Thursday, April 25, 2013

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

A tabby-white community cat called Tong-Tong

A tabby-white community cat called Tong-Tong








Monday, April 15, 2013

Tom-King, the community cat that inspired this prose, was found with weakness of the hind limbs and is now admitted into a vet clinic for care.


HDB says No
We stay on the streets

Town Council says No
The feeders mess up public areas

We move to the carparks
Car owners say No
The scratches must be that "stupid cat sleeping on the roof"

We move to the hawker centres
NEA says No
Or else no 'Singapore OK' label

We hang around the walkway
The young lady says we scare her mother

We move near the childcare
The parents complaint to the Town Council's officer
"Get rid of the cat or we beat your brain out!"

We poo on the grass
The Town Council's Senior Property Manager screams
"Cats cannot poo! Not even on the grass!"

Where can we go?
Can we ask to be unborn?

We are labelled pest and nuisance
Without justification

Look who is destroying the earth?
At an unprecedented pace

Come on
We only want to live
Just like you do

What right have you got to push us off the brink?



Dedicated to all the community cats in Singapore
On Sunday night(14th April 2013, the feeer didn't notice anything wrong with him. The next morning, on 15th April 2013, he was found to be wobbly in his lower limbs. He was rushed to a vet clinic.The vet detected a loud heart murmur. There was no pain along the spine and Xray showed no fracture. The hind paws' colour was pink, indicating good blood circulation. However the vet thinks the cause of the sudden partial paralysis of the hind limbs is a "stroke" caused by a blood clot from the heart that traveled to the lower end of the large blood vessel called the aorta to partially block the circulation to the spinal cord and lower limbs. Aspirin was prescribed. video on 15th April 2013

Their lives on our hands



Sunday, April 14, 2013

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Monday, April 8, 2013

Talk to residents, and not just cull

http://www.todayonline.com/voices/talk-residents-and-not-just-cull

 
Talk to residents, and not just cull
All Town Council property officers should learn mediation skills in resolving complaints about cats. TODAY file photo
 
From Tan Chek Wee

One of my neighbours told me recently about cat poo outside his unit and that of his immediate neighbour. I knew which cat he was referring to as I have been “managing” the cats in my neighbourhood for eight years.
I spoke to the cat’s owner, who admitted that the cat was sometimes let outdoors at night.
She accompanied me to meet the two residents, and one showed us a photograph of the cat on his phone. The owner was surprised by what her cat did in “just a short while” outdoors.
I explained that complaints to the Town Council might result in innocent cats being culled without solving the problem, as not all property officers make the effort to investigate and mediate. This was a shock to the residents, who said that they wanted the problem solved but did not want any cats killed.
The cordial conversation opened a connection among the neighbours, and the owner agreed to confine her cat to her flat.
I wish that all Town Council property officers could learn mediation skills in resolving complaints about cats, and not remove them by default, which would mean sending the cats, whether they are the cause of the complaint or not, to be killed.
How we manage animals in our midst is an indication of how graciously we have evolved as a nation.