Coup de tat in my house

This is the one and only Ikea armchair in my house...

It has served our household for many, many years now, and has been the favourite chair of many people, in particularly, the following people...

My mum, my husband, Bobby, Cow,
Bunny, Indy and Cleo

However, lately, someone else is also interested in the chair.

Here's Bunny sleeping very comfortably on the chair.

HOW TO TAKE OVER THE CHAIR
(The Coup de Tat)

Step One: Get up on the chair and sit near the present occupant.

Step Two:  Observe what the present occupant is doing.

Step Three: Intimidate the present occupant by following exactly what he is doing.

 

Step Four: Watcha looking at?

Step Five: When present occupant is intimidated enough, he will vacate the seat.  When this happens, you move to the centre and claim the spot.

Step Six: Take-over is complete when former occupant moves a distance away.  To indicate a successful take-over, you pull the flap down and sit on it.

It even works with canine people.  Same modus operandi. 

The End

And it's mine, mine, mine!!!!

ALL MINE!!

*************************

The Next Step: Sofa Take-Over 

Psst...it's even easier with humans.

The breakfast story continues...

After the first round of breakfast, Tiger comes back for his...

Tiger is also afraid of Cow and Bunny, but he is a Gandhi-reborn, so he practises Ahimsa (non-violence).  Tiger never fights back.  When threatened, he just crouches and closes his eyes ("if I cannot see, it won't harm me").  And he would avoid potential problems at all costs.  This, of course, includes having breakfast at a different time from the "elders".

There's Bunny gobbling up Bobby's food.  Bunny loves senior dog food while Bobby loves kitten food!

And Suki drinking water from everybody's water bowl.  She can lick water, but refuses to lick milk.  I'm weaning her off milk now.  So, no more bottle.

"Hmm...now that I've had my breakfast, what should I do next?"

"Yes!  Disturb Vixey!!!" 

The breakfast story

So, since last night's squabble in the kitchen, Wii didn't dare come back for breakfast this morning.  But Wii has a private entrance into my room, so here's Wii, Vixey and Suki having their breakfast in the "private room".  Suki has to be in the cage because she bee-lines for Vixey's food first. 

By the way, Wii and Vixey are brother and sister.  And Wii was initially named "Little Chief" because when my daughter and I first found them at the rubbish heap, Wii was fiercely protecting Vixey by spitting at us.  When Vixey came back from the hospital after a brain trauma, Wii slept by her side all day to look after her.  (Read the full story in Pawprints.)

Flashback...

Wii and Vixey when first rescued

Wii looking after Vixey after Vixey came back from the hospital

Look at the difference in size!  Vixey has a growth problem.  She is "retarded".
Hence, there is an uneven distribution of weight. 

Back to the present now....

So while the threesome were having their breakfast in the privacy (safety?) of my room, Cow, Bunny and Indy had theirs in the kitchen.

And Bobby, having gobbled up his breakfast in seconds, asks for more...

Yumm, yumm....anymore?  I don't mind left-overs...

In the still of the night

Suddenly, there was a loud shriek...I rushed into the kitchen, and....

No, this is not the starting of a new book, but what happened tonight.

I was feeding the cats their supper when I turned my back to do something and there was a loud shriek and the bowls went flying all over the kitchen. 

As usual, Cow had decided he wanted to chase Little Chief (I should have called him BIG CHIEF instead, but my son renamed him "Wii" after a few weeks, so it's Wii now) out of the house...again.

This has been happening for some weeks now, and we are doing our best to protect Wii....and discipline Cow, but it's a bit hard getting through to Cow. 

And why on earth did I name him "Cow" in the first place? 

I looked out into the alley, and there was Cow.  I scolded him "Naughty Cow!" and he walked away.  Typical feline snobbery. 

Normally, Wii would also be somewhere in the alley but as I craned my neck to look for him, he was no where to be seen.

I called him.

"Where are you, Wii?"

Instantly, I heard a soft "meow"....

Hah...there he is, smart boy.  He had climbed up the air-cont unit where Cow would not be able to get him. 

Many-a-times, we've had to bring the ladder out to do a rescue job, but I figured Wii looked quite comfortable up there, so I waited for him. 

He did not seem to want to come down at all.

Bunny (Cow's brother) came to look, and tried to coax Wii to come down.  Bunny is our biggest cat (in size), and he looks like a body-builder, but he is really such a sweet cat. 

That's Mac's house.  Mac is hiding behind the house while the entire commotion was going on, so you can't see him. 

"I had better stay out of this cat fight,"Mac thought. 

Ahh...here's Mac. 

"Safe to come out now..."

And the two best friends, Indy and Suki, of course, just had to come out to see what was going on.  How can they be left out, yah?

And while I was still waiting for Wii to come down, Suki decided to do some jungle gym, under the watchful eye of big brother Indy.

And all through the entire commotion, Vixey remained in her Summer Palace in the kitchen, totally unperturbed by the cacophony.  "I am above all these silly squabbles and I shall remain non-alligned", she says. 

So, folks, cats have politics too.  And when you have an alpha cat like Cow in the family, gosh, life is never boring....

Can be a headache too, at times!

Down memory lane with Bobby and his feline friends

This post is intended for new readers who have not listened to any of my public talks and have not read any of my books.  (Also, I'm thrilled I can FINALLY post photos anywhere I like in a posting, and not just at the top!  But I still cannot put the spacebars where I'd like them to be.  Sigh...)

I'd just like to share with you that you don't have to be an experienced pet-owner to look after rescued animals.  All it takes is the heart.  And if I may twist the cliche a little, "When the heart is there, you will find a way". 

I had never handled a cat or kitten all my life until three-and-a-half years ago when I found Cow, Bunny and Pole abandoned by the roadside on a Sunday morning.  They were so tiny, their bodies were almost transparent.  They were only about two days old (they opened their eyes after two weeks with me).

That's Bobby looking at Cow when I first brought them home.  It was also Bobby's first time handling kittens, and I must say, he did a marvellous job!

That's the first time the kittens were let out to roam on the driveway, with Bobby watching over them.

 

Here's Bobby and Cow now.  Cow and Bunny are the alpha cats in the house and they issue all the house rules...but only to the cats.  On all other matters, Bobby is still in charge!

Now, who's this?  This is little Tiger when he first came.  Tiger was rescued by a Japanese lady in PJ.  He was found huddled against his dead mother somewhere by the roadside.  When Tiger first came, Cow, Bunny and Pole put up a protest and refused to accept him.  So, Bobby decided he had to protect Tiger and the two became the best of friends.  Even up till today, Tiger is the only one who can nuzzle up to Bobby (without having to ask for permission).  "Friends forever" describes them very accurately.

 

When Tiger had an injury behind his ear, Bobby helped lick it every day.

Here's good ol' Bobby with Suki, his latest little feline friend.

 

Like me, Bobby too had never handled a cat or kitten all his life until our first litter came.

 

Even a dog can learn, so what more we humans, yah?

Bobby will be 13 years old this October, and he has cataracts on both eyes.  The vet thinks he is already partially blind, but he gets around the house very well because dogs don't depend much on their eyesight.  It is their nose that gets them around.  An operation is not necessary (and can be very risky at his age).  This is all a part of the aging process that we go through in life.

 

Bobby has looked after Cow, Bunny, Pole, Tiger, Wolf, Pans, Cleo, Indy, Kimba, Suki, Creamie & Crackers, and a few more kittens who had come on transit.  He also looks after me!

   

That's quite an achievement, for one dog!

The things Suki does

I've just discovered (forgive this ignoramus) that there's a new editor for this template, so I'm trying it out now.  It seems I can drag photos anywhere I want now.  And hopefully, add spacebars in between the paragraphs!  I couldn't do it with the old template earlier.   


Here's some updates and photos of the naughty-one, Suki. 


Suki is an extremely adventurous kitten, and quite unlady-like too, if compared to Cleo, Pole and Vixey. 


At barely two months, she has started exploring the porch as well, climbing out from the window.  We now have to resort to monitoring her every movement very closely, or to close all the windows when she is "on the loose". 


She has quite a bit of "time-out" whenever I am at home (which is very often), but when nobody's in, she goes back into the cage amidst violent protests!!  The other day, she was so angry at being caged, she tore up the newspapers in her cage and tried to dig an escape tunnel through the metal grilles of her cage!   We'll let her out in time, but she's just too young to go out of the window for now. 


Even poor little Indy gets tired just watching over her!  He has finally met his match!!

That's the naughty-one climbing up the table fan one day. 

And that's her after exploring the bookshelf.

But nothing beats cuddling up with good ol' Vixey!

Goodnight, Sleep tight

Goodnight, time to call it a day

Sleep tight, dream your troubles away

Goodnight, in spite of any sorrow

There's a brand new day on its way tomorrow

Someday, all your dreams will come true

Someway, for me and you

So close your eyes and dream of it my darling

Till then goodnight,

Goodnight, sleep tight.

P.S. This is an old song from The Five Pennies, way back in the sixties. I grew up surrounded by lots and lots of wonderful music. And when things go not-so-right as they sometimes do, music certainly hath charm to soothe one's heart.

Goodnight, sleep tight! We'll tackle Abby's problem tomorrow.

Goodnight, Abby. I hope you're ok.

Who's this big blue-eyed baby?

"I still want the bottle...!!"

This is the way we trim our nails

That's me trimming Vixey's nails. Vixey is an extremely fierce cat and she puts up a good fight whenever we have to give her an enema, her supplements or medications. And I get some pretty nasty scratches every other day!

She even fights when I trim her nails! So I wrap her in a towel, several layers, before I do anything, but even then, she worms her way out of the towel and somehow, one leg will manage to give me a new battle-scar!

That's Suki looking on...hmm...what's going on here? Can I have my nails trimmed too? Can I? Can I?

My 13 years-olds

Here's Mac and Bobby, my two thirteen year-olds. They have been fighting for 13 years!! Bobby is extremely territorial and jealous (they say poodles are the most jealous dogs in the world and I think they are right!). He is ok with all the cats, but not any dog.

Mac and Bobby are the oldest dogs on my street, so they think they rule!

Mac was rejected by his first owner and returned to the shop. Bobby was my son's choice (when he was barely six years old). We had wanted to adopt from the shelter, but all the dogs were too big for my (then very young) children. The shop told us Bobby's adult size would only be 10 inches, and my son was very happy with that. But looks like Bobby took after his father instead, and he grew to about 30 inches. But then, so did my son, so they both grew up together!

The photos above show the twosome after their bath this morning. Both are very friendly to cats and squirrels. Bobby has helped me look after every single kitten I've brought back to the house.

First thing this morning

I went on my rounds this morning, to look for Joanie and to feed the strays in the alley. In the first photo, you'll see two of Joanie's look-alikes. They are grey tabby cats with white paws, just like Joanie. I'm hoping one day, Joanie will be amongst them.

The second photo shows where Joanie was spotted the day Aunty Kiew came to call for her. She came out from under this drain. I still leave food in two spots and the food is eaten every day. I dont know who eats it.

I hope it's Joanie.

My own Piggy-Vix

This is Vixey, the black beauty on the left. I call her "Piggy-Vix" because she looks very much like my daughter's toy black pig. And that's little Suki looking at the camera.

After dealing with Abby's case this evening, I came home and brought Vixey to the vet for her regular enema.

Vixey (by medical terms) is "retarded". She was rescued from the rubbish heap about two years ago, together with her brother, Little Chief. After a month with me, Vixey suffered a brain trauma, but miraculously survived. As a result of the brain trauma or perhaps it was congenital, Vixey has many problems and "defects" in her now, and this includes a spinal chord injury which has resulted in a condition called "megacolon" where her large intestines have almost completely lost the ability for peristalsis. Hence, she suffers from lifelong constipation. She also has kidney and liver problems.

Vixey needs an enema every few weeks. I do it myself at home too, but it's never as effective as when the vet does it.

Today, even after two enemas, nothing came out. So I brought Vixey back and will have to bring her to the vet's again tomorrow for a follow-up unless she does it tonight or tomorrow morning.

Well, that's life, folks. Who knows, when we are old, or at any time, we may also suffer from something similar.

Looking after injured or "imperfect" animals makes me realise that we should never ever take things for granted. Take for example, Vixey - she has so many health problems and suffers from lifelong constipation. So, we who can go to the toilet every day, ought to be very thankful for this. Remember Joanie? She had problem urinating. These are things we sometimes take for granted.

It makes me realise that we must always be thankful for what we have. No matter how badly we are suffering, there are definitely people and animals who are worse off.

So let's be thankful for everything that is right in our lives, no matter how trivial and how small.

P.S. Right now, Vixey is passing out soft stools all over the floor, and I'm going to wipe it all up. I am thankful for this!! VERY thankful!

What Suki did

Climb every mountain,

Search high and low,

Follow every by way,

Every path you know...