I know my ABCs

DD is trying to learn how to read - her first lesson: reading the word : BURMA.

New fan of StarWar

DD is the new fan of starwar. She staring at the computer scree--- wonder what is inside her little kitty mind. She esp love the computer mouse moving and i think she may have mistaken the computer mouse for the field mouse.

Sweetie cum pork chop rice

Recently, sweetie has a new name, we have been calling her "zhubafan" (pork chop rice). Sweetie is getting fatter and fatter.. when she first arrived in our house, she weighted a mere 2.5kg and now she is 5kg.

While i am here using the computer, she is in the kitchen yelling for attention. She normally do not wish to sleep when I am at home, sticking to me and craving for my attention like a superglue.

Mum said sweetie normally sleep like a log when i am not at home. But when i am at home, she will not sleep at all in the early morning.

In the morning, when sweetie wake up, she will sit quietly and patiently and looked outside the window till i have wake up. She will never meow or pop her head into my face to try to wake me up.

At night, when i pet her little pillow and said it is time for sleep, she will obediently come to me and lie down to settle for sleep. I give her a little pillow and she sleep beside me like a little baby. I like the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night and pet her soft fur. Normally, sweetie sleep with all four paws high up in the air. Sister said sweetie sleep just like me..hee..i guess we are all alike or sweetie is a copycat.

DD's sister going to be a stray unless...

Looking at camera-DD(at around one month), brown and black cat -mixmix & black cat-xiaohei..DD is allowing her siblings to suck her nipples

Last sunday, we finally managed to see DD's brother and sister at Ada's house. Actuall we do not know ada nor which unit she is staying. We just know she live in that ground floor block, one of the units there-there are around five units on the ground floor. We just kapo and then we saw small mix mix sitting at the door.

We introduced ourselves to ada and had a small chat.

To those whom do not know the story of how DD and her siblings come to us...
I picked DD and her siblings from my block void deck when their mummy died suddenly. The black kitten is the biggest of the lot ( a male), DD is the middle and little mixmix is the smallest and most 'notty'. I adopted DD while ada adopted the black cat and mixmix. At first, no one wanted DD or mixmix..but i am thinking how nice to adopt a kitten and watch her grow bigger and bigger so i decide to tell mum that i wish to adopt DD. For mixmix, ada just said she will raise her till she is sterilized and then release her. We had the three kittens playing together for three weeks before they were seperated. DD used to play mummy to her siblings by allowing them to suck her nipples..the photo u all see was when DD was young and her siblings .

Yesterday, Auntie linda visited us again to see DD. DD is sterilized last wed and she is limping. Somehow, the vet had done something to her leg when she caught her out of the cage. poor DD...i am cursing the vet too for causing so much pain to little DD. Well..auntie linda said something like even if DD is limp for life, it is ok..

i felt a bit funny abt this comment considering that auntie linda also loves cat and had been feeding community cats for years--that included taking all of them for sterilization. So this comment came out strange from a cat lover..i think linda is trying to say that at least DD is in good hand with our care-at least not a stray.

Linda said that little mixmix (DD's sister) may be abandoned as ada complained that mixmix pee everything. Mum had said that ada do not had the intention to have mixmix as since ada lives in ground floor unit, she can let mixmix pee outside the grass. anyway, mixmix is never meant to be ada's choice of cat..ada only like xiaohei, that is pure black. mix mix has mix of white face and light brown fur with mostly black fur. Linda then asked if we wanted to adopt mixmix..

sister and i told mum and mum said CANNOT take home another cat--mum then said if cats sick, must waste a lot of money on treatment like pong pong..Actually it is not that mum do not allow us to take sick pet to the vet, she just felt that the more cats we have, the more we need to spent on treatment if they fall sick. The last time she scolded us for wasting money on xiaofei, our terrapin and yet xiaofei still died. That time we spent close to $200 on xiaofei. Mum is a 4-D queen, she is buying pong pong's total vet cost that is $184 and she bought 1840 for her lucky number. But so far, Cai Shen Ye has not visited us.

I felt sad that mixmix will be another stray soon. mixmix is sterilized today. I think there is a 95% chance that she will be abandoned.

Anyone want to adopt mixmix? most probably no..that last time we tried asking ppl to adopt DD and mixmix, no one wishes to adopt them.. There is a guy that linda introduced to us, he took lot of DD and mixmix photos but of course, it is just for memory as there is no response from him either. Luckily mum allowed us to adopt DD..it is sad to be stray and pitiful to be abandone when a cat once has a home.

Mum's orchids

This is mum's orchids that we picked from the rubbish area that someone had discarded. It is quite enjoying to see how the flowers grow into full size. The inner flower will blossomed into purple flower and slowly it will extend to the outer area till all the flowers are fully open. It took quite a while for the flowers to appear....at least half a year.


I know little abt orchids really. To me, all orchids look the same to me. They can have different colours but i do not really know what is their real name. To me, every orchid is call 'orchids'. If you really want to mess up your brains recalling what certain orchid's name are called, read this site:http://retirees.uwaterloo.ca/~jerry/orchids/names.html

Headache..there are like dozens of orchids name, qutie is born nature while others are cross breed.

Even for singapore national flower that has a beautiful name, to me, that beautiful name is also called 'orchid'. I am really lousy in remembering what is the full name of our national flower. I did a research on the name of singapore national flower: Vanda Miss Joaquim. Quite a nice name but it is still an orchid to me. I think i remembered the chinese pronouncation better though it does not leave a impression too. but when someone mentioned the chinese pronouncation, it ring a bell.

history of Vanda miss joaquim:
Vanda Miss Joaquim was chosen as Singapore's national flower in 1981. The designation of a national flower was part of an overall effort to foster national pride and identity. Singapore has the unique distinction of being the only nation to have a hybrid as its national flower.

The choice of an orchid as Singapore's national flower is most appropriate because orchids have long been identified with Singapore. And no orchid is more worthy of being Singapore's national flower than Vanda Miss Joaquim as it is the first registered plant hybrid from Singapore.

source:
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/plants/van/pla-van-van.shtml

info on venda orchids:
Vandas are fascinating orchids that may be grown with relative ease. Vandas are monopodial. Growth arises from the crown of the plant. Flowers are available in superbly rich colors, including blue, red, orange and yellow. The flower spikes, which usually carry 8 to 10 blooms, arise from the base of the leaves and last for several weeks. The goal of good orchid culture is to promote robust, disease-free plants with good quality flowers.

source:

http://www.orchids.com/support/supportCareTips_Vanda.html

DD big yawn Zzzzzz... and sweetie in night safari

It is tiring to keep smiling at the camera.

DD give her best yawn on camera while there is something 'wrong' with sweetie's eyes that made her look like her bigger cat friends in night safari.

Best of friends

This is DD with her fav sister cum foster mummy, sweetie. See how close they are together.

pong pong in memory - in our house on 3 feb to 12 feb 3.55 pm

pong pong had been our cat on 3 feb to 12 feb. Brother and sister took her to the vet for stay on sun, around 3.55 pm. Pong first appeared a few day before CNY. That time, pong went to the ten floor and kept meowing. Then she appeared down the malay family whom is living in the ground floor unit. Sister took pong home on the fifth day of CNY, that was 3 feb.

Usually when a beloved pet died, ppl have regret,me too.. i am thinking of the :what if" questions to myself..

1) what if we did not send pong to the sterilization, will she be still alive today?
my answer: it not possible not to send her, she already in heat and was meowing extremely loud in the middle of the night at 3 am.

2) what if we delay the survery till she is off heat?
my answer: same as q1, we are afraid that residents will complain since her meows is quite loud..(noted how i still used present tense, i like to remember her as alive)

3) what if we took her to the vet rec by auntie linda in mt pleasant in serangoon north?
my answer: i think dr au from pet clinic has try his best, it is not really the problem with the vet but pong pong's own health.. even if we bring her to mt pleasant, she may ended up in the same fate.

4) What if i see pong yesterday?
my answer: i really had regret for this... but as sister mentioned yesterday, it will be sad to see pong and not able to bring her home with us.

5) what if i allow pong to sleep beside me on my bed?
my answer: pong used to sleep with mum but mum complained that she is too notty, keep jumpin up and down so we locked her in dd's basket and allow DD to roam my bedroom. we had not much choice as Pong is quite "hyperactive". Actually today before i knew abt her death, i am thinking of allowing her to sleep beside me and lock sweetie in mum's room...mum even suggested that pong can sleep at my feet...sadly this can never happened..(OMG, i am crying again)

6) What if we never pick pong to our house?
my answer: she can be taken away by pest control, bully by the malay family's black cat or taken away by evil resident. It a rumour told by auntie linda that cats are taken away from our area and dumped elsewhere so that we cat feeders cannot find our community cats. So our final 'verdict' is pong is best left at our house. I know that we cannot pick every strays that we found back home but pong is really pitiful. She used to be a house cat but was abandoned. And the malay family down our ground floor unit do not really let pong into the house.

7) What if pong had any virus that can be passed to DD or sweetie?
my answer: obviously, pong may have unknown virus but she may also died because of the sterilization. Auntie linda said that the vet may had not done the survery properly..i think this is not the reason as vegancat has also send lots of cats from bedok to Serangoon garden to be sterilized. I believe virus like FIV may be the main cause of sudden death. i am really worried abt sweetie and DD..i will take them for injection against FIV soon..DD going for sterilization tml, i hope she will be fine..most probably YES since DD is in our house since she is one month old.

finally as so much of my "what if" qns, you will find that i do not regret having pong in our house.. i will always remember her...at least she is leavin this world to a better afterlife..that is what i think when my fav terrapin xiaofei died also in march on 2003.

Pong Pong to the Rainbow bridge-farewell pong pong

Pong Pong had died..This is shocking...on 4 mar (two sat ago), we bought her for sterilization. She was ok and was even fighting with DD after her survery. On sun, she suddendly vomitted..she vomitted for around 6 to 7 times and we rushed her to the vet at serangoon garden. The vet said pong had high fever, he gave her a jet and some antibodies. Pong did not recover. She even vomit the pure water we force feed her. On sun, brother and sister took pong to the vet. The vet told them to leave pong in the clinic for two days where she is suppose to be discharge today. Pong was put on drips and antibodies. Pong was fine yesterday but died today -sudden death

Sadly, she died today morning. I remembered a werid dream i had abt pong today, i was eating pong and cutting her into small piece to eat. it a freaky dream and pong died. Is that pong's spirt telling me that she is going to leave our family.

We only had pong for around one month and a half.(she came to find us on new year eve, 30 jan 2006) yet she bring joy to all of us. When the clinic assistant called me to say pong had died and i told the news to mum, she cried immediately. sister and i were also crying openly. Mum said pong had such a sad life - abandoned, in heat and need to be sterilized, and now sudden death. We had try to save her little life.

In her one and a half month with us, we love her musical meow, how she respond to us, how she gobbles her food up very fast, how she climb the window like a monkey, how she used to pant with her tongue out like a tiny dog, how she play 'war of the world' with DD, sadly she even had the chance to be friend with sweetie.

The vet suspected her sudden death to be FIV where the virus came out because of the stress from her sterilization. He asked if we wanted to find out how pong pong died but we rejected him. Why cut pong again when she is already died.

I will always miss her. We had cover her in plastic bag and put her in the rubbish bin. It is sad. Mum reminded me that we should have visited pong pong yesterday in the clinic but it will be sad to see pong pong looking at us and asking why we put her in the vet. She must have been afraid of the place and yet she died alone. I really regreted now not visiting pong yesterday..at least see her lovely face for one last time.

We had took a video of her before she was sterilized. and on sun, sister took many fotos of pong pong because she said pong pong has too few fotos. It is our last memory of pong pong in our house. We will really miss her.

To pongpong, we wish you has a good life not as a cat but as a good human in your after life. farewell pong pong, cross the rainbow bridge with tango (http://celestelock.blogspot.com/). He is another of the poor stray that was abandoned like you. Cross the bridge hand in hand. farewell, pong pong and tango.

'Pongster' clone and her kittens

Jennifer say:


this is quite a cute video of a cat that look like pongpong with her two kittens...Brother has decided to call pong pong "pongster" like hamster or friendster or catster... so many STERsss.

http://www.zippyvideos.com/6158302331492126/bbcat02/

The Moscow Cats Theater

Jennifer say:


I was watching the 'Channel New Asia' when i saw how a guy train his cats to do various tricks:
1) A cat that can roll ball with his hind leg
2) A cat pushing a dog in the pram
3) walking on a rope across the air
4) Jumping on human back(over four ppl)

This is their offical webstie: http://www.moscowcatstheatre.com/

I am reading dawn's blog when i came across this similar cat theater.I esp like the last quoto:
"You're a better person when you love animals" from Yuri Kuklachev.

here the link:
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060301/2006-03-01T130949Z_01_N24367158_RTRIDST_0_ODD-LIFE-CATS-DC.html

What the article say:


By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russian clown Yuri Kuklachev has a troupe of cats who do handstands, crawl along high wires and balance on balls and he says the secret to training them is realizing that you can't force cats to do anything.

"The Moscow Cats Theater" came to New York in September and did so well at a small theater in the Tribeca neighborhood that it recently moved uptown to a bigger venue near Times Square, where it is close to Broadway giants such as "The Lion King," although not the musical "Cats," which closed in 2000.


Kuklachev started working with cats more than 30 years ago after adopting a stray kitten he named Koutchka. He now has 120 cats in Moscow and has brought 26 of them to New York.

"If the cat likes to sit you can't force her to do anything else," he said, adding that several of the cats in the New York show simply sit and watch the others.

"Each cat likes to do her own trick," said Kuklachev, whose show has not been the target of animal rights protesters. "Maruska is the only one who does the handstand. I find the cat and see what they like to do and use that in the show."

Kuklachev's cats apparently like to be swung precariously around his head balanced on hoops, to be shut up in a cooking pot and to walk on their hind legs pushing a child's stroller.

"I have a cat now that loves to be in the water," he said.

Kuklachev said the breed of cat made no difference to their abilities, although Persians tended to be lazy. He adopts cats from shelters and trains the offspring of the cats he has.

BOOK IN THE WORKS

Sharing his secrets over caviar and blintzes in Brighton Beach, a New York neighborhood known as Little Russia, Kuklachev said he plans to write a book about how to train cats since so many people are asking him.

Kuklachev, 56, said his cat-training method also can be applied to children.

"Parents need to watch their children to see what he or she likes to do and encourage this," he said, adding that it worked for his three children.

One child joined Kuklachev at the cat theater, one is a dancer and one is a painter who paints cats.
"If you do the same thing with your child as you do with your cat, he may not become a genius but he'll do whatever he enjoys doing," Kuklachev said.

He has had about 300 cats in his life and says every one had a different personality. Only one did not want to go on stage because she was already an adult when he got her.

Kuklachev says the show, which also includes his wife Yelena, is a hit because people everywhere love their pets. He chuckles as he recalls a friend who bought a hamster for $10 and spent $300 on surgery when it got sick.

You're a better person when you love animals," he said.