A Tale of Two Kitties

Hey, peeps! Sorry about the delay in this week's installment of my blog. Had a busy weekend and just found the time to start writing now.

So, in a semi-continuation of my previous post, I'll be writing about the interactions between Maxie and Garfield this week since that's an obvious follow-up, and I've little other material from Maxie ever since Garfield joined our little household. I'm sorry to say that I haven't much inspiration to write (perhaps it's the fatigue) but I'm determined to do my best to stick to my one entry/week resolution. Therefore, please bear with me if the writing style isn't as upbeat and/or interesting in my usual mien.

Firstly, Garfield has taken to eating kibble (finally!) and is filling out quite well. That, and the the exercise he's been getting with his foster mummy, Maxie.

No longer skin-and-bones

The little kitten can be quite demanding of attention, he meows me awake (from the next room) and gets Maxie to meow me awake too if I dillied and dallied around. The two have bonded rapidly, and instead of cuddling with me in the morning, the first order of business on my princess's mind in the mornings is to paw at the door of our (yes, our) room, and then paw at Garfield's door, demanding to be let in.

Maxie's taken on a maternal role with Garfield quite readily after the initial introductions, and would always groom him when I let Garfield out of his cage; well, until he's tired of it anyway.

After the mandatory grooming session, little Garfield will excitedly initiate play with his new mama cat. Maxie is rediscovering her playful side (she's had a deprived childhood, sad to say...) with Garfield's antics. Sometimes, they'll progress from grooming to play immediately:

*lick lick lick*

Paw on the nose, "That's enough, ma!"

Maxie backing off

 

"I wanna play!"

*pounce*

 

Wrestlemania, kitty-style!

This typically degenerates into a frenetic display of "Let's watch two crazy cats run around in a small room". Times like these I usually sit in the chair or bed with my legs up and watch them bleed off their excess energy.

When they're not playing catch, they play "Whac-a-mole" with each other on the side of the bed or on the chair.

"This time, I get to go up!" says Garfield

I see you!

Whac-a-paw?

When all else fails, they also revert to the old standby of Hide-and-seek:

Peek-a-boo!

*pounce*

However, Maxie being not full of unlimited energy like Garfield is, frequently stops play halfway through and hides somewhere when the kitten isn't looking. Luckily for her, Garfield hasn't perfected his ninja skills yet. Maxie has had plenty of practice in finding hiding places when she plays the "Let's find somewhere daddy won't find me and keep quiet so I can watch him freak out and laugh" game (this happens quite often, you'd think I'd wise up to her by now, heh).

Where IS she?

Occasionally, he decides I am an easier target to play with instead of finding her. Mostly though, he persists until he finds Maxie and she will walk away to avoid his hyperactivity. Of course, Garfield wasn't having any of that! He stalks her everywhere she goes :p

Where are you going? Can we play?

Please please can we play? Puh-leez? Pweedy pwueeze?

If you won't play, I'll pounce on you anyway!

My Sith Lady, undeterred, puts the wannabe Darth in his place:

No means no!

Maxie's 'Glare of Doom' subdues the recalcitrant kitten

Oh, and don't worry, all this happened closely supervised, so the kitten wasn't hurt by it. It's just cat-play. :)

Besides, we know they love each other cos sometimes I step out of the room and come back to see this:

*cuddles and lickies*

Sadly, I had to place Garfield at my shelter colleague's place as I was away for the weekend. Poor little tyke wasn't happy about it and looked miserable. Kinda broke my heart to have to leave him at someplace foreign. However, unlike Maxie, he can't be left alone for 3 days with just  food and water and toys.

In the car

Why you leave me here?

I'll be picking him up today, hopefully they still remember each other and won't jump down each other's throats when I bring him home.

In the meantime, when I asked Maxie where's Garfield, she responds thusly:

Gar-who?

Garfield ~The Chronicles of a Rescued Kitten

Dear readers, this week's post will deviate from my usual Maxie-centric semi-humorous postings. Fret not, though, as our favorite princess will still be featured somewhat in this week's installment of the Diary of a Cat's Slave. Just be forewarned that this post may take on a somewhat more serious tone than usual...

For those not in the know, I volunteer at an animal (dog) shelter called 2nd Chance (formerly known as Paws Mission but forced to rename ourselves due to conflict of "brand" with PAWS). Three weeks ago, we held an adoption drive at The Bee Restaurant & Bar, Jaya One. Instead of getting our pups adopted, we ended up rescuing a ginger tom kitten that I nicknamed Garfield. The poor little tyke was a tragic victim of a traffic accident, and couldn't use his hind legs AND was bleeding through his nose when we found him.

Dragging his hind legs

Blood-stained nose

To add to our complications, the little fella was mostly feral and objected vehemently to being manhandled by us and meowed up a storm. We finally got him to a vet, who kindly rehabilitated Garfield over the weekend. Unfortunately, she didn't have an x-ray machine, so I had to take Garfield to another vet for a scan...poor guy was terrified in the waiting room that was dog-filled!

Let me out! Get me away from here!

As luck would have it, kittens heal fast, and there was minimal pelvic fracture and some lung contusion, which explained the nose-bleeding, I was thankful to hear that as I was afraid of the worst: lung puncture from a broken rib.

Garfield was sent back to the vet for another week of observation before she pronounced him ready for fostering. I took on the job because although we all found him at the same time during the adoption drive, I consider him my first rescue and had a bit of responsibility to him even though I swore never to foster again; mostly due to the "fun" feeling of bereavement after letting your foster animals go to their new homes.

He was very scared of everything, and I kept him in my guest room in a cage. He was to have enforced cage rest for the better part of a month and another check-up by the vet before he can be pronounced healthy and ready for adoption. Thankfully, he wasn't permanently disabled and can walk, just with an awkward gait.

First day at home

Day 4 or so, looking a lot better!

Once a day, I'll let him out of the cage to roam around in the room to get some exercise. Didn't want to let him to get too crazy, after all, the vet said cage rest.

When I let him out, Garfield will run to a corner of the room and hide from me, and run away when I approached him. When I eventually managed to touch him and pet him, he started climbing all over me with cheek rubs and head butts, purring all the time. You can tell the little kitten is very loving, but is confused because he's not quite used to humans and doesn't quite know what to make of me. Everytime I go in, the scene repeats, hiding first until I manage to pet him, then clinging to me in the middle of the room.

You can see how scrawny he is

Some of the cat toys that Maxie grew bored of

Sometimes he's clingy, sometimes he's scared

Well, to ensure a smooth transition of adding a kitty to the household, I kept Garfield and cage with the door closed in the guest room. Maxie hears the meows but ignores them. Sometimes she will sniff at me after I've gone into the room to handle the kitten. She takes a lot of interest in his litter box whenever I bring it out for cleaning.

 

"You're bringing home ANOTHER kitten?" grouses Darth Puissant

I let them peek at each other very briefly through the door a few times, and after a few days I felt it was time to let them meet...closely supervised, of course! 

First "face-to-face"

Sniff sniff

"Uncle James, why is she smelling me? Do I stink?"

I actually have no idea what Maxie is up to in this pic...

Eating "together"

It took a few more sessions before I was willing to go to the next step. Actually, I was advised not to let the two cats interact physically, for fear of the play getting too rough and re-injuring the kitten. But I couldn't stand the mama cat meowing outside the door when I'm in with the kitten, and the kitten meowing inside the room when I'm out with the big one.

So, when I couldn't take it anymore, I let Maxie into the kitten's room, closed the door and let Garfield out. I was poised to take action to separate them if any unwanted events were to unfold. After the first few minutes, it was clear that they weren't destined for "hate at first touch", thankfully, and so I was able to snap a few quick pictures before stopping play. Didn't want to physically stress the kitten out too much.

The obligatory circling around

Maxie actually wasn't quite sure what to do with Garfield

But Garfield loves Maxie!

Trying to get more of his scent...

Garfield doesn't respect "grooming time"

I am happy to report that the two felines seem pretty fine with each other, though Maxie was a little at a loss of what to make of him at first. Garfield is obviously more used to the company of cats than humans, as he took to her very quickly, and was even the one to instigate play. At one point he was chasing Maxie around, poor kitty. However, Garfield still isn't fully healed, and he tumbled and upended himself. Maxie, not meaning any harm, put a paw on him and at this point I cut short the games and put him back in the cage before they accidentally hurt him together.

As you can see, Garfield is still quite scrawny. He's not putting on a lot of weight but he has been dewormed and eat 3 meals a day. He has just recently started accepting kibbles (softened in water) so with any luck, a more balanced kitten diet would make him gain some weight. When I let them interact and put food down, Maxie went to eat from his bowl (it used to be her food bowl) first, but if Garfield ambled over to share a bite, she would politely back off and let the kitten eat it. Such a good kitty, my Maxie!

I would like to take this chance to tell everybody that all of you can perform some kind of kindness to an animal. If you cannot adopt, you can foster. If not foster, you can sponsor. If not sponsor, you can donate. If you can't donate, you can volunteer. Or at the very least, you can spread the message of not being cruel to animals. They are living beings too and deserve their chance at a good life. Also, if you intend to rescue an animal, remember that you are responsible for it. Please do not be a vigilante rescuer who "rescues" an animal only to dump it at shelters. That is not doing a good deed, that is lying to yourself because you are not taking responsibility for your rescued animal and putting on additional workloads on the shoulders of already strained volunteers and/or shelter workers.

Special thanks to my personal cat advisor, the lovely Katie, for entertaining my questions on how to care for Garfield and bearing with my incessant complaints.  ^^

Travelling Kitty ~ JB trip

It was Labour Day on Thursday, so with some other family event also slated around this period, I decided to head back for a long weekend and brought Her Highness with me.

Having decided thusly, I took out her carrier, opened the door and gestured to her, "Maxie, inside!"

She eyed me with a narrow stare, "Are you sure?"

"Inside, now!"

She grumblingly walked in...

"You'd better not be taking me to that nasty vet!"

"Or I shall use my Sith powers on you,"warns Darth Puissant.

A little discomfited, I hastily assured our wannabe Sith Lady (it's a Star Wars term for a scary bad guy...er...woman, for those who aren't a nerd like me) that no, we were not going to the vet, this time. Appeased, Maxie consented to my clumsy jostling of her carrier into the car.

Once we were on our way, Her Lordship yowled to be let out of her carrier. After nearly 2 hours of hearing her nagging and asking if we were there yet, I made a stop and obliged.

Are we there yet?

Looking forward to the trip

Upon arrival, I hurriedly set up the princess's temporary accommodations in case she was hungry or in need of the little kitty's room. When everything was to her liking, I unleashed the kitty from the carrier (I had to nudge her back inside when we arrived).

 

I've arranged things so that her food bowl, water bowl and litter tray were inside a small cage that my friend Shins thoughtfully donated to me when I first got Maxie (she has a bigger, less transportable cage that will probably be featured in some future blog post) for just this purpose. Though, seeing as how this wasn't her first trip to my JB home, she predictably protested.

"I hope you don't expect me to live in THAT?!" she meowed imperiously while I was setting things up.

"Of course not, sweetheart. Daddy will let you roam in the house, this is just to keep your stuff someplace where people won't accidentally move things," I assured her. I lied of course, the cage is so her litter sand won't get EVERYWHERE, instead of just localised around the cage (she managed to somehow get the sand everywhere anyway -_-").

Maxie inspecting the premises.

With mum's permission, Maxie got the run of the place (after we've netted the front door so she wouldn't get too adventurous and get run over by a roving truck).

As befitting her cat-ish nature,  she explored the place thoroughly and inspected every nook and cranny...

Hmmm, I've never been in THIS room  before! (The door is usually kept closed)

What is this hole in the ground for?

I hastily put a pail over the hole in the ground, less kitty decides to add spelunking to her already impressive resume.

"Okay, I guess this place is kinda neat. The front door's kinda noisy though, big noisy animals running around all day," she complained. We live in an apartment so she's unused to "large animals" passing by at 80km/h when down at JB.

"Meh kitty, that's just the traffic. Don't worry about it. You'll get used to it," I responded airily.

Shooting me a dubious look, Maxie decided to stamp her mark on the place, by picking what she thought was the most comfortable spot in the living room.

What are you looking at?

Somebody's definitely made herself at home...nicely camouflaged too!

The next day, we had errands to run, so we left Maxie at home alone. When I came back, she greeted me at the window while waiting for the door to open. Over the next few days, this was a repeating theme with the addition of her saying goodbye to me at the window when I left too. It kinda made me feel bad (I think that was her objective anyway), and it troubled me that she had to watch me leave. We have a firm routine at home when I leave: I ask her politely to come into the bedroom, she says okay, I close the door and leave. No fuss. However, in JB there's no routine and she gets to watch me leave and meow piteously (or was that gloatingly? Hmmm...).

I thought it would get better when I left to meet my cousins while mum is home to keep her company; but nope, mum said she waited at the door for me (awwww!):

"Welcome home! Er...don't be mad but I think I broke something while you were gone!" :X

"

Why you leave me behind?"

Well, I had to spend time with the family while here, so if I can't take kitty to the family, I'll take the family to the kitty! With a stroke bordering on the genius, I invited my cousins to come visit us instead!

Initially, Maxie wasn't impressed.

"Why are you bringing me more humans? I do not require more slaves! I've already trained you to my liking, don't you know that I shouldn't be exerting myself? I'm a grown cat, for goodness' sake! Grown cats are supposed to spend their time doing NOTHING!" she went on and on and on...

But wait, I had a trick up my sleeve...

Maxie's "whatever" to my cousins visiting

Wait, you have my wand? Bring it on!

Let me show you how kung fu is done!

 ...and a good time was had by all with Maxie's kitty wand!

Well, kitty got over-stimulated by the unexpected attention, so bed time wasn't fun. :p

The next day, I had a badminton date with some other cousins, so I had to leave Maxie behind again. When I got home, exhausted, I hurriedly took a shower and turned on my couch potato mode without giving Her Highness any attention.

"If you go and play badminton again, I will take this tool and smack you over the head with it! Capische?"

I grovelled, I'm ashamed to say, for forgiveness. I treated her to her favourite anchovies, fed her tuna, petted her just the way she likes (which usually involves me bending at unnatural angles, I'm convinced she likes the petting style solely for the sake of torturing me).

"Okay, okay. Fine. I'll forgive you. This one time. Promise me you'll never play badminton again!" she ordered, in faux graciousness.

"Yes, princess. Anything you want," I continued to grovel, a clear victim of pussy-whipping.

"Now pet me to sleep!"

She commanded, I obeyed.

"I'll forgive you."

Soon, it was time to return home...and the packing frenzy started anew. Supervising me to ensure I left nothing (of hers) behind and that she got prime seats, we finally departed back to KL.

Goodbye, JB!