The feline welcome-home committee!

I only stayed for 2 nights at the hospital; the first night was at the High Dependency Unit and the second night at the normal ward. But for a cat, a human being away for 2 nights and 3 days is a long time. Of course it broke my heart that I could not explain to them why I was gone and I certainly didn't want them thinking that I had abandoned them. My husband and children took good care of all 12 of them, so that was reassuring. Still, don't you wish there was a way to let them know...

According to my husband, the 7 inside cats were fine and did not seem too worried. Only Ginger appeared to be very concerned and kept following him and mewing. He also went upstairs to our bedroom to look for me and mewed. Poor Ginger....

And that is why when the doctor allowed me to option of coming home to recover, I jumped at the chance.

When we drove into the porch, it was afternoon and Ginger wasn't around at the time. Rosie was, but you know how Calicos are. The inside cats had congregated at the grille and were quite excited. Yes, all seven of them and they seemed happy. There was a little celebratory joy as I went in. I was still a little groggy, so I took care in not moving too much.

Ginger came back later and I think it took the boy a little while for everything to sink in. When he finally realised I was really back, he was so happy, he licked me...like a little puppy!



So that's the little tale of my welcome-home event yesterday.

But wait...that's not all.

Someone else popped over to visit too, this morning.

Guess who?

Mr Zurik!!

Yes, Mr Zurik came over to the patio this morning to visit. News must have filtered through the Feline News Network, so our dear Mr Zurik, as militant and as controversial as he is, found it in himself to pop over for a courtesy call. Isn't he sweet?

Cats, when you think you've got them all figured out, they will surprise you again and again.

Cats make the whole go round, don't they?

Thank you, dear friends, for all your kind wishes and prayers for me. I haven't recovered yet, but I hope to get there soon.

As for the subsidy payments, I have cleared all the backlog today. All payments have been made. I figured delaying will create an even longer backlog for me next week and that would be even more stressful. So, all in a days' work and I can now rest.

Sharing the Carebears Blankie

We see this very often. Mother-and-daughter sharing the Carebears blankie...

...while Ginger sleeps in his basket.

But today...

...this is totally new!

Where is Daffodil?

Here!

Look at Rosie's hind legs!

Isn't Ginger simply a very good-natured brother?

 

Cow's eye blood clot

I hope I'm not imagining it, but I think Cow's eye blood clot has got a little smaller. Today is Day 3.

I was worried this morning when a part of the brown blood clot looked lighter in colour (I thought it was ruptured lens material) but now I think it could be the blood dispersing (I hope!) because by afternoon, the clot looked visibly smaller.

Meanwhile, it hasn't been exactly easy putting the eyedrop on his eye. Now, he hisses and growls. But apart from this, he seems to be going about his daily business as usual.

That's Cow Mau. He has an extremely high pain threshold.

Gingerbread (Blanket No. 69) - up for auction!

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la!

We managed to get this Gingerbread blankie up in time for Christmas!

This gingerbread cloth and the matching beige are contributed by Agnes Cheong.
Thank you very much, Agnes!

Auction Rules:

1. Please check the latest comment for the latest bid before putting in yours.

2. All bids are placed as comments on this blogpost. All comments will be published instantly in chronological order. 

3. The auction ends at 5.00pm, on Wednesday, 10th December 2014.

4. The winner is to bank in payment no later than 72 hours after the closing time failing which we reserve the right to offer it to the next highest bidder or to reauction. Winners who fail to bank in payment will be barred from participating in future auctions. 

5. You may use a pseudonym when placing your bid, if you wish, but please use a genuine email address as we need to contact you if you win. Your email address will not be displayed. 

6. Please participate responsibly in the spirit of goodwill, honesty and fun!

100% of the winning bid will be channeled to our Fund for the animals.

Do we hear RM150?

8th Dec:

At 6.45pm, Liew Wooi Yee bids RM188.

The beige matches the gingerbread very well.

Rosie loves the matching combinations, don't you too?

Luckily we have a matching pink as well.

It can even be used as a table cloth, if you like.

I maximised the gingerbread cloth completely and used our pink cloth to make up the breadth and length.

The backing cloth is also in the same beige. This backing cloth is contributed by Agnes Cheong too.

Yes, Ginger, it's your colour too!

Here it is, with the backing done by my mum.

It measures 55 inches by 78 inches.

It will make a pretty Christmas gift.

 Happy bidding and thank you very much for your kind support!

Cow's eye injury

There was a huge war cry in Bunny's Place at midnight last night.

By the time we rushed down, we found Cow and Bunny in the room, and the rest were all out in the pantry with Indy antagonising Tiger with his war cry.

We broke up Indy's attack on Tiger and thought all was well. Tabs' tail was all fluffed up but she was unscathed in the pantry. She was probably trying to help Tiger from afar.

Why did Indy attack Tiger? This has never happened before....

Then we came in and noticed a reddish discharge flowing out of Cow's right eye. Cow was wiping his eye with his paw and he could not open this right eye. Bunny was fine.

It was only then that we realised Indy must have attacked Cow and scratched his eye.

Soon all the cats came in and as we were attending to Cow, Bunny started to yell at poor Tiger.

I washed Cow's eye with saline. Nothing much could be done at that time of night. The reddish discharge stopped after a few minutes.

This morning, we noticed a blood clot inside Cow's eye, surrounding his pupil.

So it was off to the vet's with Cow in tow.

Waiting for our turn at the vet's.

The vet checked Cow's eye and there is indeed a blood clot. A stain test was done to check for ulcers and so far, there was none. So a steroid eyedrop was prescribed. The purpose of the eyedrop is to prevent "stickiness" inside the eye. If the various parts of the eye start to "stick together", it would lead to complications like glaucoma, etc. The blood clot should resolved by itself, but the eyedrop is essential to prevent the "stickiness".

However, the vet said the pattern of the blood clot was a little unusual. Normally, the blood clot would sink to the bottom but Cow's was splattered on his eye. There is a slight worry that there could be lens material in the clot but for now, we cannot tell yet. Lens material is usually cloudy and there is no such indication now.

We hope there is no damage to the lens.

So all he needs is the eyedrop for now (3 times daily) and it's back for another check-up in a week's time.

Please, please get well soon, Cow.

If any ulcer forms in the next few days, the steroid eyedrop has to be stopped as it would make an ulcer worse. So, this calls for close observation of the eye. If it gets redder or more irritable, Cow would need an earlier visit to the vet's.

Indy is missing a claw from the fight; we did not see any bite wounds and hope there are none.

We will never know what transpired in the fight last night, but for now, all we hope is that Indy and Cow will both be alright.

Thank goodness Tiger was not injured in the whole episode last night.

The seniors' safe havens

In this raining season...

Daffodil has taken over this box as her safe haven.

It used to be shared by Ginger and Heidi, but not anymore now.

You seldom get to see Daffodil sleeping as she is always on the alert, but here she is, totally at ease and feeling safe.

Heidi likes the rubber mat.

Tiger will always ask to be let out whenever anyone is home. He pushes on the grille until someone lets him out.

The senior tabbies.

Mr Zurik IS around!

After disappearing into thin air for a few weeks, we spotted Mr Zurik today!

To recap, Mr Zurik disappeared after he ran helter-skelter out of the house compound when Cow unleashed his fury at the Stargate by letting out a terrifying war-cry and slamming himself onto the polycarb at the gate. Vincent and Mr Zurik were having a war-crying stint right outside the Stargate that night, as usual, and this irritated Cow. Poor Indy was nearby and he sustained bite injuries from the ferocious Cow. It took Indy more than a week to recover from those bites.

Ever since then, we had not seen Mr Zurik at all.

That has been many weeks.

This afternoon, as we were driving down the road, we saw Mr Zurik rolling about right outside "his house". He looked well.

On the way back, we slowed down to see if we could spot him again and there he was....

He still looks pretty much the same, doesn't he?

I'm glad he is well. He's really better off back in his own house because if he comes to our house, all the PatioCats run the risk of being chased by him.

Keep well, Mr Zurik.

Snowflake Sunflower (Bag No. 23) - up for auction!

Snowflake Sunflower is an applique done by my mum.

Auction Rules:

1. Please check the latest comment for the latest bid before putting in yours.

2. All bids are placed as comments on this blogpost. All comments will be published instantly in chronological order. 

3. The auction ends at 5.00pm, on Wednesday, 3rd December 2014.

4. The winner is to bank in payment no later than 72 hours after the closing time failing which we reserve the right to offer it to the next highest bidder or to reauction. Winners who fail to bank in payment will be barred from participating in future auctions. 

5. You may use a pseudonym when placing your bid, if you wish, but please use a genuine email address as we need to contact you if you win. Your email address will not be displayed. 

6. Please participate responsibly in the spirit of goodwill, honesty and fun!

100% of the winning bid will be channeled to our Fund for the animals.

Do we hear RM50?

3rd Dec:

At 3.59pm, The H Factor bids RM80.

2nd Dec:

At 8.35am, Joy Saga bids RM50.

It would make a nice Christmas gift for someone special.

Happy bidding and thank you very much for your support!

When will it stop raining?

Sunny skies are so rare these days...

It's been raining, raining and raining, sometimes even continuously or several times a day.

So, it's been so, so cold for everyone.

Luckily I have my basket.

We have each other.

If there is thunder, Heidi hides.

Vincent, the soldier, stays in the porch or under the car. He is always on guard duty.

When it rains, everyone is in the room.

Everyone? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....

Where is Indy?

 Rain or shine, the vigilante patrols his area to keep the peace.

You cannot find a more dedicated patrol-cat.

Cars 1 (Blanket No. 68) - up for auction!

Auction Rules:

1. Please check the latest comment for the latest bid before putting in yours.

2. All bids are placed as comments on this blogpost. All comments will be published instantly in chronological order. 

3. The auction ends at 5.00pm, on Thursday, 27th November 2014.

4. The winner is to bank in payment no later than 72 hours after the closing time failing which we reserve the right to offer it to the next highest bidder or to reauction. Winners who fail to bank in payment will be barred from participating in future auctions. 

5. You may use a pseudonym when placing your bid, if you wish, but please use a genuine email address as we need to contact you if you win. Your email address will not be displayed. 

6. Please participate responsibly in the spirit of goodwill, honesty and fun!

100% of the winning bid will be channeled to our Fund for the animals.

Do we hear RM150?

25th Nov:

At 9.40pm, Wine Dogs bid RM288.

At 6.48pm, Lovely and Puree bid RM238.

At 4.57pm, Joy Saga bids RM150.

The cute cloth with cartoon vehicle motifs is contributed by Ms Ooi.

I matched it with plain pastel shades.

There are cranes, cars, little townhouses,...

...and even red double-decker buses.

It will make a really nice blanket for a child.

The blanket measures 50.5 inches by 71 inches.

The backing is done in beige by my mum. The beige cloth is from Agnes Cheong.

It will be a nice Christmas gift for the lucky child and the animals who come through us.

Happy bidding and thank you very much for your kind support!

Toot, toot, beep, beep!!

Indy is back in action

It took Indy more than a week to recover from that ferocious Cow-Bite on his paw. It was the hot compression with salt water that helped turn things around.

At the tail end of his recovery, he started sneezing. The vet said to let him ride out the flu and no medicines were given. I only supplemented with Vetri DMG. The flu lasted about a week and finally the sneezing stopped. Thankfully it also did not spread to the other 6 cats. Indy was also "considerate" enough to stay as far away as possible from the other cats. He would go to the end of the garden and sit on the furthest shelf by himself.

And now, our superhero is back in action....

Cats and the circle game

A few readers shared this and it's too cute not to pass on.

Please try it, and if it works, please leave a comment on this post!

http://www.earthporm.com/trap-cat-3-easy-steps/

Apparently, cats are attracted to sit inside a circle.

Look...



It looks fun, so I decided to try on our cats.

The trap is laid.

Our superhero investigates. If there is any danger, our hero is always at the front line.

Eh? Not interested??

Oh I see, a distraction at the grille.

I guess the distraction is more interesting...

Here comes Cleo...

Step in, Cleo. Step in...

The distraction proves to be too distractive and Cleo moves away from the circle.

Maybe a more colourful circle?

Here comes Tiger...

Hesitating? But it's safe, Tiger. Please do step into the circle.

No?

There's no way I'm vacating my comfortable mat for that circle. 

Tabs decided she'll play it safe by staying on her editor's chair.

Let's move the circle outside and see if the PatioCats are interested...

I guess not?

Wait a minute....here comes Ginger!

Oh, he just wants to play.

Does sitting at the edge count?

Game over!

Indy has messed up the circle!

Conclusion: Not ALL cats are attracted to sit inside a circle!

What else attracts a cat?

A box.

A basket.

Cushions are an added optional bonus.

And of course, food, glorious food!