Chrissy

Long overdue for an update is our dear Chrissy.

She is doing well

and is active, fine and plump.

Appeal: Stop “green” Toyota from killing the US climate change bill

Toyota is the world’s largest car maker. Its Prius is the definitive green vehicle. But disturbingly, Toyota is not as green as its reputation. In the US, it is one of the lobbies attempting to kill the US senate bill on climate change.

Please read this and then spend a moment of your online time to send a message to Toyota please.

From saveourenvironment.org:

Tell Toyota: Stop Blocking Clean Energy!

The Chamber of Commerce is using the member dues of companies like Toyota to kill the clean energy bill.

Other companies have quit the Chamber in protest, but Toyota refuses to act.

Our goal is 20,000 petition signers by October 30th.

Add your name now to ensure your letter gets hand-delivered to Toyota’s US headquarters!

There are only a few days left to add your name before saveourenvironment.org deliver the letters to Toyota’s US Headquarters in New York City.

Click here to sign now and help us reach 20,000 signatures by October 30th.

This is a message you can send to friends concerned with the environment:

Of all the companies that might help defeat the Senate climate bill, I never thought it would be the maker of the Prius hybrid!

But it’s true. Toyota is helping fund a campaign to block clean energy, and I need your help to stop them. Click here to get the story:

http://ga3.org/campaign/tell_toyota_to_quit

Here’s the deal… Toyota is a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce which has launched a massive campaign to kill the new climate change bill. The Chamber’s campaign is funded by its members – including Toyota.

As one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, the Chamber of Commerce’s war on the climate change bill poses a very real threat to the future of our planet.

The good news is that many companies (including Apple, GE, PG&E, Nike and Levi Strauss & Company) have already resigned from the Chamber in protest. But so far Toyota has refused to join them.

Personally, I find it shocking that a company that has made millions on their reputation as a leader in green technology would so brazenly oppose climate change legislation.

That’s why I just signed a petition urging Toyota to put its money where its mouth is and quit the Chamber of Commerce now.

It would mean a lot to me if you’d consider adding your name as well. Will you check it out?

Click here to find out more:

http://ga3.org/campaign/tell_toyota_to_quit

Thanks so much for anything you can do to help me to expose Toyota’s hypocrisy!

More background info about the workings of putting the climate change  legislation through the grind of the US Senate here on treehugger.com.

Feline Fantasies 101

Got cha attention, right? This is a wonderful post dealing with kitty myths and such on the advocacy site: care2.com. Black cats get such an especial dose of bad rep that many are rejected outright, but there are black kitties with absolutely perfect personalities (not just cats, dogs too), and adoption chances for black cats is only half of others (torties rank a close second, at least in Singapore). It’s really a wonder that black cats aren’t killed on sight everywhere (especially during Halloween, black cat month), though there’s no lack of trying, even in urban Singapore. But so what if they look like shadows with eyes under the right lighting? Black kitties are still kitties. Black kitties need love too

Feline Fantasies 101

posted by Janet Garey Oct 19, 2009 5:10 pm

“Doesn’t Bella creep you out?” Andy asked, raking his black-painted nails through spikes of neon purple hair.

The object of his curiosity reclined on my lap, bubble gum-pink tongue lapping at her glistening, black as pitch, tiny paw. I had no idea what the boy was talking about.

“She’s a cat,” he observed, “and completely black!”

Chuckling over Andys’ skill at stating the obvious, my nod urged him to delve a bit deeper.

“Hey, everybody knows that black cats bring bad luck,” he insisted, then paused to watch my complexion darken, eyebrows shooting toward my auburn hairline.” I’ve always believed they have something to do with evil, witchcraft and wizardry.

Resisting the urge to smack my young Goth friend alongside his multiply-pierced head, I decided it was time to give Andy a crash course in Feline Fantasies 101, aka What the Heck Are You Thinking, Oh Child of the the New Millennium?”

(Click here to continue reading)

Meow to arms: please help end annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan

(If you find this post informative, you might like to check out these.)

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We love our kitties, and we love their purrs, chuffs, quirks, psychosis and all. That is what being family is about. Much as we cannot bear the thought of being apart from family, we would not wish anyone to be separated from theirs. This is an appeal for intensely family-centred non-kitties who need help. And we’re asking kitty mums and dads because you’ve shown yourselves to be compassionate and passionate. So we’re asking you to help by doing one of the following:

• If you don’t have time to continue reading, PLEASE GO HERE IMMEDIATELY, thank you very much
• Otherwise, please bear with us as we explain some background and tell you our reasons for appealing to you.

By now, visitors to tec probably have an inkling that beyond the kitty snugglecore us minions purvey (or try to), we also draw attention to kitty problems and other cutsies and wildlife face, whether here or out there in the world and the help they need.

Beyond the lack of fur, watery homes, and IQ differentials (debatable to some), dolphins are one of the most kitty-like in their fiery focus on fun and food. Life seems a forever funival to dolphins, much like the swishing toy, which goes nowhere, is the kitty’s perpetual fascination. But whales and dolphins have stronger sense of family, often maintaining relationships between parents and offspring, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles. Dolphins take it one step further, living in multi-generation family groups called pods.

So imagine what it is like for them when a whale is harpooned (often dying slowly by drowning), or dolphins herded into a cove to be slowly killed over a few days, and the survivors fished out from the carnage and sold to entertain people.

Whale and dolphin killing sunders the close-knit cetacean families, and hinders the rehabilitation of whale numbers, which were hunted almost to extinction in the 1970s. For dolphins, it also feeds and fuels the public interest for dolphin entertainment shows (which feature wild-captured dolphins who, if they survive the trauma of capture and the horrors of witnessing their families being killed, usually live only another 2-3 wretched years). Dolphins are also labelled as whale meat. The public and even citizens of the whale killing nations are generally ignorant of these pathetic facts.

Us minions believe whale killing and dolphin slaughter are things that are barbaric, antiquated and have no place in modern society.

However, there seems to be no real progress to the efforts to permanently stop the annual wanton waste of life… until the Cove this year, a documentary-movie with a message, and a noble mission.

For once, something managed to halt temporarily the annual dolphin slaughter season in Taiji, Japan. This was thanks to the intense scrutiny and interest the move generated. To the point that the Japanese media, which had never wanted to talk about the shame that is Taiji’s annual hunt, also went to Taiji and were showed the movie!

In no small part, Taiji’s discretion seemed to stem from the suspension of sister-city ties by Broomed Australia too. However, the residents of Broome did not have an easy time of it even from fellow Australians. They have bravely stood their ground… until now.

Please encourage them to continue the course – they were doing the right thing but now it could unravel because they reversed their decision!

Can there be hope for the whales and dolphins who swim in the Sea of Japan and everywhere else within the Japanese whaling fleet’s reach? Mr Ishii and Ric O’Barry’s stories gives us hope. Mr Ishii, a dolphin fisherman who hunted dolphins as his fathers did before him, now runs a whale and dolphin watching tour outfit. Mr Ishii is not the only who has taken the brave step of speaking up and acting against something he understood to be wrong. But there is a long way to go, despite the benefits of keeping whales and dolphins alive. The Mr Ishiis and Ric O’Barrys of this world can’t do it alone. Please click here and help them.

Thank you.

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(If you find this post informative, you might like to check out these.)

Frankie awake

A rare occasion this, that Frankie is not prone with eyes shut. I wish he was awake more often, he has such beautiful eyes.

He still like head scritches more readily than on anywhere else.

Even throwing in some extra-curricular activity as a bonus for this camera-toting minion

But of course he still endeavours to his life’s work of collecting as much shuteye as he can. It’s a good thing his ARF is under control now.

Cody’s such a sweetie

Cody is now 6-7 months old and growing up fast, thanks to the tlc of Foster Mum and her helpers. He’s had a few bouts of illness, just generally having fever from time to time. But we thought he might have to become another tec PR at the shelter.

Well, we made our plans too early for him. With the supplements he’s been plied with and the care he’s been given, he is actually developing well. In fact so well that he got the urges, shall we say, last month and was sterilised late in the month. This is beyond the minions’ wildest expectations and is testimony to the TLC in the shelter.

He’s a real mush-mallow just waiting for the right family to come along and take him home.

Cuddles!

Topped with scritches

However, due to his record of illness, we’re careful to look for potential adopters who are able to pay the extra attention he needs on his health and of course, provide him constant cuddles and all the lap time he could need.

(Click on a picture to see a larger version in flickr)

Betsy antics

Homeseeker Betsy is not quite the conventional kitty beauty.

But she definitely is one kitty who sees the lighter side of life.

Whether checking the water…

Entertaining herself with some paw-wrestling…

Or enjoying a cuddle…

She is one chill cat.

How long does she need to wait for a home?

It’s anybody’s guess. But Betsy is a girl who will take the wait in her stride

Becky the affectionate

Homseeker Becky has a somewhat similar temperament with Freda, who was so stressed with being among other cats that she literally withdrew into herself and prefered living in a cage.

Becky also prefers living in a cage, free from the other cats sharing the shelter. However, until they were cage cats, where Freda simply prefers to be away from cats but retained her affectionate nature with people, Becky turned defensive even with people.

As soon as her struggle to cope with being among many cats was detected by the shelter helpers, she was put in a cage where she is now calmer and happier.

However, she is still on edge and though she no longer is quite as defensive with people, and has even rediscovered the pleasure of headscritches. But she will still jump as soon as she sights another cat.

As with Freda, we believe as soon as Becky gets a chance to be in a home environment her affectionate nature will smoothen the touchy edges she’s wearing like a shield.

However long it takes, we will be helping her to find a home to call her own.

Smartie at home

Smartie’s mum sent a few choice pics to commemorate the announcement of her new name: Pachi.

Smartie snuggling with her dad

Smartie snoozies... with Aiko her big bro

Tete-a-tete

Watch your smartie mouth, pipsqueak

No more incredible plastic-insect-monster-btmao-tagteam wrestles for this little furry one. She has Aiko, Mum, Dad, and later, a new human baby to keep her busy

Say it!

The situation for Singapore’s community cats and cat caregivers is anything but rosy. But we’re not unique in our situation. For example, in the state of California, the perceived American forerunner of of animal welfare, Alley Cat Allies successfully called on residents to help repeal a bill that would have been detrimental to the work that caregivers were doing and to the cats themselves.

What does this say? That bad things can happen anywhere. And also that they can be pushed back. Here in Singapore, we may have a tougher time of it… due to inertia in the Singapore leadership and bureaucracy, but the people on the street, the ones who roll up their sleeves and DO SOMETHING, have a part to play too. Nothing is going to happen if we don’t do something, as in take measures that is required of the situation, for example speak up.

Efforts to get HDB to review its unreasonable ban against cats are still leaving advocates gnashing teeth and nursing headaches. But ACRES’s role in the successful effort to up the penalties for wildlife smuggling shows it may not all be lost causes we champion.

So what can we do? Dawn says it all:

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Speak up – and in a timely fashion

There was some confusion about which rail operative was involved, and it seems that it was not SMRT identified, as the letter writer originally stated, but SBS Transit. Full disclosure : I have a relative who works for SBS Transit – but my opinion on the subject remains the same.

It’s good to hear from this letter that SBS transit acknowledged that they made a mistake in the handling of this case, and that they will be meeting with the SPCA to work out a proper way of handling this situation. Apparently they mentioned having rescued some dogs from the station in the past. Even if there was already a protocol in place as the letter stated, it is certainly good to have a refresher, and to remind the staff (who clearly didn’t know about it). It’s also heartening to hear that they haven’t found a dead cat on the tracks. I spoke to someone who told me that there are apparently a lot of ventilation holes in the tunnels – hopefully the cat was able to escape out of one of them.

On another thought, this brought into mind the story that I first read via calsifer’s blog the other day.

I’m so sorry to hear about this case, and about the cat that wasn’t saved but it does also bring to mind several issues. The writer in the MRT case wrote in and demanded accountability – and she did get it.

On the other hand, the aunties in the case mentioned above, didn’t, for whatever reason. I can understand they might be frightened or scared but that doesn’t help them or the cats. Neither does bringing the case up long after it happened.

The point is this – if a situation like this happens, someone has to ask for accountability, and it has to be the person whom it happened to. Imagine if the writer at the MRT station had told a friend about it, and asked that friend to write in, months or years after the fact. All of us responded especially to the situation because it had happened to the writer herself – and she was able to give specific details of what happened, and when. It also added an urgency to the case because obviously it mattered so much to her, that she wrote in right away, when the details were still fresh in her mind. It also adds credibility because she came forward herself and identified herself.

On the other hand, this case in AVA, sad as it is, made me wonder – why didn’t the people involve come forward? Also, why didn’t they do so sooner?

If the women were frightened for their own (and their cats’) sakes, then their cat was already killed – honestly, what could be worse? The worst thing had already happened.

If the issue was that they felt that it didn’t matter anymore – and it obviously does still matter to these aunties because they are still scarred by the event – then it could very well matter to the next cats which are caught. If the AVA staffer is still there, then it could well happen to the next person whose cats are caught. At the very least, what seems to be from the (admittedly second or third hand) account, a seemingly arbitrary decision could have been queried.

Right now, it’s hard to see what can be done. It’s like the many times we hear of people complain of animal abuse – but that they can’t ‘do anything’ and so they tell their friends who then try to go to the police. Obviously this can’t be done because the police need an actual eyewitness – and it’s clear to see why. Any news passed down second or third hand will get distorted – ever played ‘broken telephone’?

If someone’s home is broken into, I doubt most people would not file a report, or go to the police. Then why the difference with cats? I can understand that this might be the case with the general public – but I’m sure to most of us, a cat’s life is more important than any property. We have to put aside this fear or reluctance to speak up. We have already seen that there are many caregivers and people concerned about cats who are willing to back witnesses up and give them support in terms of letters and phone calls. There is a community that will support caregivers – and we’ve seen that time and again.

At the end of the day, if we don’t speak up for the cats, then who will?

Posted by Dawn at 10:09 AM comments

We really really do need to learn to speak up. It may not work all the time, but if we keep at it, sooner or later, something has to click. For us minions, our perennial frustrations is in convincing caregivers in the town to band together and work with each other and present a united front to the power-that-be. If you are in a cooperative group, treasure it.

Kitten in mrt station incident: Officious response

A follow-up to the kitten in Dohby Ghaut NEL station incident (or Bureaucracy, boxes, beer. Blech).

From the TODAY Voices section. At least the NEL spin doctors have the grace to acknowledge the mistakes on their part.

‘Proper procedure was not followed’

But there was no evidence that the cat had been hit
Letter from Tammy Tan, vice-president (Corporate Communications), SBS Transit
Updated 09:05 AM Oct 07, 2009

WE REFER to “MRT staff at Dhoby Ghaut ignored pleas; had no regard for animal welfare” by Ms Risa Okamoto Mardjuki (Today Online, Oct 4).

It is rare for animals to enter our stations, but when they do, our staff have been told to spare no effort in ensuring their safety whilst not compromising on the safety of our passengers.

The Standard Operating Procedure in such cases is for station staff to seek assistance from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (SPCA) and to watch over the animal as the SPCA makes its way to our premises. This has been the way we have handled similar cases in the past when dogs strayed into our station.

Unfortunately, the proper procedure was not followed in this instance. Our station staff first erred by calling the pest control company instead of the SPCA.

An error of judgment was also made when the staff tried to lure the cat into a non-public passageway which is located behind the emergency door. The manner in which this was done was also wrong. Certainly a stick and a garbage bag should not have been used.

To make matters worse, the cat unexpectedly leapt up the wall into a small opening located just beside the emergency door and landed on the tracks instead.

Since the incident occurred on Oct 2, we have conducted several sweeps of our tracks and found no evidence that the cat had been hit by our trains.

We have also been trying to look for it in our tunnels to try and bring it back up to street level and to safety, but we have not been able to spot it. We will continue to keep a lookout for the cat, but we believe that it has since escaped and is now safe.

We wish to offer our sincerest apologies to Ms Mardjuki and all animal lovers for the way in which we have handled this situation. It was not our intention to bring harm to the cat.

We have since learnt from this episode and will be fine-tuning our procedures to ensure that stray animals are better dealt with in future. We will be seeking assistance from the SPCA and our staff will be trained on the proper ways to deal with such situations so that the animals’ welfare is not compromised and our passengers’ safety is assured.

The question of course, is do they walk the talk?

Area1 new cat: Isam lookalike

Yesterday evening, while walking home after work, we saw a new kitty lounging around Isam’s territory. He looks exactly like Isam, except that he is grey where Isam is a lovely chocolate. As it was late, we can’t tell if he has the same beautiful green eyes as Isam. But he is different from Isam in that he was extraordinarily friendly – he turns tummy up as soon as you call him. He was of course, full-eared with his equipment intact.

Earlier tonight I saw him again, and this time, very surely, he was lounging right outside Isam and Ian’s “home”. Ian was there but as the alpha was very calm and did not seem to mind him in the least. This time, instead of jumping in quickly to sterilise their new free-ranging pet as we did Indy, we’re going to watch and see if the family sends him for mojo-robbery themselves.

Again, because of the lighting, we can’t be sure, but this new gentleman in town seem to be older than Isam.

Bureaucracy, boxes, beer. Blech

Reading Dawn’s thoughts on the Cat on MRT tracks incident, one has got to wonder why Singapore bureaucracy has this tendency to stick around in the revolving door, and go with the flow to nowhere. Doesn’t it get motion sick at some point? Or rather, how long does the Singapore bureaucracy like to punish itself and those it affect before it does something and drag or throw itself out of it and perhaps give relief to the affected populace?

Dawn says:

“… the staff member may not have felt empowered to do this – or to face the consequences especially when the management may not already be very cat-friendly to begin with. I remember at least one case where I wrote in to offer our help because we were told that the unsterilised cats were usually rounded up and sent to the AVA if there were complaints or if they were found to be a ‘problem’.

So what needs to be done? Clearly what this episode shows is that there should be some manner of procedure or protocol devised so that staff members DO know what do in future. This would ensure that we don’t have to cross our fingers and hope that if this happens again, the staff member knows something about cats.”

It’s like the long long slate of mrt track “intrusions”. Only now are we getting platform screen doors for the doorless above-ground stations.

And consider the train service disruptions which jolt us out of our complacency every so often. The LTA says it takes a serious view of service disruption. But there’s been 92 instances of disruption over a 3 year period, and it’s always the same old same old in the bag of grievances when the letters of complaints flood the media. About how staff don’t seem to know about crowd control, traffic direction, or plain don’t know what they’re supposed to do. About alternatives which are non-existent or cause more “hardship” to the already inconvenienced commuters.

In place is a SOP which received a parliamentarian airing, so why are there still so many unhappy commuters who complain about the same things each time?

Do we dare hold out much hope that a SOP will be set in place to handle kitties in stations, or that it the SOP in place will actually be followed, or even applied correctly?

It’s also the same old same old in the bag of grievances us minions caregivers have about how we and the kitties living in Singapore’s streets are treated.

The powers that be keep relying on the same tired old excuses for keeping status quo.

Curiously, I keep thinking about the latest Tiger Beer ad making the TV rounds when I think about our situation.

Not that I’m stumping for the frothy or want some morose dousing, but it does demonstrate a life lesson (the ad, not the draught), which is saying quite something since beer ads never make much sense (though the Heineken ones I always found most palatable among the hordes).

The ad is no philosophical dissertation for sure. Two guys fighting over the last bottle in the bucket — can’t they just order more? – decided on arm-wrestling, and end up trying to one-up each other, morphing into bigger and stronger opponents which also happen to counter the other guy’s latest incarnation. The winner morphs into a blond hot chick and wins by shorting the circuits of his robotic rival.

No, there is no kitty involved but how cool that instead of being stiff-necked, conventional, and deadboxed into the one-track idea of bigger must be better, the winner takes stock of the situation (while in the very pleasing form of a buff Jungle Man who stares down silverbacks), basically jumped out of the box and threw his then stronger-than-Jungle-Man robotic foe out of orbit with his twist on oneupsmanship. Imagine if he had been lazy and conformed with the flow, and morphed into something stronger than stronger-than-Jungle-Man-robot instead. Bore, broken record, tiresome, credibility depreciation. Vicious cycle.

Whenever I see the ad, I ask myself the million dollar question: why can’t the powers that be do the same when confronted with ideas, facts, or complaints about Singapore ’s cats? Have a tiger or whatever’s their poisons of choice, untie the knots they’re in and LOOK the issues in the eye rather than trotting out and nursing those so-old template responses that don’t do a thing except tighten the knots they’re in, and grind our noses in it. Vicious cycle, anyone?

Maybe this post should be titled “Saatchi & Saatchi for government” instead. [EDIT: Or maybe I don't want that actually, imagine legislation that decree ad-watching quotas on citizens... ]

Footnote
Remember: if you come across an SOS, whether from a fellow human or a little kitten, don’t just walk away. And drink responsibly.

Mod Duo: Happy and Lucky the kittens

This pair of Foster Mum’s pair of homeseeking kitten siblings are growing up fast.

They are still as loving and attached to each other

Bamy Wharhol

Just a little tinkering with the camera settings… no software to stitch them together proper though