COT Food From Heaven

I dropped a bag of cat biscuits the other day in the kitchen. Au was disgusted and stalked off. He likes his kitty crunchies in a bowl.

But Target thought that throwing biscuits all over the flood was a brilliant idea. Tail up, he hoovered up a vast amount in just a few minutes. And he was actually disappointed when I helped gather up the rest!

We're back from our break and ready to go but we've got tonnes of email! So this is a short one and we'll be back on Friday with a Formerly Feral post. We'll visit you all in the next day or so.

For more kitties, visit Gattina.

Formerly Feral Friday

Target was born in a storm drain somewhere in Subang Jaya. He and his family got sick with some sort of flue. They were rescued by a very kind lady called Neamah. Unfortunately, only Target survived.

Our friend Scoop had passed away leaving Au rather lonely. Our vet Lee Wei Wei (who has now moved to her own clinic and we really miss her!) introduced us to Neamah and Target.

Although he's been treated well by his foster mum and by us, his furver family, Target is a little fraidy cat. He jumps if we sneeze without giving him notice. Panics if the wind slams a door closed. He even jumps when the label of the teabag flutters against my glass!!

Still, we adore our little fuzzy and he loves living with us. Here he is with the feather duster we bought for him. We put it in the cupboard and bring it out every few weeks so that it remains a favourite toy.

Scoop passed away two years ago this Sunday. He was a fantastic person. We still miss him every day, and I still see him sitting in front of the window sometimes. Sometimes when I'm half asleep I can hear his loud meow that made Tom nickname him "the marching band".

Anyway, for those of you in Malaysia, Dog Talk is out in The Star Weekender section tomorrow. It's in the print version only so you have to buy the paper!

Also, I'm being rather sneaky. This post was written yesterday. I'm very tired and need to take a complete break from everything. So I'm switching off my PC, my phones etc until Monday 28th. See you all when I get back.

COT Rug Attack!

Target is wild today! He crept up on Au who was snoozing in his upstairs box and pounced on him. Then he came into the office and pounced on me. Now he's sneaking around in Tom's office, pouncing on the rug there. Target is having a blast!

I've got a case of screaming deadlines so will blog properly on Formerly Feral Friday.

Save Yvonne's Sight Meme

23 year old Yvonne Foong has neurofibromatosis (NF), a condition that leaves her riddled with tumours. These tumours have made her deaf. New ones now threaten her sight.

Yvonne lives just down the road from me. I'm starting this meme to help her raise funds and to raise awareness about NF.

Yvonne lives in Malaysia. While doctors there can't help, surgeons in the US at St. Vincent Medical Center treated previous tumours that threatened to blind her. They say they can save her sight this time too. Her operation is scheduled between 1 and 4 December 2009. As Yvonne is uninsured, the problem is $$$.

Surgery price is USD44,000 or RM154,770
Stay for both mom and Yvonne at the hospital for two weeks USD915 or RM3219

She has raised about RM10,000 of this and is hoping to raise the rest by republishing her book "I'm not sick; I'm just a bit unwell" in English and Chinese. The books are now available in Malaysian bookshops and from her web site store. She is also selling T-shirts at bazaars and via her web site store.

You can help by buying from Yvonne's online store at http://www.yvonnefoong.com/store.

More details about her surgery are posted at http://www.yvonnefoong.com/donate. Yvonne blogs regularly at http://www.yvonnefoong.com.

You can also help by sending on this meme. If you do, please follow these meme rules:
1. Create a blog entry titled "Meme: Save Yvonne's Sight"
2. List three things you love to see. Add in the picture of Yvonne's book cover. The URL is http://www.yvonnefoong.com/images/banner/my-story.jpg
3. End with the line, "Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com.
4. Tag 5 blog friends. Be sure to copy the rules, OK?
5. If you have a Facebook account, please check out my new invention, a "feme" pronounced FEEM, a meme designed for Facebook here. And if you want to blog about NF, that would be great too!


The three things I love to see best:
1. My cats Au and Target having a wonderful time!
2. My friends having a wonderful time!
3. Supermarkets stocked with lots of interesting stuff. Weird but true.

The people I'm tagging are:

Kareltje en ikke in The Netherlands.
The Fluffies in Malaysia.
Mizzy in Malaysia.
Bibliobuli in Malaysia.
Pelf in Malaysia.

Feral Friday Au's Tale

So many of us cat fans in the blogosphere have rescued strays, that I thought it would be nice to tell some stories of how our kitties found their way to our homes. Today is Au's turn.

Au looks a rough and tough man-cat now but when he first moved in with us, he was a tiny little scaredy cat.

Au had a nasty start in life; his first family wrapped him in an oily rag and some plastics bags, then threw him out of a moving car. Our friend saw the bag move, picked it up, and gave Au to us.

It took Au some days to get over the fright. He wouldn't eat or drink. Then he became brave enough to venture out from under my T-shirt and from Tom's lap. He took one look at Scoop, our big cat from Kuching, and decided he liked the big cat.

Here is baby Au having one of his first meals in our home with his big pal Scoop standing next to him.

Scoop passed away two years ago but we still miss him. He was a wonderful person. Next week, I'll dig out some old pics of Scoop and tell you how he was a real street cat who joined our home.

If you've got a rescued fuzz in your home, drop a note in the comments box and join in a Feral Friday?

Feral Friday Au

COT Cat Stand-Off

For the last two days Au and Target have been out all night and asleep for most of the day. But when it's twilight, our two fuzzies battle each other to see who is king cat.

Good times!

Happy Cats on Tuesday. We're posting a long post on Friday with a feral cats theme to honour kitties like Au and Target who are rescued strays. Join us?

For more kitties, check out Gattina or the friends listed in the menu on the left.

Snoozle-Bug Fluffs

The monsoon started last week. It's been raining every day which is great as all the fires the farmers set to burn down the forests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been doused. We saw the morning sun for the first time last week in ages!

The cats are quite enjoying the rain.

Au takes it in turn to snooze in his downstairs and upstairs boxes. His outside box got drenched and has to be replaced. His majesty's ears were set back with displeasure when he realised this morning I haven't been able to set up a new one yet so I'd better hop to it tomorrow.

Target decided he wants to be a bed pig. He spent all of yesterday in bed and has been in bed since 6AM today. When I walk in, he wakens, shows me his tummy, and yawns luxuriously. I call him my little snoozle bug fluff while I pet him, both of which he adores. It's just as well nobody can see or hear us; it could kill a diabetic.

One good thing though is that as Target has no intention of getting up, I have no intention of making the bed. Now we're both winners!

Katz Tales is out in the print version of The Star tomorrow. Check it out and read all about Tam's visit to the vet, and a new cat I meet called Za who is up for adoption.

Za (pictured left) is cute, lively, very friendly and looking for a good home. She's staying with Naemah who was Target's foster mum. If you are in Malaysia and want to adopt her, buy tomorrow's newspaper for details.

Ee Lynn is also looking for a home for three adorable kittens nicknamed the Mouseketeers. Check them out at her blog.

If you're looking for dogs, check out these pages: one and two.

In the meantime, here are some great resources about cat inoculations:

Suite 101 cat vaccinations

Wikipedia's cat vaccinations

COT food for thought

Au is a picky eater, something I think he learned from me. Unfortunately, the cat food he likes can be hard to find. To ensure a constant supply, I ordered 5 boxes from the manufacturer. We now have some 300 packs of cat food in the house.

Here is Au, sitting on top of the stash and looking rather militant. Even though he's rolling in the stuff, he still thinks he has to guard it. Target teases him by sitting on top of the boxes that are now parked in the store room.

Cats! I love the fact that they are sooooo wicked!

I also wanted to say...

Katz Tales will be out this Saturday in the print version of The Star, the Malaysian national daily.

To all of you who complain to me that they can't get their cat and dog fix every week anymore I would like to say I'm really grateful you like my work. I love writing my pet stories and it's really good to know so many of you do too. THANKS!

Cutting back on publications was not my idea. The Star made cuts at the start of the recession. This means that Katz Tales is only out on the 1st Saturday of the month while Dog Talk is out on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Sorry, it's beyond my control.

If you want to complain about this change, send a note to the editor so she can forward it to her bosses! You can find her at weekend@thestar.com.my.

If you want your regular cat and dog fix, there is this blog. And as Cathy has persuaded me to write on Tuesdays and Fridays instead of just Tuesdays, there are now more updates than before. I'd write more, but as I write for a living I will only do so if I can get a blog sponsor. So far that hasn't happened.

Good news is that my book Katz Tales: Living Under The Velvet Paw is ready to be distributed. It will be in all major bookshops about 8 weeks from now. I'll announce when you can buy it via the column and here. I'm donating 10% of what I make to Friends Furry Farm and will use the rest to deal with the stray cat tribe in my back lane.

That's it for today. See you Friday! For more fuzzies visit Gattina.