Ashley's Gaggle of Kids

[ashleywong]

Alpha Cat Outsourcing Grooming

[ashleywong]

Nicholas Black Knight aka Nicky aka BeBe

[dog is my buddy]

Hey, isnt your cat? nice cat

[blackie007]

hey, ashley, that's very cute......hahaha, do they groom each other often?

[lynielime]

So loving.. And still some people think cats are coldhearted. They've obviously never had the privilege of being a cat's pet human Hahaha!

[ashleywong]

actually, the black white tuxie used to be the alpha cat (before the return of ginger). he seldom grooms himself. he always outsourced it to anna (that's the one you see in the pic). in the hierachy of 3 cats, poor little anna ranked the lowest as she's the smallest size. coco is almost same size as nicky but not as bulky so she has the "guts" to say no to outsourcing request. coco has quite a temper and doesn't like being bullied and she'd say it unequivocally to anyone, cat or human, with a swipe of her paws and since it's hard to catch her for nail trimmings her nails are always very sharp and wickedly curved!

poor anna. even if we take her away, she'd return to groom nicky. however coco and anna will groom each other.

i wanted to post some pics of nicky however it didn't turn out don't know why. i tried until past midnight last nite then gave up.

wait till i show you the pic they took , coco and nicky. very funny.

[ashleywong]

Hi all

these are photos of my sweet red mackerel tabby, Ginger. these were taken before he dissapeared on 27th Jan 2008 this year just before we celebrate chinese new year. My friend accidentally let him out and he never came back for his dinner. he was usually very punctual about mealtimes and he always returned home to sleep. these were the days when they were enjoying outdoor privileges. we were heartbroken and despondent. we searched hi and low for him but to no avail...days turned into weeks and into months..our high hopes faded and fear crowded in..but we still hope that we'd able to see him one day.

[ashleywong]

THen one day, about 5 months after he dissapeared, we saw a cat resembling ginger up on our 1st floor roof (roof of the porch).

i was on my way out, in my car when i chanced to look up and saw him. luckily my sis was at home and managed to snap picture of him, as well as spoke to him and persuaded him to take some food from us.

he was very very thin, gaunt, dirty, tired and fearful. it broke out heart to see our sweet ginger boy so fearful. but he did accept food from us but we have to leave it out on the rooftop, and leave him alone - otherwise he won't eat. he was very very afraid of us yet he kept coming back -

we were hopeful. he dissappeared that first night of his return - june 15th, i'll remember this day forever - happened to be my twin brothers' birthday too.

next morning he re-appeared again same spot. we leave him food, canned food as well as kibbles and water. it was a challenge trying to put out food for him , making sure the food bowl is secured and yet sheltered from the rain.

he remained with us on the 2nd and 3rd day and 4th day...going away after each feeding but returning for more. on the 4th night, he stayed put. he was still very afraid, he'd only come out to take food only if we switch off the lights and watched him quietly in the dark. luckily we were able to persuade him to come near the bedroom windows.

he continue staying with us day and night we looked forward to seeing him first thing in the morning and when we returned from work...

and on the 6th day, my sis woke up to find that he has trapped himself in her bathroom. he came in through her window which she left opened since he first showed up. he was wild with fear - fear of us and it really broke out heart.

we manage to get his carrier cage into the shower stall where he trapped himself and surprisingly he quickly trotted into the carrier after he has been making himself wild with fear scrabbling, scrambling and jumping around to escape.

my sis and i looked at each other and we broke down into tears - tears of relief, happiness and sadness

we both took EL that day and took him to the vet, asking for a full checkup for him. however vet assured us it'd take a full day and asked us to return to work.

good news awaited us - he came with a clean bill of health, only needing deworming. not that good news - he was so scared and so fearful the vet has to knock him out temporarily with anathestic temporarily so they could check him out. we were glad he pulled through.

from then on, began the rehabilitation of ginger. he was so afraid of us he won't move, won't make a noise, won't look at us, only huddled and cowered in a corner of his cage

we have no choice but to cage him as part of our plan to rehabilitate him. we had to put his carrier cage into the bigger cage as we didn't know how else to get him out without stressing him out. he will only come out to eat after we switch off the light and closed the door.

we took off the top of the carrier cage as we found that he actually only ate that first night in the cage and subsequently he didn't eat at all - he started to lose weight again and became scrawny

with the hood off, he turned eve more fearful- cowering with his head lowered, refusing to look at us. once we caught him when he was in the litter box and the look of him then, so fearful - it broke out heart.

we only kept him in the cage for about 4 days before i decided to let him have free run of the room. he started eating and took with him his orange ball with him wherever he goes - whether it is underneath the bed or underneath the cupobard.the ball is his constant and trusted companion. slowly we manage to get re-acquainted with him and he slowly blossomed and came out of his shell - he was excited to see his siblings but not us. it was a slow process and each of his behaviour brought home to us the horrors he must have endured out there - there's no describing what sort of experience he had that made him so fearful of humans - yet he was not afraid of nicky, anna and coco. we cried so many time since then, to think that our sweet ginger went through so much suffering.

he didn't know how to respond to us when we call him - he kept silent most of the time, he kept to himself most of the time, it was as if he was in a shell and we couldn't reach him - until he saw the rest of the cats then he reacted. he didn't know to play - he had no idea of the concept of "play" - he had no idea of the concept of "share". he has no concept of "self".

but he slowly responded and for that we thanked god for bringing ginger back to us.

[ashleywong]

More photos of ginger after he returned to us - during "rehabilitation" time.

he had that "Stray cat" look, a wild fearful look - a look that said he doesn't recognise us human as his family/friends - a look that said he was fearful of us, nay, he was terrified of us and our presence.

[ashleywong]

How do we recognised ginger upon his return?

Ginger is a very special cat - not because we love him but because of his colorings/genes.

he has very striking colours. he is a red and golden cream tabby. his stripes and spots are dark orange or red, the rest are golden cream - not white, not yellow, not pale orange. he has two orange stripes across his chest. he has red spots on his belly - no white markings, just deep coloured spots on golden cream fur. the shape of his ears are just like his siblings, very pointed at the end and with slight elegant outward turn at the tip. also his facial markings/patterns - they're very disinctive - different from other cats but bearing resemblance to that of his siblings!

during our search in the intervening months, we had sighted numerous "ginger look-alikes" but there looked like ginger but were not ginger - during that time, we scrutinised each ginger-coloured cat we came across and discovered that no two ginger cats are the same in colouration, markings and patterns. we were afraid that we might not recognise him when he returned so we looked at his photo constantly and memorised his features. finally, we actually compared him to his photo upon his return, looking to confirm certain patterns and colourations...and lo behold, it is ginger.

[sillylupie]

Ashley, you never failed to move me with your experiences. Ginger is one lucky cat to have someone like you.. and your sis.
He looks handsome ... and you've got very beautiful roof tiles too ... heheeheheh

[ashleywong]

hi bina,

thanks for caring and reading my "blog-bish". not sure about the "move" part but i sometimes i do get carried away.

yeah, the tiles are new - at least the porch roof tiles - they're new addition when we bought the house. too bad the rest of the house are not!

anyway, i'm sure i'm not the only one who felt this way about his/her cats. i'm sure to us all our beloved cats are 1) family members first 2) pets second 3) animals - really? oops didn't occur to me :-p and i can confidently "bet" my money that all of us will go all out for our beloved family members when the tough gets going.

the timing of it was what the threw us into dissaray. about that time, samantha turned up with her kids,chloe and gabriel. we initially thought sam was with ginger, so we offered her shelter and food as we bought time to get hold of ginger.

about this time, another red cat also showed up at our backdoor - and then another two days later - another red mackerel tabby.

suddenly we were inundated with cats...by this time we have grabbed hold of our own ginger but we continue to feed the two red cats at the back - as during that particular time, we were like "clouded" with emotions in our judgement and suddenly we found we couldn't be sure just who is ginger and my friend didn't help as he kept saying" you sure or not??" we have small nigging doubts but we can't but help feel that ginger is our ginger.

since sam took up the small cages and ginger used up the large cage, the two cats at the back have to make do with al-fresco dining and finding their own shelter. poor them. but our niggling doubts were only in a day. all we have to do is observe the 3 red tabbies and we know in our heart who is ginger and plus he matched all those "patterns" identification mark.

in the meantime, sam got pregnant found out much later but she was and she was difficult to intergrate with my cats - she fought with them a few times and even taught little gabriel about fighting with my cats. it was distressing to watch little gabriel charging vent-a-terre at nicky and ginger who collectively tip the scale at 10kg at least. and because of so much happening at the same time, i didn't give that much time and care to sam as i wanted and as i should have. i have regretted my oversight since.

also, my brother wrote and said he's coming back and for us to get ready his room for him - the room that ginger boy was using. bad bad bad more worries.

fast forward to this day - sam has given birth and adopted, now slowly recovering her strength from the eventful birth of her kittens, gabriel has been adopted, chloe has been adopted. ginger and nicky won their battle with this haemobartone...somethint - sis. still recuperating. it was the stress of coping with so many terittorial "usurpers" that stressed out nicky first then ginger (as he has a had time intergrating with coco - coco took a dislike to him and so did the others initially) and down they come with heamobartone...something -sis.

the two red cats - the mackerel tabby turned out to be female - and last week, she wandered off. i had hoped to gain her trust enough to take her in and get her neutered before releasing her but she has wandered off. the other is male cat but turned out to be not tabby. wonderful shades of orange and red and white but not a tabby. he still comes to us for his meal and he would so politely let me know when he has arrived and when he is done, if there's any leftovers, he would politely remind me that there is leftover and that i need to keep it. he's a very smart cat.

[lynielime]

err.... are you on the roof with ginger? he's super cute btw.. i love marmalades

[ashleywong]

hi lynie

well, i almost decided to crawl out on the roof to get him. these pics were taken from my sis' bedroom window, the front bedrooms have windows that opened out to see the porch roof. we also decided at one point (but quickly scrapped the idea) of getting something from the vet to sort of "drug" him so that when he passes out, we can get him into the house but we knew that's not advisable because there's no telling when he'd passed out and it may not be right besides our window and this may endanger him. a mad idea in a desperate moment but we discarded it immediately.

[ashleywong]

nowadays, we make sure none of our furkids can escape from the house - making sure to keep the doors shut at all times and the windows and doors "netted" all over - looks like jail and my dad complained but i don't want to ever ever risk losing them again,we may not be so lucky ever!

we don't know why ginger chose to reappear on the roof but we have a theory that he might remember the last place of home where he's been even though he may not recognise us immediately.

the few days immediately following his dissapearance, we had asked the rest of our furkids whether they know what happened to ginger. without fail all of them would meowed and looked up at the rooftop, and for the next week or so, coco, nicky and anna would go up to the rooftop without fai from morning till evening. they would looked sad too. now in hindsight we remember but at that time, we were too troubled in our minds to give it much thought. prior to that fateful event, my cats had taken to use the rooftop as "walk-path" because our neighbours had been making their lives miserable, chasing them or throwing things at them and even beating nicky and ginger at one time. one neighbour even stationed his dog in the backyard just to catch my cats. they had stop walking through the interlinking gardens and the road kerb due to all these disturbancs -

[lynielime]

ashley, your neighbors suck.. yup i think that says it all

[ashleywong]

and you're logged in at work!

i agree with you, there are times when i'd like to ...you know.. but in the end, i just swallow it and keep peace..for the sake of my cats and other cats out there.

i had to feed poor simba on the sly cos i don't them to find any excuse to hurt him or poison him. and he's smart enough to cooperate with me. poor him

[ashleywong]

Check this out - they're both so cute - no it is not staged - my sis captured this one day when she was home on MC and i was coming in through the door after work.



nicky: pssssstttt! wake up!
coco: mmmppphhh! let me sleep...



nicky:did you hear that?? what is that scary sound?



coco: are you sure...?
nicky : can't you hear that?!



nicky: aaarrgggh...the monster is coming! quick run!



nicky: no, wait...it's our dinner walking in...they're home finally.

[filinlee]

wah...so cute... some more can make conversation.. ahahhaha...

[ashleywong]

of course my furkids can talk and they do that frequently..sometimes i suspect they can do it "telephatically"...they would be like looking at each other, each with a slightly different expression, then suddenly all would get up and collectively go do something else...