Giving Thanks

In our last post for 2012, we give thanks for all the good times we had with each other and with the kindness of all the bloggers who came to see us. We also want to thank the bloggers who comforted us when our little kitty Totoro went to the bridge on 16th September. It was a dark day for all of us here and the kindness that everyone showed us made us feel loved and cared for.We still remember goofy Totoro and his love for soft breezes and cuddles and we know we were very lucky to have him for a time. 

We hope 2013 beings for everyone happiness and joy.

Easy Peasy Sunday

A water-lily sees us all peaceful this morning. This was taken in Cambodia at the Silver Pagoda but I thought it says all that want and wish for kitties and their beans everywhere.

 san will not be going anywhere soon, which is good. Taking care of the house is very tiring when I have to do it alone. Its time for some easy living now.

 Easy Living? No way. I am still hopeful of surprising the little gurl!

zzz...

 zzz...

We have stopped wiping her down with the warm salt water. She gets nervous and would not come out of her cubby hole when she sees Cousin R and me. So I have started her on some other homeopathy meds and  she has since slowed down her over-grooming and stress levels. She is more laid-back and confident and would ask to go out of the room as much as she can. She does not even mind walking along the corridor in the late afternoon when it is quiet. This picture was taken last Thursday when she came out in the late morning and she fell asleep here in the breeze.

This is what Ms Akira has in her food (1.5ml) and her water (1/2 a capful) every day. It seems to work very well for her. Although the vet says that she is over-grooming because of stress, she may have allergies that we do not know about. of course with her leg not bothering her so much (thanks to the osteopath AD) she is also feeling much better. But of course she is still not mixing with Tanaka and Megat as she is still fearful of them. I think we have a long way to go with that problem.

HMMM....

We are seriously not pleased that san is going away T_O_D_A_Y! and leaving us alone. Well..ok not alone. Cousin R will be staying over some nights to take care offur us and so will san's sister N. Ok, maybe we will be ok wifout hur for 5 whole days. She told us she would be in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and generally take a break.

Also san read that today 21 Dec 2012 is thought to be endoftheworld . Hmmm...in that case san should be wif us and not traipsing around. I do not know what these beans are up to. But one fing I do know is that we would get many treats from our sitters, esp Cousin R, as they all think we are soooo cute...and we are :))

Shenanigans!

It's time for SHE-NA-NI-GANS again! Mine and err...san says Ms Akira's also.I fink she is learning from me, her bruffer about shenanigans. san put this purty box out. I know she meant it fur me as I am the resident cat-in-the-box. So my brain said -Its TIME. I fink if I sit in here, the little gurl will not see me.

 Hmmm...lets see if she comes close to the door!

I wonder where she is?

 (Ms Akira is sitting at the far left just watching him)

Tanaka would sometimes sit on the green boxes and wait for her. I think he thinks if he does this, she may come close to the gate and he can ambush her right there. Before, she had come quite close but she realised in time that he was hiding behind the wall close to the gate or on top of  the green boxes! So now she has taken to doing this;

Taking a nap away from the gate. She spends quite some time in this cubby hole as it  is hidden from view. Maybe the experiment is not working out so well as the purpose of me putting the gates was for them to look at each other and m_a_y_b_e be a little more friendly. 

Napping...zzzz

For 2 days in a row, she has taken to hiding in here when its time for her warm salt bath so she has not had any. She is a clever kitty I must say. But as she is in here and not under her blanket, I think she may be a little cooler which is a good thing as well.

Just Because

A special moment...a first :)

Tuesday Thots

Ms Akira finished her 3rd consult with Dr AL, the osteopath. He said that her spine is straightened (hurrah) and her hind leg is much more relaxed. He also taught me how to massage her neck muscles and her leg muscles. It was a very empowering session for both Ms Akira and I. Since I forgot to bring the pictures of her overgroomed areas, we persuaded Ms Akira to walk using her harness. She was very brave and walked a little bit.

Dr AL asked me if she always crouched low on the ground and I said that was true. This was how she walked about. It was only at night that she walked tall as she knew the boys would be in the room or cage. DR AL said that this could also contribute to her muscles in her leg and neck getting so stiff and if so, this would lead to her mouth being stiff and unrelaxed and all this would have caused her alot of pain.

Dr AL said that it he felt she would always be afraid of the boys as it is alreday wired into her brain and all that we could do is to try to persuade her slowly to let go of the past.

Our next appointment is next year Feb where he would check her again and re-adjust her limbs if needed. So basically in terms of alignment, she is as aligned as she can be :)) So now there is not as much pain as before. I  have to massage her twice a week to help her to relax her limbs though. Practice makes perfect!

Just Because

 I wanted a snuggle in the blanket the morning and san wanted a picture...

I was furry good and we got both fings :)

If you guys were wondering why I have 2 bells - one big one and one smaller one, its because I am fast as lightning and san needs to know where I am most offur the time. What san? So that Ms Akira and Megat know also? Why is that? They love me and need to know too? Hmmm...I fink you are not telling me the whole truf!

Easy Peasy Sunday

Ms Akira asked to be let out of her room this morning. Once the boys were in my bedroom, she got out and proceeded to inspect the house. She is much more relaxed and confident. She now screams at Tanaka less and would sometimes stand infront of the baby gate. Of course she is still a little afraid that Tanaka would jump out from some hidden corner and she is very vigilant about these things :) Here she was sitting with grandma- easy peasy. She is looking much better. The sea salt and dusting powder worked rather well and her hind legs are no longer blue -black but has a little fuzz.

 Luscious veg and 

 fruits..

 in  a local provision shop at Serangoon Road.

I also went to Serangoon to shop for spices and went into this shop with a friend. The greens were so beautiful and looked very juicy and luscious. We bought some egg plant, okra, gram flour and onions to cook some vegetarian food. Then we went to lunch and had naan and paneer with spinach and some delicious mutton curry. It was a good lunch!

 Ms Akira needs the collar after her sea salt and warm water bath. After the bath, I would dust her hind legs generously and put the collar on for her for about 10 minutes. If not she would actually try to lick the powder off!

As usual, her devoted guard watches intently...everyday. He still hisses and growls at her whenever she is near him. He now tries to secretly wait for her at corners but he has yet to pounce at her. I do not know eyet what goes on with him :) It is still a waiting game for the both of them.

Happy Gotcha Day Megat :)

Yup. I am all of 16 and going strong...

I had a very quiet Gotcha Day. Cousin R and san sang me a Gotcha Day song and gave me treats with my dinner. I didn't have the horrible suppository and only had to eat the Kidney Activator pill. Nothing else. It is a good day!

Just Because and some words...

 My purrfect profile...

 What do you mean its NOT about me? Who is it about? Oh the little gurrl! Ok just this once.

 A close-up of Ms Akira's face  in the afternoon light.

She is 8 years old already (Feb) and so many of those years were spent in her room. But nowadays, after the osteopath had adjusted her hind legs and spine, she is more vocal and tells me that she wants to get out more often. So I try to make sure that she gets more time outside  These pictures were taken last Friday and she spent about 4 hours in the afternoon outside in the living room when the 2 boys were sequestered in the bedroom. She had a fine time.

 Hmmm....I want to do that as well...

 What's aoutside this window? Hmmmm....birds

 Another picture? Again?

 There is nothing like a good scratch on the boy's cat tree!!

I like the peace and quiet. 

I bought a cream for the eczema and it worked quite well. Its just that she has to use the cone for 5 minutes so she would not lick her legs straightaway. That is the only difficult thing as she could not see where she was going. I had used the soft KONG cone and its opaque. So I have to be with her for 5 minutes as she negotiates the cone! Last night, I had wiped her legs and belly with warm water and sea salt. After 1 minute, she visibly relaxed and Cousin R and I were able to wipe her down quite easily. Then I had powdered her with dusting powder made up of chamomile extract and linden flowers. It is supposed to relieve skin irritations and also for sensitive skin. Then I put the cone on her but as she was quite scared of it, I had flattened the cone so it covers her shoulders instead. It was as surprise to me that she sat quietly and didn't attempt to lick the powder off. So maybe this evening I would do that as well to see if it is not  a once off thing. She seemed fine with the whole thing and later at night, we went for our usual 3 minute walk. :) I am glad that she is gradually growing more confident of herself. Thanks to our friends The Poupounette for giving us the idea of using 'hot spot' creams for dogs. We got the one for dogs and cats and it was very useful.

TGIF

Ms Akira was not happy on the way to the osteopath today as I forgot to put her soft toy in the carrier with her. She made alot of noise for the 40 minute journey but there was nothing that I could have done about that. But she was happier when Dr AL saw her and he said her leg was not as bad as before and there were no more spasms in her left leg. We spoke about her usual behaviours and the improvements in her behaviour. I told Dr AL about her night walks and showed him the video of her walking. He was pleased that she was beginning to be curious about the outside world as this would make her less 'inward-looking' and OCD. He advised that I try to wipe her down every day with warm water and sea salt as this would calm her down and wipe away the sweat on her legs. This may help her to overgroom less. He also recommended that she has the air-con on as this would make her more comfortable but that would mean I have to remove the child gates. I realised when I came home that she had a thick blanket. I had forgotten all about this and so I removed that and gave her a lighter one in cotton. This would make her less hot I hope and she would not have to lick her legs to make herself feel more comfortable. Dr AL said that she seemed to have eczema and advised that I get a cream that would not encourage her to lick her hind leg. When we came home, I managed to take a picture of her as she jumped onto the table and indeed there was a 3 inch patch that looked redder than the rest. There are many things for us to think about.

On a lighter note, I thought I would show off the hardworking cats at the vet's :) 

This one is very beautiful and would greet clients :)

This one is much more shy and likes sitting on the counter :) She greets only some clients and I was glad that I was one of the privileged ones :)

She works pretty hard looking after the dog food ;)

The vet also looks after a little dog whose owner was not able to look after. They are nice people here :)

Thursday Thots

errr...none at present :0)

However Ms Akira had gone for her blood test but the vet said it was not so accurate and so she has to go for  a re-test later today! Ms akira is 7 years old and she has not gotten a blood test ever since she came to live wif san, which was 6.5 years ago. Ms Akira would not like getting poked wif a needle again. She cannot eat anyfing from now until 5.15 pm when her test is. She is a little dehydrated but vet said san did not have to give her any SubQ fluids. Thank goodness for that! On the good side, she is FIV/Felv free and she is 4.7 kg. Hooray fur that!

Ms Akira's Adventures

 Ms Akira wondering if she could pounce on a bug but she was too late :)

 Where did the bug go to san?

Our night walks. It has been 3 nights now that we have gone out for a short time along the corridor. She is wearing Toro's harness as I could not find her old one with the psychedelic  pattern. She was very brave and curious. So she got much praise about her courage and bravery. She told Laura that she is not such a brave kitty but i thought after 4 years  and then going outside for 3 nights is such a great feat. 

This morning she heard me walking outside with Bujang and decided to join is by going out through her opened window. She has never done this before as she would be too afraid but NOT this morning and so I had to put the mesh. It is a pity as she now doesn't have a full view of the small garden I had planted for her to look at but I am afraid she would really try get out. The boys do not do this at their window though so I guess she is really getting her courage back again.

This is Ms akira walking down the steps. Dr AL wanted me to video her walking :)

Ms Akira and the Osteopath

Yes, if I had not been there to see it, I would not have believed it. Ms Akira did many things today and was very brave as well. She actually walked along the corridor with san! I was very proud of her and so was san 

 Ms Akira is looking quite kittenish in this picture :) The osteopath did her a lot of good.

It began some time ago when san called Laura. That was on the 16th of November and Ms Akira told Laura this: 

Akira:  I would love it if you could help me cause I feel pain inside of my body.  I feel a pain in side of my body that feels like my neck is collapsing onto it self.  and my mouth feels like it does not line up straight.  And sometimes my eyes throb.  My belly constantly feels like it is expanding and there is tight rope in there.  Cause my legs get numb and they seize up.

I do want to tell the doctor something the medicine he gave me helps me but at night time I have a hard time sleeping and also my paws tingle.  They tingle at the tips and when I eat my food I get really dizzy at first and then it goes away.  I have a hard time with anxiety and the other cats cause my body starts to feel worse. My head starts to hurt and I feel like a weight on my neck that hurts my lower neck and my shoulder blades and then that hurts my back end.  

My mouth also hurts.  When I lick it hurts my mouth and jaw.

xxxxxxxxxx

Laura then said that Ms Akira would benefit from going to the chiropractor. I then asked our vet Dr L if this would be good but he instead directed us to an osteopath as he said it would be so much gentler and since Ms Akira is a gentle and timid kitty, it would be a better option. So we got the address and this morning, we went to see Dr AL, an osteopath and naturopath,  at the Biopolis. I was very nervous as the receptionist said I could not bring Ms Akira into the clinic as one of the other doctors was allergic to animals and we had to meet Dr AL at the garden. But I decided to just wait outside the office and when he came we had short discussion of what ailed her.

Dr AL put her soft carrier on his lap and just started to massage her head softly. I gave him the transcript of our session and he read it quite calmly and after that we discussed her medication and what our vet recommended. He said that he could 'see' her cranium and he agreed that she is under some stress. He added that he would try to re-wire her reactions and persuade her to perform alternative actions when she is unhappy or fearful and not lick her hind legs.

Then he massaged or 'flicked' her spine gently to realign her spinal column. Ms Akira was not very fearful and started to purr. Then she turned around and allowed him to massage her left hind leg and that was when Dr AL felt little spasms along the muscle. Dr AL had me place my fingers on there and I felt the muscle move quite rapidly. Dr AL said that she was very brave and well-behaved as he was giving her a deep massage and it must be painful for her. Dr AL said that she must have been hurt more than once for her muscle to be in that state and she must be hurting quite a lot! She even purred when he was massaging her hurt leg! I was very impressed and also horrified that she truly had hurt herself and this could be why she was not walking well or over-grooming as she was trying to make her legs hurt less! Dr Al said that we need to see him some more times so that he could further adjust her body and if she needs some long-term care then he would teach me how to do rehab for her at home.

After some time, Dr AL announced that he managed to un-knot her muscle some and he asked me to see her face. It was a surprise for me as yesterday she was looking pinched and thin and after the massage, her face looked much smoother and less pinched. Then Dr AL said that I should watch out for some changes, however small as with a change in the body, there would be a change in behaviour as well. 

And indeed I must report that the change was quite immediate. In the taxi  she was curious and wanted to see everything that was going on outside. She lay on her tummy, quite relaxed and spent the entire journey looking curiously about. This was a great change as before Ms Akira would curl herself up into a ball and hide under the blanket and she would meow throughout the whole journey. 

The greatest miracle was at about 8.30 ish, I had opened the gate to get her some grass. Ms Akira uncharacteristically walked out calmly!! WOAH! I then scooped her up and we walked together near the plants. before she would have struggled and meowed and clawed me so that she can go back inside! Then i decided to put her in Tanaka's harness and walk her with the leash. She walked at first quite nervously but then later she became quite confident and walked TWICE along the corridor! This was unprecedented  Before Megat came to live with us, she did walk out but only infront of our house but now, along the length of the corridor. I was so pleased that she was so brave tonight and praised her. I think the Dr AL performed a miracle when he managed to massage her hurt muscle this morning. I look forward to more night walks with Ms Akira when it is more quiet. HURRAH!

Megat's Vet Visit

Megat went to see 2 doctors this morning. He had an ultra sound done as we had not done any for quite some time and then he had to see Dr Ly. He had to fast for 12 hours and was not pleased that he had no breakfast! He made a fuss but once he was inside the cab, he was very quiet and I think resigned! He knew where he was going an decided to take it easy.

Megat peeked from his carrier to see what the fuss was about!

Megat's ultra sound results were quite good. Most of his organs were clear of terrifying things. But I knew that since he is already 16 yrs, there might be some hiccups like kidney issues and such. Sure enough he has a little swelling of the kidneys but Dr Ly said this was usually the case for such an old kitty. His small intestine was a little hardened and he had one lymph node that had swelled! However Dr Ly told us that we should just monitor these issues for now and that there was no need for any great alarm. He however had given Megat the Kidney Activator and he has to take 2 pills daily, he had increased the sang hwang liquid extract to 1.5 ml instead of 0.8 and the colloidal silver to 3 ml instead of 2 daily. Dr Ly said sang hwang also helps with kidney issues. He was also given a Laurabolin and Vitamin B shot as well. 

When he came home, he checked out the house to see that I had actually brought him home :) and he got to eat his chicken and tuna and a nap.

I was gald that the news was not any worse than this! 

Shenanigans!

san shud have thot much harder when she decided to keep my toy in this box! When she was on the phone, I went into the box to look fur it! Maybe I should be an Explorer or a PI! I have skills!

 I dug deep into the box. I can smell it! But it was underneath some of san's smelly books. I needed a plan.

So I asked san nicely if she could take the toy out fur me. san always says yes when I ask nicely. I chirp at her, not meow! THAT is the surprise attack - CHIRPING!

Since she already helped me to recover my toy, she decided to play! THAT, ladies and gentlemen is the power of the CHIRP.

 We played for bit. It was sneak and peek and pounce. Marvellous!

After that I rewarded san with a nice picture of me just hagning out on da couch! san did not think it was a shenanigan of mine. She thot I was furry cute. Ha!