Lotto, Naughy But Neat.

I caught Lotto again, for the nth time, in the outer balcony. Bringing him back isn't a problem because he can easily be lured back with food. So I locked him in until Mark figures out how we can prevent him from crossing the line again.

But then, he needed to go. We have a small litter box inside, which is for the kittens we are fostering. I saw him carefully fitting himself in that small box, as he do his business very carefully. It was hilarious to see how he tried to perfectly fit his ass on that box. Before he finished, I left the room with the thoughts that shit the room will be stinky. I grabbed the pooper scooper to clean up the box, returned to the room, and I was surprised! I still can't get over the thought and I still laugh just thinking about it. The room didn't stink. He was even able to bury the poop - without spilling any sand on the floor!

I don't know if he's just naturally smart and neat - or he just have an OCD.

It's also worth to mention that Lotto was the only cat in this house that was able to use our toilet trainer properly. Not too long ago, we bought a toilet trainer to transition our cats from using the litter box to using our toilet. We had a small stool where they can jump on if the toilet feels too high for them. Only Lotto seemed to get the concept, and I always see him using it.

But since I see shit there every time, I thought everyone's using it. I felt proud of ourselves for training, and proud of my cats for being smart enough to get used to it - until it was time for laundry...

It turned out, that for an entire week, they were shitting on the laundry basket. We weren't smelling it, because we just keep on piling the clothes on top. Use your imagination. Everyday shit, everyday we throw clothes in there. So layers of clothes with layers of shit. It was absolutely disgusting!

The poops in the toilet trainer, were all from Lotto, after all.

After the horrific laundry day experience, we threw away the dreams of  making our babies use the toilet for their #1s and #2s.

Lotto in the Balcony

Lotto just found a way to cross to the extended balcony, where no cat is allowed. The extended balcony is open air, with a low wall division between my neighbor's extended balconies that any cat can jump on. I'm afraid of two things - they fall off the balcony to the street, or they cross the neighbor's balcony and run in to a dog.

Mark worked so hard to reinforce the cat-proofing system, that was once destroyed a few weeks ago, in the inner balcony. Unfortunately, Lotto outsmarted our system and can now cross constantly. His only problem is getting back. He can't come back so he just cries.

It's funny that he can't deny he was out, because his tail smelled like rosemary. I have a nice fat rosemary plant in a pot on the extended balcony :P

He's now locked in, until we reinforce cat protection tomorrow.

Pan In The Hospital

After 24 hours of no improvement, I decided to rush Pan to the vet clinic. Yesterday, she spent day and night on the bed, curled up and almost always sleeping. I had to carry her to the litter box to do her thing and she could hardly stand up. I gave her vitamins as usual and she took it, but ate only a little of her wet food.

As usual, I went to the Animal House since it's the closest though not cheap. My car's coded today so I can't drive to Mandaluyong to visit our other vet who's taking care of Nishi, Patterick and Sylvia. I think it is also a good thing because Dr. Tina was on duty, the doctor who took care of Pan when I first got her. At least she has Pan's history.

Pan was just curled up inside her kennel, and would hardly move. Dr. Tina gave her a dose of glucose, to increase her blood sugar in case it's the reason for her low energy level. Pan was also x-rayed to see if there's a fracture on her hind legs because she can hardly stand up, and she cries when the doctor pinches that part. The x-ray showed a possible fracture or a sprain (as explained to me), and there were poop deposits in her intestines. Apparently, even when she do #2 every day, she not getting rid of everything so the doctor will also give her laxative. Dr. Tina said that she probably had a rough play with the other cats in this house, or possibly fell somewhere, and since she's still a young kitten, her  bones are still developing so she wasn't able to handle the impact. She did climb our chairs a lot, and I have no idea if she did fell at all. Tomorrow, she will have blood test too, to eliminate the possibility of infection since she also have fever. Dr. Tina recommended that she stayed in the clinic for observation. I left her with an IV attached to her tiny arms :(, laying on the little towel I brought for her to sleep on.

I hope that there's nothing more serious than that. I miss my little Pan :(.

Pan's Feeling Under the Weather Today

We just noticed that Pan's been sleeping all day today, in contrary to her daily routine of bugging everyone, running sideways and just constantly eating. Today, she seemed low energy and wouldn't eat. At first I thought she have an appetite but later realized that it wasn't her finishing her food but Lotto. She's also warm to the touch and always curled up on bed. I fed him with ID, a prescription diet for kittens with intestinal issues, or fed to kittens that have no appetite. She did finish the serving and we were quite happy. She seemed very weak, probably because she didn't eat the entire day. I gave her a dose of vitamins too, to boost her immune system (she actually takes it everyday since she came here). I'm hopeful that it's nothing. We have experienced this with our previous rescues, Annie and Nikki, where they just lost appetite and became lethargic and lymping. We both took them to the vet for examination and the vets didn't find anything. They eventually regained their strength and now happy adopted cats. I hope it's the same case for my Pan.

If there will be no improvement tomorrow, I'll bring her to the vet.

Cal from Kalayaan - Another Rescue

We were walking home from Rockwell, along Kalayaan Ave. when Mark heard a distressed crying somewhere close. He didn't have a hard time looking for the kitten because it was super loud and eventually has revealed itself. Like the usual, this little kitten have a terrible eye infection. Obviously, it couldn't fend for itself since the mucus on its eyes were totally dried up he could hardly open it. The mommy cat was nowhere to be found. We took it immediately to the closes 24 hour veterinary clinic where he was cleaned and de-wormed. We got an eye drops for the eye infection too.

 We named this little kitten Cal - from the street where we found him "Kalayaan", plus we just watched Crazy Stupid Love, where the main character was called Cal.

Not so sure why he wanted to climb on my face.

It was probably too early for Cal to be separated from his mom, which explains how unbelievably clingy he is. I could hardly do anything at home because of his loud cries. He constantly wants to be cradled. So to make him shut up and saves me the trouble of taking paracetamol for myself (loud noises gives me migraine), I just carry him around. When he falls asleep, I still can't leave his side because the moment he realizes he's alone on the couch, he will start crying.

He's so clingy, he wouldn't eat on the bowl. He would like me to pick up the wet cat food, and feed him with my fingers. I really don't enjoy the fishy smell of wet cat food, but I had to do it, else he wouldn't eat. Just for 24 hours, he became a spoiled little brat!

Cal thinks he's too good for the basket.

On the other hand, he looks healthy. I gave him a sponge bath this morning, to remove the remaining road dirt on his paws. After the eye medication, we will send him for adoption.

The Story of Pan

Pan was rescued in August 5. I went to my friends house for lunch after taking care of a few things for our wedding the next day. We were having coffee at the front of her house when we notice a guard came out of one of the apartments, holding a dust pan - with a kitten on it. I immediately approached the guard and asked what's he going to do with it, and asked if he will throw it away. He denied and said he will just bring it out of the compound. I was confused because he brought it out of the house and, what? The owner doesn't want it anymore? The guard said it wasn't owned by anyone, and it was just thrown inside their place from the other side (apparently, there's an open area inside the house). So I took it. The guard was confused saying "It's blind, are you still going to take it?", I said "No it's not blind, it is sick, very sick. You don't just throw away kittens like that", he said "No, I'm not throwing it away, I will just bring it out because they don't want it here".  He probably felt guilty when I picked it up that he started explaining himself, telling things about stray cats that come and go in the compound.

The rescued Pan.

Pan's eyes were closed, that's why the guard thought she's blind. Her eyes were covered with heavy dried mucus, covered in dirt and fleas all over. She also had small wounds all over her small body because of the fleas bites. She's about 6 weeks old. I took her to the vet for checkup, and there she was confined until cleared from infection and possible transmissible diseases.

So Pan's name was derived from the word "pandakot" which is dust pan in Tagalog. But I realized today, that the name fits her so much, because she looks like a "paniki" (bat) too :).

Batpan.

Like everyone else, she gets along pretty well with Lotto. She have a very good appetite. In fact, she eats so much her tummy is so big that she looks like a big ball of fur. When she runs, she runs sideways - could hardly carry her big belly! I think she's catching up with food.  So far she's doing well. In 2 weeks we will bring her back to the clinic for a follow up check-up. When she's 100% healthy, we will put her up for adoption.

The Batpan warning.

Batpan fights for justice.

Haydi, Now a Beautiful Black Kitten

Haydi's status now is adopted. She's living with an animal loving family, and is living with a friend named Missy - a very smart Calico female cat.

Every time I look at Haydi's photos that I took when we found her, it always amazes me how she turned out to be one beautiful, gentle, black kitty.

She spent a week confined in a vet clinic to cure her respiratory problem and a badly infected wound found on her head. We fostered her for a month, feeding her with nutritious food and nurturing her with TLC. She turned out to be a very gentle kitten. I could hardly feel she's around, because she just always lay quietly beside you, cuddles you in the morning, and never whines when she's hungry. It wasn't also hard to potty train her. We didn't even expect that the bald spot due to the wounds she had would grow fur again. Anyways, she became a beautiful black cat that we grew attached with.

The time has come that she needs to be adopted. Mark and I have actually had second thoughts on getting her adopted since we both have grown to like and love her. She was never a bother. But we already have 4 full grown cats, plus we have a small space to house another. We promised before that our max will be 4, but when Haydi came, we almost broke the rule. It was pretty hard for us to let her go.

Mark and I felt like crying when we were driving her to her new family, thanks to the bad traffic that evening, we were distracted. But the sadness of letting her go turned to happy thoughts as soon as we met Ginger and Tita Agnes, the family that will take her in. They welcomed her with a hug and they were very excited. We also met Missy, a bossy and smart calico family cat, who seemed to be curious too of Haydi. I felt ease and comfort knowing that we'll give Haydi to a responsible and loving owners, who we trust that will treat her as a member of the family, and not just a possession.

We were sad to let her go, but we wouldn't be able to help more if we will keep each one that we get attached to. Mark still misses her. One morning he woke up thinking that Haydi was laying beside him, only to find out that it's just a crumpled black shirt. But in spite of the loneliness, a bigger part of our heart is filled with happiness for the fact that we have this feeling of ease, that Haydi's in good hands, and that she's in a family now that accepts her as a member - who will love and care for her for the rest of her life.

Annie and Nikki, Now Nermal and Garfield

We are very happy to find a new family for Annie and Nikki 2 weeks ago! We are also blessed that we found a real animal loving family, makes us feel more secured and less worried about what will be the outcome of their lives in the future. But as much as we hoped that they would keep their names, they changed it to Nermal and Garfield. I know, Garfield and Nermal are both male cats, but I don't think Annie and Nikki would mind :). We miss them, but yet we are happy and at peace to know that they are being loved and cared for.

Both Annie and Nikki were too young to be separated from their mom. So they found the "mother image" in the form of Lotto. Everyday they try to suck on Lotto's nipples, and everyday I try to drag them away :P. Lotto, however, seems to enjoy being their mom.