Your daily OM….

Closing the Chapter on the Circuit Rd case

First and foremost, Happy Chinese New Year.

Second, meet Hapi!!! He’s the sole survivor of the litter of kittens at the “hoarder” house.  (Sorry to use the term “hoarder” loosely.  Although some people were offended but it’s a term coined by the animal rescue folks and it describes a mental condition that requires therapy.)

Thank you to Serene Ng and her friend for their relentless care and giving hope to the weakest baby of the lot.  Optimism helps pull the kitten through his most critical stage.  Hapi is now adopted by Serene.

We took over the whole lot of animals from the house, except for the Jack Russell Terrier which the family insists on keeping.  That’s fine, I’m sure 1 pet is not so hard to handle as compared to 30 cats and 4 dogs.

Apart from 4 unfortunate casualties, the remaining ones are back on a healthy track and diet.  The only ones left for adoption are:

 Tabby-white boy, 5 months old      

 Ginger girl, 5 months old, medium fur, semi-flat face (pedigree-cross)     

Siamese cross girl, 5 months old, light blue eyes    

Yorkshire Terrier boy, 4-5 yrs old, not barkish, very docile      

Please help spread the word…

Last but not least, here’s a record of all donations and how they were utilized.  There is a balance of $550 which will cover the food, board, lodging for the rest of the 3 cats and 1 dog until they are rehomed.  Next week, the whole lot are going for vaccinations and deworm, so that will come out of this balance funding.  If funds permit and the Yorkshire Terrier still hasn’t find a permanent home, he will have to go through sterilisation which will cost about $180.  However, he needs to fatten up a bit more first.  He’s still skinny, has really bad teeth and possibly cateracts in the eyes.

Thank you for helping us on this journey.  The appeal is now closed and the animals are happy that they are now free from being victims of starvation and imprisonment in cages. 

I am a Survivor

Me.  Jimson.  8 months old.  Saved from Destruction Dec 2011.

Rounded up by the Authorities for Culling but was incidentally bailed out with a batch of kitties staked for Destruction.  Not all kitties are that lucky to have a 2nd chance at freedom.  Thousands are put down every year just because they are born into the wrong community where at the flick of a complaint, the Authorities come down hard.

Jimson must have known that he’s getting a 2nd chance and is embracing and savouring life to the fullest.  He has put on gosh-know-how-much weight devouring all the good food placed infront of him.  He’s responsive to all human touch and shows appreciation by rubbing his head against any humans within close proximity.

We think  he’s great company for anyone looking for a lap cat.  He definitely gets 5 stars in terms of temperament.  If you want to give Jimson a cozy home, please contact his guardians – crystal.chakra@gmail.com

Update on the Circuit Road Case

Our only priority is to get the animals out before February.  The humans seem to be ungrateful and had lodged a report with SPCA, hoping that SPCA could take away all their animals overnight.  Why did they even bother to rescue the animals in the first place only to put the animals through so much misery?

New Born Kittens Updates: Out of the box of 5 new-born kittens that they just neglected in a box, 3 were found dead on Day 2.  1 passed away in ICU yesterday.  There’s 1 surviving sibling left with fosterer-cum-adopter.

Dogs Updates:

Patchy the Shih Tzu has found a wonderful home.  She’s settling happily with her new-found friend, resident dog of adopter.

Whisky the Yorkshire Terrier is still waiting for adoption, along with the other Yorkshire Terrier and Jack Russell.

Here’s Whisky who is currently with us:

The rest are given food, which people have contributed and we have also used a bit of the funding received to buy the necessities, like milk powder for the new born kittens.  Here are the donations so far:

Balance as of 29 Dec 2011 $480

Donation in kind:

Next Steps:

1. Trying to get the 6 kittens over for Adoption Viewing this weekend.  Keen adopters, please contact crystal.chakra@gmail.com  or ping @OmcatSG on Twitter(Please don’t ask me for photos because I haven’t had a chance to snap pretty pictures of them and I have to still try to catch hold of the family to hand over the kittens to me.  These people are either never home or refuse to open the door so the only way to even get access to their place is to AMBUSH them!)

2. Still need to get the remaining dogs adopted.  If someone can help me foster the Yorkshire, I have space for the Jack Russell.  One at a time, my place is not so big and I don’t want to overcrowd the animals.  Moreover, dogs need socialization.  These dogs haven’t been socialized in OMG-dunno-how-long and they are timid.  Locked up too long in tiny cages and they start spinning around in circles when you give them a bigger space to run.  But generally they are good dogs, and not barky.

That’s all the updates for now.  Please keep helping to spread the word on adoption.  Please do note that there’s an Adoption Fee for each pet.  The rationale behind the nominal adoption fee is that if people have to pay a token for a pet, they tend to treasure it more.  All Adoption Fees are re-channeled into helping either with this case or other urgent appeal cases within the animal rescue circle.  OMCAT always ensure that the money goes back to save another needy animal.

Another Hoarder House Uncovered – Circuit Road

As Omcat volunteers entered the filthy, smelly and dark house, the were greeted by a box of 5 ten-days’ old kittens in a cardboard box.  3 of them had died from malnutrition / dehydration.  The other 2 were crawling weakly over the carcasses of the 3 dead kittens.

The house was a sad sight.  Layers of urine-soaked newspapers covered with defecation were strewn all over the unkempt house.  The stench was unbearable and all the windows were tightly shut to keep the smell in.

Omcat volunteers were greeted by 30+ starving, emaciated cats.  7 of the 30+ cats were kittens ranging from 2 – 6 months old.  They were weak, hungry and had been starved for at least 3 weeks.  They were more than relieved when food was quickly placed on the ground for them.

Suddenly, from no where came a dirty and skinny Shitzu dog with matted fur, lunging for the food.  A couple of starving cats started slapping her and she quickly went to cower in a corner.  As Omcat volunteers only had cat food on them, they quickly gave some to the hungry dog.

Then came more gruesome discovery!!

A 2 feet cage, covered completely with cloth.  As the volunteers lifted up the cloth, they were shocked to see a dirty, smelly dog covered in its own filth and eating poo!!  It appeared to be a Silky Terrier with severe skin problem.

There were 2 other dogs in the house, in rather bad condition as well.  One is a Jack Russell and the other is a Silky Terrier.

The story behind this out-of-control situation is a rather sad one.  An elderly couple, out of compassion, rescued animals from the community.  The wife is ill and not working, while the husband earns a very low income.  The step-son is still quite young and entering N.S. soon.  The wife had suddenly passed away and the husband is in a daze.  They couldn’t afford food for the cats and in his depressed state, the animals were unfortunate victims of neglect.  The rental flat will be taken away as the husband and wife are not legally married (on paper).  The man and the step-son will be homeless.

Omcat volunteers would like to appeal to kind volunteers to please help out with:

1. food (cat and dog)

2. sterilisation and medical funding

3. Dettol spray to disinfect the area  (Dettol kills flu virus, among other viruses)

4. adoption of dogs, kittens, cats

Omcat volunteers brought the badly matted Shitzu back for a good groom so that she could potentially be adopted.  She’s the healthier of the lot and she is extremely mild.  No barking at all the whole time, not even being left in the cage, and gets along well with other cats and dogs.  She’s our first Adoption candidate.  Please help spread the word.

If you can answer to our appeal for help, please email crystal.chakra@gmail.com

Here’s the complete album of the house and the animals.

Another Hoarder House Uncovered – Circuit Road

A Screaming Abandonee

While rushing to work early in the morning, I was greeted with the loud screams of a kitten, like it was getting abused! The new HDB blocks were built in such a way that the faintest sound echoes up the wind tunnel between pillar columns, amplified ten-fold by the time it reaches the top floor.

I darted around frantically on the 3rd floor’s nooks and corners, looking down towards the ground floor void deck, for the source of the sound. I spotted a couple abandoning a kitten with a mountain heap of colorful dry biscuit!

The audacity of these people to dump a kitten in this area! The Block Officer here hates cats and sends every cat in sight to AVA! Thus there are zero cats in this area!

Short of jumping down from the 3rd floor, I couldn’t even get to level 1 in time to pull the sheepish couple back for interrogation. They scurried off faster than a guilty rat that had just stolen cheese! Argh! Woe behold, we’ll never be able to stamp out Pet Abandonment in this century! Frustrating!

So I picked up screamy kitty and brought him back. Poor kitty is so scared! He’s now up for adoption. I guess I’ll just name him “Ice Cream” (iScream? No pun intended.) but he is a cute little fellow though. I would say he’s around 2 months old.

Please help spread the word around and keen adopters can email : crystal.chakra@gmail.com

An appeal to help a caregiver

Just as Panda (read his story here) is on the road to recovery and has potentially secured an adopter, we got stuck with another rescue case.

“Wawa” (that’s what I call her now cos she has a dollface), used to be called “Ah Pui” (Fatty), in her healthier days.  She’s extremely sunken now and has gaping wounds all over, the result of a nasty car accident.  The vet speculated that she was hit and dragged on the road by a car travelling at slow speed.  Thus, she survived but suffered very bad lacerations.

We’re completely full house so we put Wawa on the part-time care of Mdm C, a caregiver who already has a lot of rescued animals.  We’re not so sure that Wawa can be as lucky as Panda to find a good home.  She’s an old cat and not of any pedigree breed, just a regular domestic short hair, though she must have been a really pretty calico cat before when she was fatter.  BUT her super-affectionate personality more than makes up for any cosmetic flaws her accident left behind.  She’s such a sweet cat, not only sweet to people but also to other cats and kittens.

We felt bad putting the part-time care of Wawa on Mdm C when her situation at home is already extremely shaky.  She received a HDB complaint letter and moved half of her cats to a rented unit.  She’s already behind on her rent which we are helping to chip in.  We would like to help her appeal for cat food donation, at least to tie her over for a bit so that she can make next month’s rent.

As Mdm C’s cats are on Royal Canin, Pet Zoom Pet Supplies will sell Royal Canin 15kg bags to sponsorers at $98 per bag which is the lowest price the pet shop can offer.  On top of that Pet Zoom is also sponsoring all the lysine and Azmira holistic supplements for her cats so that their immune system can be pumped up.  Mdm C’s monthly consumption for about 50 cats is roughly 4-5 bags per month.  She has stopped feeding the cats canned food to save money.

If you like to help Mdm C with the food cost for these rescued cats, alot which people have dumped on her, please contact Pet Zoom at petzoom@ymail.com and do indicate that the food is ordered for Mdm C to ensure that you are getting the subsidized price.

We definitely won’t put the long-term care of Wawa on Mdm C as she already has so many cats.  We’ll see if Wawa’s lucky enough to have a chance at adoption.  Otherwise, Wawa may just have to go back to the community when she’s fully recovered.  I’ll keep everyone posted on Wawa’s recovery.  Please help Mdm C generously.  I think she has done so much for the cats.

(P.S. To protect Mdm C and also to avert another HDB complaint, please understand that I cannot disclose her name or the location of where her cats are.)

Here is Wawa’s album and also a couple of pictures of Mdm C’s cats.

The Rescue of Wawa, Hit and Drag Accident

Mdm C’s cats