Hot Noses and Singed Whiskers

Earth Hour, conceived and organised by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

EJ's housemates participated too.

This year, EJ was on the road that day and so did not take any photos.

The following pictures were taken last year.

When the lights were switched off, candles were lit.
Curious and busybodies as cats are, they checked out the candles that resulted in hot noses and singed whiskers.

Cinders checking out the candle and licking her hot nose to cool off.

Tommy looked from afar before going up close.

Tanya went close and retreated slightly.

It was only after the lights were switched on that EJ discovered the cats' whiskers were singed with ends blunt and curled.

Reports said Earth Hour has resulted in a drop of energy consumption.

Kenggy's Bootee

An ex-colleague gave EJ a soft toy.

What EJ saw was not a soft toy but bootees for Kenggy. And EJ was promptly given a second similar soft toy when the idea was made known as Kenggy do not have two front paws.

EJ got down to work, cutting the boot off and trimming it a bit.

Notice the underside of the boot has non-slip rubber studs. The soft toy including the boots are filled with synthetic wool which serves as a perfect cushion for Kenggy to walk on.

Cute and a perfect fit!

After a few seconds of wearing, Kenggy started flinging her forelimb rapidly like desperately shaking water off. Needlessly to say, that bootee, being booted with such force, was flung to a rather far distance.

Not giving up easily, EJ tried a few times but could not convince the adamant Kenggy in accepting to wearing it.

So now these toys and the cut-out boot sit on the shelf as a symbol of an ex-colleague's friendship as well as non-acceptance of EJ's brilliant plans to shoe Kenggy!

Kenggy prefers and happily moves around as nature meant her to be.

The Great Rip-Off

The cats seemed bored. EJ set up the tent again and it was a racket!

EJ decided to place the tent on top of the cage to provide a little challenge. To give more stability, a big plastic tray was placed inside the tent.

Everyone tried to go in and then toppled it.

Look who's inside? Poor Pebbles, at first was shocked then ruffled!

Though down on the floor, ruckus and investigations continued with more sniffing, poking and scratching.

A collapsed tent was still good to lie in.

Even two can share.

Eventually the tent gave up and a huge tear was seen. The tent was kept again.

EJ then remembered an old litter pan and took out the top half. At least this is hardy.

EJ would like to thank Mai, classmate since primary/elementary school days, who gave this tent that provided the cats endless exercise and entertainment.

This tent was used by Mai's dog. Could it be that the cats could make out the scent of the dog though it has been thoroughly washed?

Yo, Brother!

They look alike! Twins? This was what came to EJ's mind when visiting a fellow blogger's site and saw Noll.

EJ rummaged through old photographs and finally found it. If nothing else look alike, at least their eyes do. Please do judge for yourselves.

Brother to Cinders, Cookie was born on 30 July 1994 and would be 16 soon if he was alive. How both Cookie and Cinders came can be read in this post here.

Cookie was named by EJ's then 9-year-old nephew who is now a strapping handsome young man. It was so named as he could draw Cookie's crossed-eyes on the double o's alphabets.

Being a glutton, Cookie was thoroughly dotted on and spoilt by EJ's mother, nephew and niece who kept feeding him his favourite food, rich fruit cake and meat jerky. Each time, Cookie wolfed it down so fast that he finished at least three-quarters while the human managed to eat the remaining quarter. And imagine this times three!

Any way, at the age of 5 human years, Cookie, one day keeled over to the Rainbow Bridge - suspected heart attack!

H2O is Cool

The hottest and driest period in our country is usually the months from January to March.

Reports from our Meteorological Department says that this year 2010 being an El Nino year, the heat may stretch a little longer.

Besides using the fan to ventilate the air, EJ bathes the cats to help them cool off.

Tommy here seems to enjoy his bath with no struggles or squeals of protests.

Another way of cooling down, the drastic way following Nature's Law, would be taking the fur coat off the cats.

This is exactly what is happening to Winnie. She is shedding fur, on her bottom half of her body. From the front, she looks normal but from behind, she looks a bit naked.

EJ tackle the heat by taking cold water showers, at times even at midnight though friends have advised that midnight cold water showers may lead to rheumatism.

On the bright side, shall we consider this heat as getting free saunas?