Decision

I fink it is the best decision for the old aunty

Thanks for all the advice you gave about the incident that concerned the aunty. We decided that the old aunty should not at any time confront the man as she is always on her own and she goes about feeding the cats after everyone has gone home. So if he shouts, she should ignore him. Then we will all go to the police to make a report. We wish to thank st and all the help with the TC. The auntie is greatly relieved and knows that she has help when she needs it. The 4 from the wild bunch are of course clueless about the saga and all are well and fat. We now have 3 as from te original 4 - Minah, FatBoy and Putih. We have our sometime guests Billy Boy and now the gargoyle of a cat Lala. But Lala has since disappeared and Billy Boy does not come as often. He is a little thinner but not skinny so I think all is still well with him. He has either decided to hang out in his old precinct or maybe his owners have decided to sequester him, which would be better. Gargoyle Lala I am not sure about.

Monday Tales

What is Bujang doing?

Contemplating Monday :)

The old aunty told Cousin R that after CNY she won't be able to help us feed the WildBunch for at least 3 months as she would be going for a knee operation :( I know I should be hapy that she may get better knees but it was very helpful when she could feed the WildBunch on the weekends.

Of course we would feed them on the weekends when she is away. My only fear is that she may decide to leave them to me and abdicate all responsibilty for them like she did the last time when she said she had to work in the evenings. It was by chance that I saw her walking about in the evenings and had asked her why she was not at work. She then told me that she has been out of work for a month but she was looking for other work. I then had to tell her that I would feed the WildBunch with Cousin R's help for 5 days so she can look for work but she has to take up her responsibilty of taking care of her cats for 2 days in the week.

Although I know she loves them, I think she has been doing her utmost to relinquish all her responsibilty for them. Nowadays she doesn't even have to buy any cat food using her own money (unlike before) as I give her a whole month supply of cat food. She sometimes buys dry food for them though. She knows they like to eat dry food after the wet food :) She is also quite good at keeping an eye out for them and would tell me if she thinks that something is amiss and if she is not about, I would miss some things. It seems pretty selfish of me of course but I would have to keep a sharp eye for the aunty. I hope she has a successful operation though as she takes her dog Bobby for a walk every evening and it must hurt her knees to be walking Bobby so much.

The Visit

Hello aunty...

I met the old-aunty last Friday. I was not expecting to see her but she came when I was feeding FatBoy. She was very anxious about being unemployed and told me about her dog Bobby who was also not very well. She then asked me about Megat. I had told her before but I guess she had forgotten. I told her thatMegat is staying with me and he has lost some teeth, has the beginnings of a cataract and he has to have a special diet. I didn't tell her about the FIV as I don't think she needs to be worried about something like that.

This evening she came to the house to talk about the Wild Bunch and the fact that some people from another area had not been too responsble in cleaning up after they feed the cats. I had to reassure her that none of the Wild Bunch would be caught by the AVA as I have Megat, the so-called 'nuisance cat' with me. She then asked me about Megat and I had to show him the new version. She was pleased to see him so beautiful. "Banyak cantik," she said. "Banyak gemok," also. She then petted him and he tried to squirm away as he was not used to her petting him so nicely. She used to just put his food for him and then leave as he was in the carpark and it was always dark when she had to feed him. She used to tell me that he was 'dirty' but I guess as she was old, she could not see that it was just oil and sores from lice. I am glad she was pleased with his new look and she left after seeing her previous charge in better surroundings :)

Mayhem

Megat having the 'innocent sleep' of the KungFu master

Shaolin Megat is still trying to hone his fighting skills with the other kitties as targets. He needs only to make a sudden move to send the other 3 into running for their lives. This has resulted in all the three looking peaky-eyed and wary all the time. They have catnaps instead of sleep. Bujang is becoming rather aggressive to me and has taken to biting me most times and has refused to sleep in his snugs on the bed. Instead he sleeps in the wash-basin. Last Wednesday, he was so aggressive that I had to house him in the soft orange carrier-house. That did not stop him from raving and throwing himself at the sides. He bit through the zipped sides (as I discovered the next morning) and managed to get out. Luckily he decided that he would just get some sleep and did not try to do anything else to me. :)

Toro has been slapped many times by Megat but he is still very friendly and curious about this kung fu fighter. He had had his face scratched many times and I am really afraid for his eyes but luckily, Toro has long fur and this help buffer Shaolin Megat's tiny feet that fly through the air like lightning. I have clipped Megat's nails so they would not cause much harm to Toro.

I had tried to put Megat on time-out every time he fghts with the boys but this does not seem to work very well. The cat experts advised that I should just let the posturing and sometimes the fur fly amongst them as they are fighting for space and top cat status but I am getting a lot of angst from Bujang and his very sharp claws and fangs which he uses to great effect.

The only one who had managed to escape is of course Ms Akira, who avoids Megat all the time . The good thing is the old aunty has agreed to help me feed the Wild Bunch every weekend. I managed to get someone who could speak Chinese to explain to her that I would need some time-out and she has very kindly agreed to help me feed FatBoy, Calico Mom, Little Calico and Casanova. This means I would get more time for the kitties and myself for me to do something (I do not know what though) to repair all this mayhem among the boys.

I read in dawn's blog about the fact that it is okay to feed the cats on alternate days as they would find their own food. If the sitution gets dire in the amigo house, then maybe I would not be able to feed the cats everyday as it takes me almost 2 hours to feed them and sometimes more. By that time, I would get home only at about 8.45 and I have to do complete grading and preparing stuff for the next day especially as the new term is just beginning.

I would have to spend more time with the amigos.

New timetable

Safe and sound asleep

The old aunty came knocking on my door at about 7 pm and told me she would feed the Wild Bunch. I was quite surprised as her hands are still a little swollen but I did not protest as I had a whole day of meetings today and was very tired. I am really grateful to her. She said, "Hari banyak hujan. Lu banyak susah jalan sana-sana. Saya kasi makan semua-semua. Hari Sabtu dan tujuh lu kasi kucin bawah makan. Saya kasi kucing lain. " Translated : Its raining hard and you have to walk a distance to feed the cats. I will feed the cats tonight and for Saturday and Sunday, you feed the cat downstairs (Little Calico) and I will feed the rest.

So I spent the time cleaning out the bins and sitting with the kitties and of course catching up on my blog as I have not been able to blog some days ago because the lines are down. I hope the aunty cleans up after she feeds them.

The old aunty

Toro telling me he doesn't like the camera

I wanted to blog about the old aunty some days ago but forgot. I saw the old aunty (the one who used to feed the Wild Bunch) after many months last Thurday. She saw me walking to feed FatBoy and waited for me. I had just come from feeding Little Calico and had cleared some biscuits someone had strewn on the floor. When I saw her, I guessed she might be the one and it turned out to be true as I also saw strewn biscuits where FatBoy was. Sigh.... I had told her many times before not to do this but I guess she had forgotten the dangers to the cats.

I fed FatBoy and spoke to her again about the dangers of feeding the cats and not cleaning up after them. She nodded her head and told me she would try to remember. Then I saw her swollen hands. Whah! They were red and must surely be painful. She told me that they were the result of standing 9 hours a day washing coffee cups in detergent. I advised her to use gloves but she told me she was not used to it.

Then I told her that I had rehomed Screaming Banshee and she didn't have to go to the carpark again to feed him. I also told her that ST told me no one was coming to get the cats and the TC would not be sending people down to catch anyone or any cat. Then to drive home the point, I told her that she must feed the cats properly or else someone might complain and the TC would have to take action. Added to this, the left over food might even attract cockroahes and rats and the cats might get sick also. I also told her it was not wrong to feed the cats. It is only wrong to litter. She has been very afraid of being caught by the TC people. I think the cleaners etc have been scaring her too.

She then brought me to see a white cat in another area. She said this cat had gven birth but she could not find the kittens. I told her that the white cat may have hidden her kittens from view. I also told her that once the kittens are weaned she would have to help me catch the white cat for spaying as the white cat is familiar with her. She agreed. It seemed that this white cat is friendly with Casanova so I guess the kittens night be Casanova's kittens too.

I told her that I would feed the Wild Bunch until her hands are better. Then we can see to the timetable as next year I would be working again and there would be days and days of meetings and may not be able to feed them everyday.