LOST TOM

I was woken at 1am by a strangled yowl outside the window. Initially I thought it was strays fighting for biscuits again. The noise was accompanied by a scratching sound, like someone was playing with the metal grilles next door. It went on for a while and I decided to have a look, before the Myanmar neighbour complain. Just when I step out of bed, I heard a ping noise, as if someone had knocked against the window pane. It meant the cat was trying to jump in. Spencer joined me with the investigation. I looked out, expecting to find either Hat or Kiki. But it was some completely strange cat, white body with yellow marking. Looked like a male. He was shocked to see me too, and stared at me for a long time. I told him he had the wrong house, as he does not belong this floor. He seemed to calm down a bit and stop scratching the door. I went back to bed and realised that Hat had woken up too, and was looking at the intruder throught the window. Before long, the lost tom started his mad scrambling and crying again. Hat jumped out, and it quietened down eventually. I presume Hat had taken the matter into his own paw, and offered assistance to the tom. He must have succeded because the next morning, I saw the tom playing among the bush at opposite block. Hat is kind like this, he befriended BH2 and told him to come to our house for biscuits.

BH2 waits for me now for his breakfast at the power station, but he still dares not approach. Auntycat had her lost bell replaced, which is better for me, as I would hear her coming through the garden for her feeds. Kiki likes to hug the catnip pillow ( belonging to Mera ) and has a nap in the morning. Hat loves to chase him, but without malice.

Mera is well, I saw him this morning. I think he was here at 3am, singing a little bit. I gave him biscuits and catnip pillow, and he didn't beat Hat up this time.

BH2'S FIRST STEP

Pretender is still following me when I see him at night. Each time I explained to him that if he wants food, he would have to go back to our block. Mostly he would stop, sit down and yowl mournfully until I left. I feel bad not feeding him, but then if I start I will have to feed the 7 other strays too. Dilemma.

BH2 came out from his hiding spot this morning, first time he does that. Normally I drop his food at the power station, where he has his naps. I would call him until he look up, then I leave. This morning he came out while I was dropping food for blacktom. I was afraid they might fight, so I called to BH2 to follow me. He crouched down and stared at me with his big saucer eyes, right in the middle of the road. Very dangerous. A bird swooped down and scared him, and he ran to the power station. I showed him his food and left. He has a habit of staring at strangers, maybe he had been tortured before, hence his behaviour. He is actually a very handsome cat, maybe a bit of British shorthair. Just that he is so weird sometimes. Only Hat can play with him.

BH2 was named such as he resembles Bih Head, the original alpha tomcat at our block. The first time we saw BH2 3 months ago we got a shock as we thought BH's spirit had come back. BH was a tabby, and Mera was dead scared him of him. He passed away 2 years ago, and that is another story.

Hat is still wary of our place after yesterday's bedroom incident. He didn't even want to eat indoors. And he got himself some extra black patches by rubbing against the bicycles. Silly cat.

I took Mera in for breakfast while Kiki was sleeping on the shoe cabinet. Kiki ignored him, as he was drugged by catnip since 7am. Mera took some biscuits and looked at me as if saying: " That idiot is not gonna be here permanently, is he?" I patted him on the head and told him to be careful with cars and strangers, and be nice to other cats. He wasn't convinced.

MERAH PUT HIS PAW DOWN

I was woken up by a short sharp growl. It was 6am. I thought it was Mera and BH2 fighting for biscuits outside the window so I ignored it. After a while it came again. I opened my eyes and saw a cat standing on top of the wardrobe. Took me a while to work out the situation. It was too big to be Hat and too muscular to be Spencer, so it must be Mera. But then Hat was sleeping on top of the wardrobe last night because of the wound, so...Mera was confronting Hat!!

I jumped up and pushed Mera aside. Sure enough, Hat had flattened himself and cowering at the edge of the wardrobe. Luckily Mera was not puffed up and I carried him down to the kitchen. I gave him some biscuits and went back to bed. He started to sing loudly. I remembered the catnip bag was on the bookshelves, same level as the wardrobe. Maybe he was trying to get to the catnip and didn't expect to find the sleeping Hat. I gave him the catnip and he seemed happy enough, rubbing and playing with it.

Just when I was drifting off to sleep, the growl came again. Mera was at it again, on top of the wardrobe swishing his tail. I gave him a smack and took him away. He sang mournfully for a while then left the house through the window. Spencer was staying next to the table fan and was unfazed by it all.

When I saw Hat just now, he was still very upset, refusing to eat his breakfast and scared to stay in the house. He took a few biscuits and left. I checked his wound, the swelling had gone down considerably, so his face is lean looking again. Now we just have to wait for the fur to grow back. To think that I was naive enough to assume that he was putting on weight one week ago!

HAT IS INJURED

Hat had been sleeping for the whole day, since it started to get stormy in the morning. I assumed it was because of the coldness. He went into a very deep sleep and woke up at 3pm for a small snack, then he went back again. He woke up at 6.30pm, ate his dinner and went down to the garden. I assumed he would be out for the whole night but at 7pm when it looked like rain, he was back at his bed. It was only then I noticed a bite mark on his left jowl.

It could be why his cheek looked so big lately, it may be filled with puss. The same thing happened to Mera before, luckily it burst after one day and he recovered well enough. The vet did explain that bites on the face and back indicated a fierce fight which may complicate matters. It could be Mera or Blacktom who hurt Hat but of course we won't know for sure. The only thing to do wa to dress the wound and hope for the best.

The next day Hat looked chirpy enough, but after brunch ( I woke up late ), he washed himself carefully, looked at the sky and chose to sleep in. The wound looked worse actually, with blood and pus sticking to the fur. I do hope he will recover in time. In the mean time, he has to eat well and rest well.

PRETENDER RELOCATED

Few days ago I was on the way to home at about 8pm. It is my habit to walk past the void deck of Blk 703 as there are normally 2 to 9 stray cats hanging about, waiting for their regualar feeder. I normally say hello to them. Then I thought I saw Pretender, a black and white tom from our block. He was named such as he resembles our Malay neighbour's tomcat, Hitam. Both has similar colorings and the mask like appearance except Pretender has a shorter tail, cockeyed and a Hitler-like moustache. In other words, a less handsome version of Hitam. I had been feeding him for the last 9 months at least. He was always very shy and awkward, and screamd at me even after feeding. But he recognised the sounds of my keys and my voice, and would follow me to a designated spot to eat. He hated tuna, turkey and chicken and would only eat the smelliest canned fish. Only recently he allowed me to tocuh him or he would bump into my legs gently.

I was rather surprised to see him as this block is separated from our block by a very busy 2- laned road, and I wonder how he managed to get there. I was partially relieved as before that, Pretender had been missing for a few days. I called to him, and when he saw me, I could see the look of recognition on his face. Out of habit, he jumped up to follow me for his feed. Of course I didn't have any catfood with me and even if I had, it would not be enough to feed all the other strays hanging about. I explained to him that if he wants food, he would have to come back to my block. He followed me for a short distance and I was worried that he would not be able to cross the road with me. Luckily at the edge of the block, he sat down and looked at me. I waved at him and wished him all the best. The food may be scarce, the competitions strong, but at least there are more female cats for him to romp with and there is a huge open field further up the road. If he changes his mind, he can always come back. Other tomcats has been known to haunt this spot eg Merah2 which belonged to the Malay nenek at the opposite block.

I still see Pretender from time to time on my way home, once he was sleeping so soundly that I thought he was dead. He didn't follow me anymore, but I think he still remembers me. I hope he finds what he is searching for and stay safe.

As for Hitam, he left home six months ago and was not seen since. His owner claimed to have spotted him at Blk 906, but I thought it rather far fetched.

Hat gets the groove

It started to rain at 5am and I was woken up by cat loud meowing. I thought Mera was here singing his biscuits song, so I woke up to get him food. I couldn't find him in the kitchen and thought I was dreaming until I heard the meow again, this time from outside. Before I had time to look out, there was already one cat scrambling to come in through the window, but not before it banged its head twice on the panels. I drew the curtains and saw that it was Hat trying to get inside the house. He managed well without my help so I went to bed. Then he jumped on my bed and started to walk around, maybe trying to find a way to jump onto the wardrobe. I didn't want him to break anything and leave pawprints on my bedsheet, so I had to get up and push him onto the wardrobe. I think he promptly went to sleep coz he was still there when I woke up at 8.30am.
It was a good thing he knew how to come in through the windows, I had been trying to teach him, and each time he just didn't seem to get it. And he gave me that look like:" Why are you shoving me through the window when the door is wide opened perfectly?" Now that he knows how to get in, I will not be as worried about him especially during heavy rains and storms.

lazy sunday

I was woken up at 10am by the sounds of spencer's vomitting. As usual, she had vomitted around the table fan at the foot of my bed. I saw that it was just fur balls instead of half digested biscuits.
Spencer made a huge fuss last night as I shifted to air-con room, to get a better night's sleep. She screamed and moved in and out of the room, basically just complaining non stop. We tried to tuck her in on top of the wardrobe, in her basket, on her scratch board and on the bed but she refused to calm down. Eventually I moved back to my room as I couldn't sleep with a screaming cat beside my ear anyway. Spencer settled down almost immediately, but she didn't share my bed. Later I realised Hat was asleep on top of the wardrobe, and I had no recollection of him coming into the house. So I wonder if Spencer was just complaining about me sleeping in the air-con room or she wanted to tell us of Hat intruding into her space.
Auntycat was in a good mood today, ate a huge pile of biscuits. Hat didn't want breakfast, but asked to be let into the store room. I was doing houseworks and forgot all about him until I saw hm sleeping on top of some towels I had left out for him 2 days ago. He didn't want them at that time but he remembered to come to them later when he was tired. Clever Hat.
When I came back from shopping, Mayo and Kiki were hanging about. Kiki came in for a snack and was mesmerised by the washing machine, not for the first time. Hat himself was fixated by the noises generated by the washing machine last night for at least 30 minutes. He thought something was going to jump out from under the machine and eat him.
Hat just woke up and joined the brothers for a romp on the corridor. I noticed that he seems fatter, and more furry, especially at the jowl and ears. I wonder if I am imagining things. He is not eating more than usual, and he is moving much more vs when he was at the 5th floor. But he really does seem happier.
Spencer is being crabby again. No sighting of Mera today.

Rainy days

Today is the second day of my annual leave. The cats were fairly puzzled but took it in their strides. Hat was waiting on the bench 10am with auntycat, but no signs of mera. Kiki popped by at 11am when his owner came back, and I noticed they never bothered to look for him even after many hours. Maybe poor kiki has been loitering downstairs everyday. Hat came up at 1am to have his nap. Spotted Mera at 3pm after his nap part one and he followed me up willingly as he is scared of thunders. He went straight to bed, ignoring hat who was sleeping 4 paws up at the wardrobe, and it rained soon after. Spencer woke up at 5pm, had some biscuits and went to sleep in the basket. Maybe she didn't want to share a bedspace with mera.

sleep deprivation can kill

Would you believe I only had 3 hours sleep last night?!
I went to bed at 11pm, fell asleep and was woken by the noises at the playground. I just couldn't shut out the noises created by the 5 adults, chit chatting running about and swearing; so I went down at 1.30am to tell them to leave. After 10minutes nothing happened, so I called the Yishun North policepost. They did turn up within 15minutes, much to their credit. And all was quiet by 2am. But I just couldn't get back to sleep again. Maybe I was too upset, too angry, I had this stomach pain and palpitations. I tried to sleep at the sofa, on bed, changed the position, changed the direction, with quilt, without, with spencer, without, with fan on, without, with aromatherapy, without. I had some milk, looked at Hat and spencer sleeping soundly, had a cold tab, put a cold pak, and NOTHING worked. Eventually I told myself, I am not going to work with so little sleep, I am gonna chuck a sickie. I drifted off at 5am.
It was raining at 8am, I thought, ok, I am not going to work. So I called the people, and that was that.
Mera was waiting for me downstairs, looking miserable and wet. So I took him home. When I came home from the clinic, I fed auntycat and xiao huang from opposite block. Hat didn't get any food, I was angry with him. He was playing with a baby bird that had fallen off. I took him upstairs for breakfast, he ran off again. I wrapped the bird in a paper towel and put it under another tree. Hat looked for it high and low, I thought he had given up, until he found another baby bird in the bush. I locked him in the store room, and he was making such a huge fuss, until mera woke up and wanted to leave. Now Hat has left, mera is locked up in another room. Spencer is getting ready for bed. I guess it is useless getting angry with Hat, he is just a cat.