bobby's grave because the cats love serai.

 Tabs came to see too.

 

 Here's the serai. May you grow strong and healthy.

 



 



 

Cow, on his own, was the first to pay his respects.

You've got to give it to Cow. He's the all-knowing one.

 



 



 

 Grow well, little serai plant!

Some photos in loving memory of our ever loyal Bobby (October 1996 - September 2012)

 Looking after Cow, Bunny and Pole.

 Looking after Tiger.

 Looking after Indy.

Bobby looked after no fewer than 30 kittens in his lifetime.

 

 

 

 More photos: http://myanimalcare.org/2012/09/06/in-loving-memory-of-bobby-october-1996-6th-september-2012/

What a dog!!