Kittehs, a year and a bit later.

Here they are now, my two terrors. Absolutely naughty little cats Boy and Girl about 1.2 years after they came to live with me. Now they just rule the household.







Sure, looking cute and meek. Give them 5 minutes and they are up to another mischief. My furniture is scratched to high heaven and they scatter fur EVERYWHERE.

Sigh.

posted from Bloggeroid

Kids @ Work!

Who, me?

Whats dat there?

Is dat a yummy?

I wuv you!

Boy and Girl are growing up fast. My own 2 little terrors!

Langkawi Chronicles: Kittehs

Two weeks now these little munchkins came to live with me and my life is already changing. 2 kittens is a lot of work but watching them bounce and pounce around makes up for the difficult parts.

Got them from a colleague who offered a pair from her own Queen. A brother and sister pair.

Boy

Girl

They are somewhat already cat-sand trained but going potty still needs be a supervised and coached activity, if nothing else to ensure no accidents happen. Feeding is a 3 times a day routine where a mix of kitten soft food with biscuits is offered in a his and hers mini bowls.

w

Twin terrors

Still are nameless, thinking of naming them uhm, Boy & Girl! 

Desktop Pets: The Betta Way

The reality is that most of us office-hour types have very generic cubicles (read: boring!) as our work station. Some opt to enliven their space with pictures (kitsch), magnets (kitsch) and other sort of paraphernalia. Some place a pot of semi-indestructible/semi-unkillable plant in a suitable nook (guilty as charged) and some others have a desktop pet.

I love the idea of having a small active yet fairly low maintenance sidekick watching over my space and so I bought Betta (Fighting Fish) for myself.


Heya! I'm Senget. Pleased to meet you.

Senget is your run-of-the-mill long finned fighting fish that I got from a Kampong store near my home. When I first bought him, I never noticed that there was a slight defect with one of his fins. He was an impulse buy truthfully, but after having him live at my table for a few days, I realized that he was a tad lopsided on account of a gimp fin. This resulted in his awfully corny name of Senget.

See my Gimp fin? Tehehehe

He lives a glass vase home, with de-chlorinated and aged water and spent porous zeolite as habitat sand (it absorbs poisonous ammonia from the water in a chemical sequester process). He has a live plant for him to hide in and occasionally sleep on. The zeolite sand can be a tad scratchy on trailing fins, so I layered some polished pebbles as a physical barrier.

A few months later, I found another un-used glass container, this time in the shape of a large Brandy glass and proceeded to turn it into another desktop habitat.



Mottled Cream Blue fin Crown tail Betta a.k.a Chomot!

This is Chomot, for the simple reason of dressing up like a messy smudge! I fell in love with him as I felt that he had a tad more character than the others at the aquarium store. There were others far more attractive than him but I felt that he would make me happiest (he was probably psychically commanding me to pick him ya).

He lives in a similarly set up bowl of zeolite sand, but Chomot has a wood-bound water-fig plant as his primary decor cum R&R pit stop.

Both Senget and Chomot are bachelors living in their own pads (never mix Bettas together, ever! There is a good reason why they are called Fighting Fish). One lives at my office table while the other stays at home at my desk, both in well lit area with sufficient sunlight sustaining the plants.

They don’t need much in terms of care, regular daily feedings of 6-8 Betta suitable mini floating pellets, once a week change of de-chlorinated water and the very occasional plant trimming to tame wayward leaf growth of the water plants.

They both help me keep centered and balance as the act of feeding, playing (Senget seems to be quite interactive, wiggling a certain way when he wishes for food) and maintaining their glass pads offer me some semblance of calm and tranquility (which frantic ole me could always use having more, in spades where possible).

Update 7/9/2012
Came home on Friday and found Chomot belly up and stiff. Quite a shock really as he was doing fine in the weeks before :(.

To commemorate the short life of Chomot, I had a small service and buried him at the hedge in front of my room in the hopes that his body will nourish others.

I was in a funk over the weekend as was constantly aware of the vacant bowl that was Chomot's abode and so I went out looking for a new tenant, not so much as replacement as to bring some new life into my room. Carefully cleaned and disinfected the bowl to make sure no illnesses or parasites are transmitted, replaced all the gravel with new (and clean), and boiled the semi porous decorative stones just to be doubly sure!

Meet Nero.

Black Crown-tail Betta

 Nero was the only specimen with such dark colours and so I got him. Mainly because, in his own way having a wonderful dark colouration, he was as special as Chomot with his ragged appearance. Nero seems to have settled into his new home and is feeding well.

Hope it works out well this time.

Koko the Kitty

Heya, this browned out picture would be of our kitteh, Koko. She is of mixed parentage, mostly mongrel kitteh with some Burmese breed blood thrown in. 

Me is your Empress, stroke me now!

She is spoiled rotten, and always demands attention, although only if and when she desires attention. She loves to take rides in the Laundry Basket from the room to the washing machine, she loves to scratch our rattan furniture (she loves a particular one at home which is now hers alone, along with another she uses to nap on), loves Kiss Kiss Nose Rubs, loves squishing Geckos, swatting bugs and trampling on spiders.

Trying to coax me to pick her up for Kiss Kiss Nose Rub

She also loves chasing and grabbing kid's heels (must be the pitter patter of tiny feet!) or the occasional careless adult's! She hates walking on grass (guess it feels weird on her feet), hates being sprinkled with water and abso-fricking-lutely hates getting her claws clipped!

Note the scratched banister, nothing in our home is completely free of cat scratches

She is house-trained but woe betide any exposed folded bedlinen (yes, only fresh clean folded bedlinen)! She fears the vacuum cleaner and our 'penyapu lidi' and the idea of being given a wet bath (so we compromised by giving her dry shampooing instead, either with rolled oats or a commercially prepared dry cat shampoo powder). 

She hates being in my room alone (must be the emanating reptilian smells!) but loves looking at my fishes if I carry her into my room. 

Me nice, pick me up please!

Ode To Love

It all started some years ago, with those deep caring eyes. Bereft of the ability and will to live, she found me and took me into her arms. It was a strange sensation, feeling her warmth against me, for a moment it felt it wrong, somehow that I was undeserved of such kindness. If there ever was a need to prove the existence of God, that moment, and the comfort I felt then, would be good for a thousand sureties…

I peeked from under sleepy lids, her languorous movement getting off the bed, in her almost playful mix of sloth and sunshine. As always, her measured gait will slowly blossom to her usual bounce, so full of joy.

I hear the pitter patter of the shower shortly after and soon she was already getting dressed. She threw on her black pantsuit, with her new slightly lacy white top and I get the feeling today is going to be a wonderful day again for her. She always seems to come back home all abuzz and gleeful when she puts on this persona of hers.

Of course by now, I am finally awake, albeit still stretched out on the bed. She finally slung her oversized black crocodile leather tote and floated off to the kitchen. Comforted by her lingering scent, I rolled back and decided a few more Zzzzs wouldn’t really hurt.

I can hear her in the kitchen, taking her glass of juice, crunching her cereals and of course of her washing her dry cereals down with a half glass of milk, one of her adorable quirks. Then, as sure as she has done hundreds of time, she will lovingly set my breakfast on the table for me.

A few moments later, she would be calling out her goodbye for the day and I would be left all alone again. Parting, even for only half a day is hard, but I take refuge in the fact she will be home by dinner and we would be able to just bask in each others presence.

In the mean time, I do whatever needs be done, starting with my breakfast that she has set for me. There are moments when I still wonder what exactly it was that I did in my life to be blessed with such kindness and luck. I guess God does have a plan for me and I am thankful for this blessing.

It is true what they say, time flies when you are tied up with tasks. I almost hadn’t notice the click at the door signaling her return if it wasn’t for her intoxicating perfume. Oh how I love this Venus of mine. I rushed to meet her at the door, where we cuddled a bit and I stole the opportunity to plant wet sloppy kisses on her cheek.

Soon after a luxuriously indulgent bath, she rejoined me in the hall for our favourite show. Tonight’s episode was particularly good, where our belligerent child of a doctor managed to solve yet another medical conundrum and at the same time learns a humbling lesson on how he carelessly hurts those who love him. I have no wonder at all in me as to why the show has garnered such rave reviews. We both love the show to pieces.

We ate a late dinner together, quietly this time, as she had to finish up some work on her laptop. People would say that working on your computer while at dinner is rude, but this woman can do no wrong in my eyes, not since she also surprises me with occasional toe tickles.

And soon the magic of the Sandman was starting to take hold of us. We adjourned to the bed room for slumber to celebrate a wonderfully ordinary day. We said our prayers and lay on white crisp linens next to each other, a mixture of contentment and comfort, as we waited for the fog of sleep to drift over us.

She stroked my cheeks, my supine form and even my belly as a goodnight gesture. Oh how I desperately love this woman. Breathing ever so gently, I purred my goodnight to her before sleep took us both.

Inspired by old memories and current tails from feline friends and animal lovers everywhere.

Love Thou Some Animals!

I enjoy my mamak/tomyam stall jaunts, I would be lying if I said otherwise. I mean, what beats the odd roti chanai (or two) or nasi goreng usa with a cool tall glass of nescafe ais kaw right? There are moments when only these and nothing else hits the spot.

You go about the business of demolishing your plate of poison (seriously, roti chanai is bad for you, cardiologists often will tell their patients to lay off the roti to prevent return adventures to coronary land!), then you feel a gentle nudge at your pants leg. You look down and you see these pitiful eyes looking back at you, pleading for food. It does me in all the time, I often end up sharing a substantial portion of my food with the cats under tha table. Sometimes, I actually get some fried chicken or fish to feed them (if what I am eating isn't particularly cat friendly).

You see, I am an animal person (cats and dogs, and throw in some choice reptile) and I cant bear seeing these strays hungry.

I often wonder how is it that animals can be rail thin and starved despite living in the compounds of an eatery. How expensive can it be to feed these animals, I mean, what is the cost of 2 or 3 pieces of chicken or fish mixed in white rice (heck, they can even use the leftover bits, as long it is still good to eat) and offered to them. If nothing else, you would develop a symbiotic (not in the true sense of the word) relationship with the cat, take care of it, it will make sure you dont have rats/mice, or if you feed the stray dogs, it will watch your place for you.

I decided to stop by a mamak restaurant near my place and sure enough there were stray cats indeed. We frequent this place at least twice a week and thus my family has this easygoing relations with the Mapleyrs (did I spell that right? hmm.). Ordered my usual poison (no, not roti chanai, but chappati) and a Teh Ais. While eating this, a really mangy, flea-bitten, scar-ridden tomcat caught my eye. God, the cat looked nasty.

He was just lying there, minding his own sh*t, and faking cool, but he looked so hungry. I got up immediately and went to get a piece of fried chicken. Chose a nice big piece and got the man to chop it up into smaller manageable pieces. At my table I proceeded to feed the Tom and sure enough, he chowed down with gusto. I continued feeding him the pieces, removing the bony bits (bad for small throats and tummies) and suddenly realised I have created a small scene, some diners and the restaurant mapleyrs were like staring at me. I smiled them off (yes, nothing works better than a big smile to jar starers!) and continued with the task at hand. Just as the last piece was gone, another cat ambled by, a smallish kitten, yearling at most, and so went another piece of fried chicken being put to good use.

The mapleyrs had this amused look on their face when I went to get more chicken, but for me, I had to check the rising bile in my throat to bark at them for not feeding the kitties. Give it chicken, give them fish, give some meat. Come on, a mamak stall being a mamak stall, they had pieces of protein  that has warped and dried and no sane Malaysian would actually take it, so why cant they toss that bit to the cats? I must agree that feeding cats human food, what with it being seasoned with salt (cats dont really need sodium) and spices,  may not be ideal but those kitties are starving dammit! Feed them please.

It is often my rule to never come back to a stall/shop/eatery  that doesn't feed their stray kitties, to me it speaks volumes about the owner/operator-way too skinflint to even bother to feed a hungry animal. I was pleased to note that when I was leaving, the same fried chicken-chopper-man was feeding a different set of cats. Made me feel good to think that I may have, not inspired, but maybe just somehow, nudged him to do to the same.

The world isn't always a happy place, but I hope in my small insignificant way, in that moment I have made someone happier.

Love thou some animals!

P/S The photos are all not mine, and are used to illustrate my feelings.