Four Years Have Passed.....

 

Four years have passed since both of you have left. Not a day passed without me thinking of you and missing you both. 

Blackie & Yin Yin, if only you had live longer, you would have been thrilled that we were home all day, every day for two years. The Covid lockdown came into effect in March 2020, a few months after both of you were gone.

We have moved again, and rest assured that both your remains were taken into our new home, and resting on top of my chest of drawers in my room. You may have left us, but you have not left our hearts.

Love you both forever and ever.

Goodbye, Blackie Dear

 

Goodbye, my dear cutie-pie. You came into my life when you were just a few days old, eyes not opened yet, umbilical cord still attached. I learnt so much from taking care of you. I shall never forget you, and all your naughty yet adorable antics. I hope you find Yin Yin in Cat Rainbow and keep each other company. R.I.P.

Goodbye, My Precious Yin Yin

Goodbye, my precious Yin Yin. I shall always treasure you in my heart. You were the most affectionate and obedient cat I've ever known. Let out a deep yowl. Just let it out like that. It's alright. I'll hold you. Sleep well. R.I.P.

We Have Our Own Pendant!

Our servant made this today! It's a handmade glass pendant on a handmade stretchable beads necklace. 

Please ignore the reflection from the light. 

The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up

I woke up this morning and found the human staring at the computer screen on her desk. 

Oh my doG, that's Yin, on the cover of the magazine The Worldwide UFO Cover-Up! And what are they saying?? That Yin is an alien that has been living amongst them?? Wait.....the human has just flipped to another screen....

Oh no, I'm also on the cover.....and why is that human green all over with such huge eyes? He looks more like a bug than a human....

Yin Is Not Too Happy

Today is not a good day for Yin. Well, it's not a good day for me either, but I take it like a man, chin up. Yin, she's just such a pussy over it.


First, our human decided that despite her bad arm she is going to subject us to a bath. Before I even suspect anything, she had scooped all 8kg of me into her arms and took me inside the bathroom, locking the door behind her. 


Yin had no excuse, the fur brain should have realised what the game of the day was and put herself out of our human's reach. What did she think I was yowling at the top of my voice in the bathroom for?? Practising for the choir??


Look at her, after her bath. She's not very pleased.

And then, to cap it off, streaks of electricity lit up the sky while someone moved some really big and heavy furniture up there. Boom! Boom! Crack! 


I'm used to hearing this thunderous noise, and am rather nonchalant but Yin absolutely hates it. Forgetting her displeasure at our human, she ran and tucked herself between her legs.

Could someone please tell her how undignified it is for a cat to tuck itself against a human slave? How are we gonna rule the world if we fear the moving of furniture somewhere up in the sky?

We Are Pawticipating In The Cat-Olympics 2012!

Soon it'll be the Olympics again and we are pawticipating in it even if our humans aren't.


Yin and I are entering for the Synchronized Snoozing hosted by The Island Cats.

We are also taking part in Snoopendous-Sniff-A-Thon hosted by Luna and Cynder.

I am going for Couch Potato Peeling hosted by Lilly Belle and Muffin.

Yin is trying for Best Nippy Faces hosted by Callie and Sassy. 

She has also decided to go for Balancing Beam hosted by Cory and Company.

If you are a cat or dog, do join in the fun at The Pet Olympics. For more details on the events, check out their Official Events and Sponsors Page.

Blackie Bond: How To Deprive Your Human Slave Of Sleep

If you are a cat, you would know how frustrating it is when your human slave sleeps when you want to play. They not only sleep like the dead but they sleep like, forever, while you languish in boredom. Such inefficient bodies they have.


To prevent my human slave from a sound sleep, I have devised a fool-proof strategy. It has yet to fail me. Here is a step-by-step guide.


1. Shortly after the bedroom is plunged into darkness, scratch open the wardrobe door, go inside, and start a mournful howl. This will make your human slave think you're trapped inside the wardrobe, get up from bed and retrieved you.


2. Once she has settled back into bed, walk to the bedroom door and meowed. She'll think you want to go out of the room. When she gets up and opens the door for you, trot back to the wardrobe.


3. Wait until she has snuggled under her comforter again, then hop onto the bed and swipe her hand. If she does not respond, give it a quick, hard bite. That bite is guaranteed to get her to open her eyes and talk to you.


4. If she still goes back to sleep, lie down next to her. Position your body in such a way that she has no room to turn without squashing you. Lying stiff on her back, she'll be too uncomfortable to fall asleep.


5. If she still manages to fall asleep, bite and pull her hair. 


6. If that still doesn't work, jump on her like a trampoline.


You know you have succeeded in depriving her of a sound sleep when she staggers out of bed the next morning bleary-eyed and brain-dead.

And now, I must take a cat nap to refresh myself for my exercise in keeping my human slave awake tonight.

Blackie Bond: We Have Been Cartoonized!

Some humans will do anything to be immortalized.....

Some cat slaves will do anything to have their cats cartoonized.....

Thanks to Katz And Other Tales who shared about this fun cat cartoon program, 

we felines are now in the 'annals' of cat cartoons....

Our human isn't talented artistically, and I can't say we look too much like the cartoons.Well, to be fair to her, she got our mouths right, and I have to admit that my cartoon character resembles me a lot more than Yin's. Even my face looks almost like mine, I think. 

We are busy....

Yes, very busy. So busy that we are sitting there, waiting and watching the printer spit out the paper.

Blackie's Chinese New Year Wish List.....

.......is for a bigger cat-sofa for his, ahem, enhanced body.

Why I want to be a cat....

It's Mo-Cats Day!!

What is Mo-cats' day? It's a day when all the cats raise their paws for more cats, in response to someone who declared 09.09 as a No-cats day. Below is a lovely poster made by Momoandco. Do visit them and raise your paws for more cats. 

Good morning, everyone!

Ms Sunshine and Mr Grumpy

A "Cure" For Catty Black Moods

Blackie is moody this morning. A typical morning sees him jumping onto tables, chairs, bed and dashing from one end of the apartment to the other end, much like a mini horse in a horse race. But this morning he just sits there glaring at anyone who passes by. None of the games and toys interest him. 


He was in a black mood since yesterday evening, too. Usually, he is rather docile around Yin, although he does like to play rough with her. But when Yin has enough and hisses at him, he would stop. Yesterday, he didn't. Instead, he continued to whap her with his paw. And this morning, he pounced on her shoulder and pulled another large tuff of fur from the back of her neck. Gosh....I'm beginning to see a small, tiny bald patch there....I first noticed it -- less fur at the back of her neck, just between the shoulder blades -- when I got back from my holiday in Cherating. So, how to bring him out of the black mood?


A catnip pillow! It's supposed to be cat ecstasy, right?  And it worked! Blackie picked up the pillow and ran off with it. The only thing he has shown interest in this morning.

When Yin tried to grab it from him, he whapped her hard. I could hear the loud thud as paw landed on skull. Ouch. Poor Yin, she isn't used to being whacked by Blackie, or having Blackie fight with her over anything. Blackie has always let her grab toys or food right off his paws. 

I'll have to get another catnip pillow from sillylupie so they'll have one each. Anything to keep them happy and out of black moods.

Homer's Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

The first time I heard of Homer's Odyssey was in July 2009, when Random House contacted me to write a review on it. 

Random House, its publisher, had come across my review on Dewey The Library Cat and offered me a free advance copy of Homer's Odyssey, with the view that I would read and write a review on it. All I was told was that it's a true story about a remarkable blind cat. I was very glad to accept the offer, but after I gave them my address in Malaysia, Random House found that they "could not send to an international address due to distribution restriction policy" whatever that meant. 

I was disappointed, but after some time, forgot all about it. Yup, I forgot entirely about Homer's Odyssey even though I promised myself that when the book is available in local bookshops, I would buy a copy and read it.

It was not until last week, when I was browsing around the Kindle ebooks that I saw Homer's Odyssey. The title rang a bell, and I was pretty sure that this was the book I had promised myself that I would read when it's made available. I immediately looked through my emails (thanks to gmail's easy search feature), and yes, it was Homer's Odyssey alright.

Homer was found and taken to a vet when he was merely two weeks old, with eye infection so bad that the vet had to remove both his eyes. The couple who found him asked Patty, the vet, to euthanize him. Unwilling to do that, Patty tried to find a home for him but no one would take a young, blind kitten, even when it was obvious that he would pull through. The author, Gwen Cooper, was the last one on Patty's list.

photo taken from Gwen Cooper's photo gallery --> http://www.gwencooper.com/photo.php

Despite his visual handicap, Homer is a furry bundle of affection and action. He's as active as 5 cats put together, and can leap as high as 5 feet in the air to catch flies in midair, and to climb and jump like a normal, seeing cat. The author attributed his skills to Scarlett, the oldest feline in the house. Homer would try to keep up with Scarlett, and however high Scarlett could jump or climb, Homer figured he could do so, too. 

His antics are truly amusing, although those who met him for the first time without any warning are usually nonplussed. This was one of my favourite image.....

"Homer, in those days, was particularly enamored of playing with tampons. Having encountered one by chance, he was fascinated by the way they'd roll around, and by the string at the end. He liked them so much, he figured out where I kept them stored in the cabinet below the bathroom sink and - with unerring 

Last  night, in bed, hubby said, "So, your dream came true." He was referring to my dream and wish that Adam Lambert would come to Malaysia and perform. Ever since Adam Lambert auditioned for the American Idol season 8 competition with a rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody", I had hoped that he would one day go on a world concert tour. (Simon Cowell, I have more foresight than you, LOL!!) He has such an amazing vocal range and is so energetic that all other contestants fell short. Very, very short.

 and accuracy - mastered the task of forcing open the cabinet door and raiding the tampon box.

When I walked in with my date, Homer ran to greet me at the door. And there, hanging from his mouth was a tampon. The whiteness of it stood out against his black fur in vivid, mortifying rellief. He scampered around in gleeful triumph for a moment, then promptly ran over and sat expectantly on his haunches in front of me, tampon clutched between his jaws like a dog with a rawhide bone."

But Homer is more than just pure entertainment. He saved the author from an intruder at 4am one morning, but more than that, he taught the author that she should not live her life in fear. Homer had no fear. 

"Every leap from a chair back or table-top is taken on faith, a potential leap into the abyss. Every ball chased down a hallway is an act of implicit bravery. Every curtain or counter top climbed, every overture of friendship to a new person, every step forward taken without guidance into the dark void of the world around him is a miracle of courage. He has no guide dog, no cane, no language in which he can be reassured or made to understand the shape and nature of the hurdles he encounters."

It is a heart-warming book that makes you laugh and cry. Every pet owner would be able to relate to the author when for a few days she was prevented from returning to her apartment near the World Trade Centre during 9/11, and how she feared for the survival and safety of her cats, especially Homer, who is blind.

The author's success is, in a large part, owed to Homer. She was a struggling 24-year-old with two cats and squatting in a friend's spare bedroom when she took Homer. Realising she can't afford to get her own place and keep Homer was what spurred her on to find a more lucrative career.

This book, like Dewey, is a must-read for all ailurophiles. It can be downloaded at Amazon UK, or purchased from  MPH Online, although I would recommend downloading it from Amazon UK, as it would only cost you RM25, as opposed to downloading it at Amazon dot com, which would cost you RM33, or RM60 from MPH Online. 

Random House, if you are reading this, you ought to do something about your distribution restriction policy and reward me for this post.....LOL!!!

Ghost Festival and World Cat Day

Yesterday was World Cat Day and I did the unforgivable. It passed without my being aware of it. I mean, I know 7 August was World Cat Day, but yesterday was an extremely busy day for me. Mum was in pain the whole morning, and up to 12:15pm, she still couldn't get up to have her breakfast. Then, hubby and I had to go to Kwong Tong Cemetery & Columbarium, where my father-in-law's urn was kept, for the ghost festival. When I returned, mum was still in pain. And so I forgot all about World Cat Day until this evening, when I went online. I'd have to make it up to my kitties.


The ghost festival began on 31 July 2011 and would last till 14 August 2011. Growing up, I was a curious child. I would ask my late grandmother about the Taoist rites that I saw our neighbours along the road performed. One of them was the ghost festival. 


The Taoists believe that when a person dies, Ox-Head and Horse-Face (Goo-Tau Beh-Bin in Hokkien), two fearsome guardians of hades, would escort the departed soul to the king of hades (Giam Loh Ong in Hokkien) for judgement. If they had been good, they would be in a midway 'house', a place in between heaven and earth. If they had been bad, they would be punished and tortured in purgatory (picture their hands and feet bound in chains, being whipped, and locked up in cells). 


According to Taoist mythology, once a year, on the first day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell would be opened and that is when the ghosts utilise their 15 days' annual leave. That said, there seems to be a conflict of whether the ghosts' holiday is 15 days or 30 days long. Perhaps the ghosts are now entitled to 15 days' medical leave, taken together with their annual leave??!


Anyway, if you'd like to read more about this mythology, at the bottom of the page are a few links.


At the columbarium yesterday, there was a big paper ship. I was told that the dead will be taken on a holiday to China. 

The ticket for the voyage

Effigy of the King of Hades...I wonder if he'll be going to China, too?

Related post:

Hungry Ghost Festival (Pesta Hantu Lapar) --blogged in 2008

Links:

Ox-Head and Horse-Face

The King of Hades, or Giam Loh Ong

Yellow Shirt on Saturdays

Oops...forgot it's Saturday. Time to put on my cyber yellow shirt.  :P

Bersih Kitties

Hello everyone, this is Blackie. I've tied my human slave up and taken over her computer. I think it's time we kitties are bersih (clean in the Malay language). Now listen up, and listen well.


Humans wear coverings on their two hind paws when they go out, don't they. So, why shouldn't we felines have the same privilege of having our four paws covered when we go out? Who died and made humans king that they should be different from us, huh? Imagine our paws tracking all the dirt humans leave behind, not to mention doggy pooh. Yeee-uck!! We want to be bersih, too.


On 9 July 2011 we held a rally for some bersih household rules reform. We ordered our human slaves to get us some paw-coverings so we can be bersih. The male told the female that they should just sit in front of the idiot box. You know, the one where some humans and animals are captured inside and they talk to you, but can't hear you. Yes, you got that right. Being the incompetent fools that they are, they misunderstood us. They thought we asked them to get us some Bersih news coverings. From 9am to 6pm, they were glued to the idiot box and the computer. And then the female blogged about it, which was hacked and tampered with the very next day. Tsk-tsk. But that's another story, to be covered by the female slave after she catches up with her 101 chores.

To cut a long story short (we felines are not chatter-boxes unlike our canine friends), the female finally understood what we want, and went out two days ago to get us some paw-coverings. I suspect she forgot to pee along the way to mark her trail and got lost. She spent the entire day away from her chores and returned with only......some cans of wet food, a tube of tuna-flavoured molasses (the slave said it's pronounced as laxatone) to help us eliminate our hairballs, a pair of sneakers and two pairs of socks. A pair of sneakers?? Are we supposed to share the sneakers????!!!  Hmmmp!! 

The female said they're called socks. Do you like my socks?

That's me with the female slave. I got her hands tied above her head with one of those square box that captures one of your souls when a button is pressed. Those white dots you see on the bottom of the socks provide a non-slippery grip when I walked. I could jump onto the dining table without slipping and falling.

Kitty sneakers

The slave said those are called sneakers. I'm not sure why or how paw-coverings sneak up on you? Anyway, she came home with only one pair. I hope she's not expecting Yin and I to share that pair and walk on only our two hind legs like them??


She said the socks and sneakers are available in various patterns and colours. She said there are plastic sandals, too, but she didn't get them. 

The top part and the bottom part with non-slippery grip'

She had meant Yin to have the red socks, but Yin's paws are too big to fit in. I'm not surprised. Yin's more like a cow than a lady to me. She's bigger than me, and when she walks, you think of a big elephant that somehow manages to stomp quietly. 

Socks - RM14.80

Sneakers - RM49.90

Tuna flavoured laxatone for elimination of hairballs - RM30

The above products could be purchased from:
Home Pet Food and Care
No. 41, Jalan 1/149J, Sri Petaling. 
Tel: (03) 9059 - 3191
URL: http://www.facebook.com/HomePetFoodandCare
Business hours: Tuesdays to Sundays 11am to 9pm


While you are there, perhaps you would like to take one of the many adorable rescued kitties home? Your house is not a home until you have a feline companion.  ;)


Warning:
For those who don't know cats well, cats sweat through their paws and wearing socks and shoes for more than a few minutes (short photoshoot only!) can lead to heat exhaustion and heart attacks, esp in this climate. (Thanks,  Ellen, for this timely warning!)

Cat With Diva Attitude

See the gleam in her eyes

Yin, who earned the nickname Empress Dowager from hubby for her very diva attitude, has asserted herself yet again. Today, she wanted my desk, or whatever remaining space there was, to herself, and when Blackie joined her, she tried to push him off. 

This is the same way she pushes my mum's mobile phone off the table too. The only item she allows on whichever table she is lying on must belong to me. If she smells that it doesn't belong to me, she'll push it off the table. We still haven't figured out why she does that. My mum has been trying, without success, I might add, to instill in Yin that anybody who lives in this apartment is allowed to put their things on any tables, that she should not discriminate.