Clannies monthly stats (Dec 07)

In accordance with Tracking – TNRM Reimbursement from CWS:

No.
Remarks

Total number of cats
21

4 in Area 3: Marty, Hannah, Marcus, Mary
9 in Area 2: Benji, Benny, Sally, Kenji, Stanley, Scottie. Free-ranging pet cats: Saba, Sumie, Sunny
8 in Area 1: Ivan, Cara, Carlie, Chloe. Free-ranging pet cats: Ian, Baby, Chica, Isam

Total sterilised
17

4 in Area 3: Marty, Hannah, Marcus, [...]

Farewell to the old

While the year-end party crowds does the usual, cramping onto the party spots, getting sweaty and molested, we’re contented to laze around the home and do nothing along with the kitties.

The sun burns up and fades away every single day. Why should the 365th fading be any more exalted then the 1st or the 158th? [...]

Dawn is leaving CWS

All good things come to an end. Today, Dawn bids farewell to her tenure with CWS.

Rheilly: Huh? Dawn, leave?
We’ve only gotten more actively involved with CWS in the last 2 or so years (read bother Dawn with tnrm stuff). Though we rarely met Dawn in person, she’s always just an email away. Except when she’s [...]

Book: The Cats’ House

The Cats’ House by Bob Walker
(available for loan from the nlb)
For the true minion with the resources to build or renovate the home for kitty’s pleasure, this is a Bastsend. For the rest of us mortal minions, it still offers a great read, a peek at possibilities to tantalise our wildest dedicational dreams. Photos [...]

Impurrsonation: We can haz jack rascals

In no particular order of rascalliness:

Philly Jack Rascal

Joey Jack Rascal

Bam Bam Jack Rascal

Teddy Jack Rascal

Rheilly Jack Rascal

Freddy, nose kissing purr machine

This morning, before we escort the new conscript for his pre-mojo-rob in-camp program, the HQ personnel could not resist one good look at the boy.

Ragdoll. Completely boneless, and purring at 100%
He’s still as fearless, or probably clueless, about his situation. Still as trusting and affectionate, he tried to climb on everybody’s laps and get [...]

Chloe is actually a Freddy

Earlier this evening, we came home by way of Chloe’s spot.
She wasn’t there, but instead we saw her on Ian’s, or rather Isam’s perch.
Again, with this family’s penchant for luring good-looking cats to their door, we were not surprised. the famil was not home however, and nor one of the resident cats were around. We [...]

Cadbury, a cat no adopter is interested in

When pretty kitties get adopted, and with such ease, I can’t help but feel for the less “attractive”, actually to me, simply less popular ones.
Take Cadbury for example. She was put up for adoption at the same time as Can Can. Both are tortoiseshells, and even as kittens, their chances were that much smaller than [...]

Imbie and Shelly are adopted.

Great news at Foster Mum’s today. We visited after 1pm and foster Mum immediately broek the good news – Imbie had been adopted that very morning!

Imbie
Also, she confirms that the mittens duo, Shelly and Socks’ adoption is going well.

Shelly

Shelly
So that’s two cats off our Foster Mum’s homeseekers‘ board, and 3 cats out of the cattery.

Area1 cat: Iggy

Meet Iggy, who first appeared in Area 1 in July.
He was elusive at first, and we, or rather btmao, only saw him in the distance. Then as time went by, he became more settled in, and wasn’t so difficult to sight. But I caught my first glimpse of him only on Sep 1. I managed [...]

Sneaking around in the name of the cause

Information leads to dumping. That’s what happened to some blogging caregivers, according to Dawn.
Getting such bonuses because we share info online is a nightmare we worry a lot about. We want to raise awareness among people about the cat’s situation here in Singapore through blogging. But at the same time, we do not want to [...]

LianHe ZaoBao: AVA should resume sterilisation for strays (农粮局应恢复为流浪猫绝育 )

An update on this letter to the Chinese press.
Once again, our source is Dawn’s blog. 
The letter  is extremely well-written, and even though is sympathetic toward cats, also show empathy for the complainant’s problems. What’s more laudable is that the writer does so in a well-balanced way. I will try to work out a translation for it too.
农粮局应恢复为流浪猫绝育
2007-12-27
● 尤美珍
　　阅读了日前张利春先生的《野猫叫春扰人清梦》一文，心里不禁有一些感触。
　　我同意流浪猫叫春的声音无论是夜晚还是白天，都是十分扰人的。但那是它们再自然不过的生理反应，绝对不是它们所能控制的。
　　我家楼下曾有一只十分讨人喜欢的黑色母猫，它虽然成年了，但是身体却十分瘦弱，犹如一只半岁大的小猫。有一天，我们发现它怀孕了。但由于它的身体无法负荷怀孕的过程，又加上遭人虐待，它最终连同腹中的胎儿死去了。
　　从这起事件，我们能看出猫儿根本不能控制自己的生理反应。否则那只可怜的母猫又怎会选择让瘦弱的身子去承受怀孕的辛苦呢？
　　要解决流浪猫带来的问题，我认为最好方式就是为它们绝育。农粮与兽医局也曾为流浪猫进行免费的绝育手术。但是近年来，当局却停止了这项服务。一些本地的爱护动物组织也会提供类似的服务或津贴，但是这些组织的能力却十分有限。
　　相信大多数人会认为让流浪猫进行绝育手术的责任应该落在喂养流浪猫的人士身上。他们的确应有这样一份责任，但是我们可曾想过他们的能力也是有限的？
　　那些喂猫人喂养流浪猫是出自一份爱心与同情。他们并非百万富翁，他们也同样面临了“物价飞涨，薪水没涨”的烦恼。猫粮在物价飞涨的时期也涨价了。我所认识的喂猫人（包括我母亲），个个都是收入不多的人士。在为一只猫儿进行绝育手术的费用相等于二十只猫一个月每日一餐的费用的情况下，不知各位会如何取舍？
　　此外，不难发现，有些喂猫人是年迈的退休人士。他们没能力带那些猫儿去绝育，更加不知道要到哪里去申请津贴。
　　在此，我呼吁农粮局考虑恢复免费帮流浪猫绝育的服务。同时，我也希望社会上的善长仁翁们能够献出一份爱心，去帮助或协助本地的一些爱护动物组织，让更多流浪和遭遗弃的动物受益。
　　最后，在来临的新年里，我想替流浪猫向大家乞求一份新年礼物，那就是大家的“包容心”。
Dawn’s [...]

Working Class Cats

We got linked to this interesting blog: Working Class Cats, via this post: NYTimes 20071221: To Dismay of Inspector.
What’s interesting is the focus of the blog. Putting the words Work and Cats together seem such an oxymoron at first glance. After all there are no seeing-eye cats, nor are there police cats (unless you count this [...]

Mango photo update

Cassie, now Mango, is settling down with her new dad. He sent these pictures… we miss her! But we’re so happy for her too. She has a personal lap now, and doesn’t have to wait til weekends for that 15 mins on btmao’s.

LianHe ZaoBao 20071224: Cauterwauling Homeless Cats Disturb Our Dreams (野猫叫春扰人清梦)

Got this off Dawn’s blog… once again, the astounding egos of complainants in Singapore, and the authorities’ eagerness to pander to them, simply astounds.
This is the complainant’s letter (will attempt a translation later) :
野猫叫春扰人清梦
（2007-12-24）
● 张利春
有人讲过“不管是黑猫，白猫，会捉老鼠的都是好猫”。可在新加坡却有个奇怪现象，就是不管是组屋楼下、公园、巴刹、路边，不管是白天、黑夜，新加坡的猫全都悠闲的躺在一旁休息，有时甚至还随地大小便，但从来不曾见过它们捉过老鼠，养它又有何用呢？
本人于今年5月买了一间大巴窑大牌143的组屋，可刚刚才入住，每当半夜十一、二点有时甚至是三、四点，楼下的猫发出刺耳的尖叫及打架的声音，让人从睡 梦中惊醒，这些声音有时可以持续二、三十分钟，而有一段时间差不多每晚都会发生，而楼上楼下及对面大牌144的邻居，他们对此也深有同感，我们有把这些声 音录下来，也有去市镇理事会、HDB、市理会的议员处投诉，可从今年5月至今半年，结果是：猫从5月的两、三只，到现在它们又生下的七、八只，从小猫到它 们怀孕到它们生小猫，而现在这些小猫又要成大猫，又会思春，又要生小猫了。而我们又没好觉可眠了！
可怜我们这些花了几十万买屋的屋主，每个月为了要还组屋贷款及市镇理事会的各项杂费，每天白天要出外工作，而晚上回家却不能有一个好的休息环境，为了这些猫的问题焦头烂额，困扰不休。
新加坡的法律对于保护动物有着完善及明确的保护条文，不可虐待及殴打。我们这些屋主该怎样办呢？它们是动物，我们不可用语言来沟通：“请不要半夜喧闹， 我们想睡觉”。驱赶它们，不到一天又全回来了。而有些人则打着爱护动物的名义去喂养它们，它们又怎么肯离开这样舒适的环境呢？
请问我该找谁帮我们解决问题呢？总不能因此就卖掉屋子吧。新加坡有相关法律来保护动物，那么我们这些需要休息的屋主又有什么相关法律来保障及维护我们的权益呢？我才买屋几个月，希望今后20年要在这里度过，我该怎样办呢？
请大家帮帮我们，或提出一些好的建议。
Go read the comments on the post. You will see the link for this english language article, [...]