He was named Bonesy because he was so thin after being rescued from under the house of my boyfriend's. He was probably stuck for about 2 days and would've starved to death if it wasn't for his incessant mewing below the boards.
Thankfully he was real friendly (grateful maybe!) with his new human family, not feral at all and about 7-8 weeks old I think. Within two weeks the kitten caught two rats in consecutive days. I asked bf, "Are you SURE it's a male? Because male cats aren't as efficient in hunting as females.". He looked again and said "Yeah I see balls.".
Anyhow we brought Bonesy to the vet to get fixed when I went to California last Oct, and guess what? HE turned out to be a SHE! The markings on her ass does make her like she has balls but yeah you can immediately tell she's 100% female when she does her belly flop! We call her Bonnie now.
Active one, we like to think of her as an ocelot. She loves to snuggle and suckle on people's neck and has a penchant for grooming hands. She also likes to jump all over the place, knocked 2 vases into pieces, and perch on bf's back. She and Miu play chase every wee hours of the morning and mid-morning when I was there.
Here she learns the joys of Cat TV from Miu. Miu was initially terrified of this tiny kitten lol.
Kiwi was not fond of her at first, and tolerates the rambunctious kitty at best. She often bops Bonesy's head & hisses when Bonesy gets too wild because grandma doesn't want to play!
Kiwi is still fat lol.
Obese Miu lost a little bit of weight after Bonesy made her gallop around like a mad cat.
Grandma Lucy says hi! She's afraid of something in this photo (think it was the sound of the air pump) and hiding behind our legs. The other chihuahua Dotty recently had a health scare and almost died, she has a blood platelet disease and medication seems to be helping. I hope she recovers fully. Unfortunately I do not have a nice photo of Dotty when I was there because I didn't think she was ill.
Bonesy's first Christmas and Christmas decor. Uh oh, look at her face.
Finally all three cats can co-exist peacefully and watch Cat TV together. Bonesy's in Kiwi's spot though. Actually there's a new stray cat on the porch (wondering if she is related to Bonesy)... don't know what to do yet.
All grown up. Hopefully she remains this size and not put on too much weight!
There I did it! First post of 2018 and something that is not my artwork. My last personal post was in Aug 2016. I have a boring life and there's nothing eventful to post, I just work work work =P
Sad to report that Lupin, that feral cat I blogged in April has passed away around end Aug. She died probably while secretly giving birth to her 2nd litter of kittens in the attic. Unfortunately that batch of kittens all died as a result. RIP kitties.
Before bf came to Singapore in May, I mentioned Lupin's first litter of kitties! Well, she had 2 boys and 1 girl. The 2 boys were adopted by other families.
Some last shots of Lupin. Skittish, she didn't like anyone touching her.
This is the cobwebs-covered female kitty bf kept, which we initially identified as 'Antbite' lol. She is now called Miu, Miumiu or Miyu because she responds to it. Here she is with Lupin her mother, and she learnt to eat kibble very early on, at under 4 weeks old.
The black male kitten! So cute =)
And their striped brother!
This was why she was called 'Antbite'!! Red ants were biting the poor little creature in this shot because her favourite spot was in the bushes where there was a nest of them. Here bf is trying to get the ants off her and she started hissing whenever he came near after that episode - associated trauma lol.
2nd time a few days later, trying to take a photo of her, she was still grumpy!
Her soulful looking brother.
Kiwi cat sniffing at the striped kittens. The two black kittens were hissing at her for some reason, but not this striped one. This 'throne' is now Miu's fave sleeping spot.
When bf came back to California in end-Aug, Antbite / Miu has grown much. At first she kept hissing (now her trademark gesture) non-stop at Kiwi after being transferred indoors, and had to be kept in the bathroom to accustom both of them to each other. After a few days of settling territorial issues and swiping at faces, I think they have made peace, and Kiwi's being quite tolerant, sharing space and toys. Miu has grown friendly and very playful. Always hungry too. Yes, she was spayed a few weeks back and got her shots too.
Kiwi has taught Miu some cat etiquette, Miu imitates Kiwi by using the same litterbox and scratch post even though there are 2 separate ones for them. One litterbox is exclusively for pee, and the other for poop. One scratching post (the flat cardboard types) is ignored while the other is used all the time. So strange, maybe they're saving it till the older one breaks lol. Kiwi has learnt to pick up a toy in her mouth (which Miu always does), and then call out loudly at night. Maybe it's the new kitty resident or the new toy but it's something she hasn't done before, except once when she caught a live rat.
Kiwi found a new spot to sleep after Miu kept trying to sleep together with her. Two places Miu are not allowed are: the shelf layer under a table where Kiwi plays and chill out, and the top of the luggage which is still not packed away! Kiwi is not a lap cat, but will occasionally share a bed in the mornings.
Introducing Lupin, our semi-new black kitty. It arrived at my boyfriend's house porch out of the blue one day a few months back - this is in California by the way. They say a cat
chooses its owner - this is absolutely right.
This kitten was feral and following an orange cat with his other kitten
siblings earlier and the gang stopped by the house at a
water puddle. We don't know how Morris (what we call the orange cat) is related to them, but
after a week one of the black kittens returned and permanently stayed,
with Fuman who readily accepted it. Don't know what happened to the rest
of his siblings but we know one sadly got killed on the road.
The photo above is Lupin with Fuman in the background.
Lupin is very skittish and refuses to let any human touch him/her or get close, although it meows very loudly and does the slow blinks. This is a problem since if it is coming 6 months old we need to neuter it, we still can't tell what gender it is! Lupin's name is from the 1960s-80s manga/anime Lupin the Third (ルパン三世 Rupan Sansei). We have a Lucy dog, a Luna black kitty (died, Lupin looks just like her) so now we continue the Lu-name.
Initially Lupin hissed at Kiwi cat at the door. Understandably it can't see in and smells all sorts of strangers, but Kiwi can see out lol. It doesn't do it anymore once it figured out Kiwi was just another cat.
This is Kiwi, Fuman and Lupin taken about a week or two before Fuman died.
Next is Kiwi, she has been with us for maybe 5 - 6 years. Kiwi used to
be an outdoor porch cat and absolutely refused to go indoors for years,
scrambling out the door whenever she was curious enough to peek in (she
never fully came in anyhow). One day she decided to relocate indoors two years ago and
stayed put, and if you put her outdoors she freaks out and dashes back
indoors... sigh cats.... Nowadays she gets occasional sunshine under
monitor. She watches her cat tv out the screen door and the dogs
on top of the couch.
Kiwi came over from the neighbor's across the street, also out of the blue. Just came to the porch, laid there, refusing to leave. We used to see her brother lounging out on the pavement but have not seen him for a few years now - hopefully he got kept indoors too.
Enjoying life as an indoor cat. When she wants to play, she rubs against your leg and sits down with her back facing you, waiting for you to jiggle her toys in her face lol. She is a bit violent when playing with them.
Kiwi is a very clean cat, she grooms herself over and over so her fur is very soft. However she sheds like crazy, whenever I go to the US, I get pretty bad nasal allergies from her dander. Her moustache is fish-shaped and uncannily resembles her favourite kibble! She is also gentle and patient (to humans at least, never bites or scratches) and a good rat catcher. She likes to troll one of the very timid female chihuahuas (Dotty) by staring down at the end of the corridor and blocking her way. Lucy dog has no problems and walks past looking at them wondering what's going on.
She has gained a lot of weight since I left last year. Partly due to losing a staff who would play with her whenever she demanded it - acrobats at least twice a day lol... Now she only has bf left and no more acrobats. She is spayed but got so big everyone wondered if she was pregnant! She managed to lose some weight after she decided she wanted to play again, for a few months she wouldn't play and only ate, slept and groomed all day long. The funny thing is she has short stubby legs so her tummy looks like it touches the grass now!
There is a new cat on the porch since 3 weeks ago, the orange cat Morris we mentioned earlier. He actually dropped by for a few minutes the same day Fuman died.
I've heard that a new cat immediately takes the place of another cat's
territory once the latter's gone, but his pace was too quick! I can only
deduce he was hungry, or his rival was gone, or both.
Anyway, this was the then unnamed ginger cat that arrived the day Fuman died.
Coming closer, and sniffing around. Bf did not feed him then because we don't know if he was someone else's pet or curious.
You might have figured out why we call him Morris.
Lookit
that face - like a sad lion. How can you not feed him lol. He was very
hungry by the way, and probably homeless. This was when he didn't want
to leave.
Morris
is very vocal with a scraggly mew and is sort of friendly with humans. Voracious appetite and keeps stealing little Lupin's portion! He looks pretty roughed up from fighting and his ear has some
injuries.
Reunited with a member of the original gang, and got along for a short time. 2 weeks ago Morris started chasing and biting Lupin so we are going to see the situation if Morris should stay or go. There are also 3 other tabby cats fighting on the roof that day.
Video of the cats, mostly Morris.
Edit: We know now Lupin is female. I typed this post some time back and only just published it, unfortunately our 'kitten' Lupin is not a kitten but a very small-sized mature cat and she had her first litter of 3 kittens 2 days back!! We don't know what to do but to leave them in Lupin's selected hiding place (under the house) for now - can't get close to her without her freaking out lol.
Here are some Singapore street kitty snapshots I found while sorting out my albums, I don't go out much so there aren't a lot yet, but I might update with another Cats of Singapore post when I gather enough photos. Some of them are taken with my point-and-shoot, some with my phone, some by my bf with his dslr.
Most of these cats are friendly, I ignore the ones who are skittish of humans because I don't want to freak them out! Some of them have regular feeders who love them enough to commit to this work, but the cats live outdoors because most of us live in (government) flats with cat-restricting regulations and partly due to our working lifestyles that prevent most from keeping them in homes. Some are fully strays and live a pitiful life in our not very cat-friendly island. Many people dislike these kitties, finding them a nuisance, and the government has a culling policy of something like 10K cats annually (not too sure about the actual figures though). Also we hate rats but keep killing the cats and you'll see a spike in rat population!
Do check out Cat Welfare Society, a non-profit organisation run by volunteers that educates, process sterilisations and improve welfare of our street cats. Whenever you see a cat with clipped ears, the authorities leave them alone because they are already neutered/spayed by volunteers who capture, sterilise and release them. If you can, please make a donation to help aid in vet bills and logistics and keep our kitties from being killed. Website: www.catwelfare.org
Taken opposite my home. I think the same cat below.
We call this one Walter (don't know what his real name is.) He is larger compared to our common "drain cats". He is played with and fed by the shopkeepers and hangs about that shopping area. Before that, he approached us for food (which we promptly bought lol) at the pavement just outside my flat, and let us play with him. Here he sleeps on the bank mat without caring whether people are coming in and out of the entrance. Nowadays he isn't as friendly, and may randomly swipe at kids who come too close. I think he got tired of strangers trying to pet him lol.
This cat was just chilling at my void deck and mewing at us.
And doing belly flops.
Not sure if this was the same cat as above as it is also my void deck at night, mewing at me.
This cat was at a country club outside a security booth, I think it belongs to the guards. It did belly flops.
Pizza Hut cat. It was very vocal and friendly so we fed it some of our dried cuttlefish snacks.
