30 December 2012

2013 and Gotcha Day


The first day of the year is Pebble's Gotcha Day. The year 2006, Pebble was taken in when EJ was a squatter in mom's house. 

It was not an easy decision as EJ occupied the smallest room and shared it with other cats but EJ just could not reject Pebble then. Click here if you wish to know why.

EJ do not regret one bit in taking Pebble in. Pebble is such a sweet girl.

Happy New Year everyone. 
We wish you Good Health, Prosperity, Success, Joy and Happiness.

23 December 2012

Gotcha Day and Christmas 2012


December 25th holds many memories for us.

Pebble gave birth on this day in 2005 and the reason why her late baby got named NOEL.

It is also on this day that Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK joined us in the year 2008.

On behalf of all of us and our human, here is Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK wishing friends and all 2-, 3-, 4-legged, a very 

Merry and Blessed Christmas.



16 December 2012

Butterfly in the MeowYard


EJ believes if something has been taken away, something will come to replace it like the ebb and flow of life, like the Ying and the Yang.

Because of his missing eye globe, Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK has extremely keen eyesight in his remaining good eye and heightened curiosity to boot.

EJ did not notice a tiny dull-coloured butterfly in the MeowYard and only realised it when Captain Jack kept staring at it fascinated. 

The other cats did not bother even to look. Only Kenggy, who was nearby getting ready for her afternoon siesta, looked at Captain Jack glaring posture.
a closer look

Captain Jack did not make any attempt to paw the butterfly. EJ did not know what happened to it but being so tiny, it probably found its way out.

09 December 2012

Hang On There


It is not exactly common to see cats holding on to places where they rest or sleep on. Guess it is because they feel either that spot is too small or they are too big (or fat) to fit in.

Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK holding on to the window while sleeping on top of the kitty condo

and Pebble hanging on to their little chair.

They all learnt it from the late handicapped-born Tortie who weighed over 7kg.

02 December 2012

When A Snake Comes A Calling


Few months ago, something caught the attention of the cats. Captain Jack Sparow HAWK simply could not tear his one eye from this interesting object.

EJ decided to investigate, and rushed to grab the camera to quickly record the moment.

Ramphotyphlops braminus is a harmless blind snake species found mostly in Africa and Asia. Completely fossorial, they are often mistaken for earthworms, except that they are not segmented.

It is  known as Brahminy blind snake, flowerpot snake, common blind snake, island blind snake, and Hawaiian blind snake.

Adults are small and thin, averaging between 6.35-16.5 cm (2½ to 6½ inches) in length. The head and tail-tip look much the same, with no narrowing of the neck. The rudimentary eyes appear only as a pair of small dots under the head scales. The tip of the tail ends with a tiny pointed spur. The head scales are small and resemble those on the body. The colouration of the adults varies from shiny silver gray to charcoal gray or purple. [Source: Wikipedia]

This recent one was a second encounter the cats had with a snake and it reminded EJ of the first a few years ago.

The first encounter.

EJ was sleepy. It was almost midnight. As usual, EJ would make one last check on the cats before going to bed. 

The cats were crowding round of what EJ saw was a big fat worm. The meowyard light was not bright then.  EJ took the broom getting ready to sweep it out. That almost foot-long "worm" reared its head. 
Woooh! An adrenaline rush and EJ's eyes opened wide, completely woke up in an instant. 

You should have seen EJ's reaction, the kungfu stance holding the broomstick balancing on one leg with the other leg kicking and pushing seven cats away (there were seven then), and with one clean swipe (a swing that could beat Tiger Woods flat) with such accuracy (a hole in one?) that EJ did not even see the snake flying through the slit (tapering where the widest was less than half inch) under the back metal door and out to the drain.

The snakes encountered on both occasions were of different species.

25 November 2012

A Ravelling Moment


EJ wanted to take some photos of us especially Pebble when she posed prettily on the hardwood podium.

At that perfect pose, the button was pressed. EJ forgot that the cheap compact digital camera has a few seconds delay in snapping the picture after pressing the button.

To make it worse, at that precise moment Pebble decided to move off. The result picture taken was this of Winnie staring straight at the camera with a face that says, "you look silly!".

18 November 2012

Head Bonking


Cats show their affection in many ways. One of them is using their heads to butt you.

The cats headbonk EJ a lot. At times EJ would go down on the knees to their level to headbonk back. There were times the cats would retreat and stare at EJ in shock. Soon EJ realised that hair was poking in the cats' faces.

So now EJ handholds the hair back to return the cats' headbonks. No more death stares from the cats!


11 November 2012

Jack in the Box


Boxes are definite favourites with the cats. Whenever a box is available and however small, it sure would be occupied.

Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK was fascinated by this tiny box and constantly hogged it.

This box did not last long and has been shredded to bits.

04 November 2012

Rainy Days


It has been raining and raining lately.

When it was accompanied with lightning and thunder, the kitties would crawl to some corner or to their cubicle like Pebble here.

Braver ones like obnoxious Tanya would just lie motionless staring into oblivion.

EJ almost succumbed to the procrastination sickness again but fought hard against it.

28 October 2012

Winnie, Then and Now


Our human, EJ, was down with a sickness called procrastination!

Perhaps it's because we have all gone a little too fleshy which in turn made our human feel a little too relaxed that led to laziness.

A scrawny Winnie when she joined us in 2006 

and this is how she is now.

07 October 2012

A Boring Weekend


'I am bored', says Winnie.

It is nap, nap every weekend. Would someone come play with me?

30 September 2012

Gold Sparklers


EJ loves the gold specks on Winnie's coat. At times it looks like gold sparklers if Winnie sits at the right position under a sun puddle.

Though Pebble looks like she is chewing Winnie's ear, Pebble is actually licking and cleaning it.

Pebble's pink tongue can be seen here in this close-up.

23 September 2012

Mind Your Punctuation

Punctuation is important for successful writing. Where the punctuation, like a comma, is placed would change the meaning of the sentence.

This is one good example.

Save him, not kill him.
Save him not, kill him.

The kitties are reminding EJ of its importance.

Full stop

Comma

Colon

Semi-colon

Hyphen

Dash

19 September 2012

Meow Like a Pirate Day


Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK's extra-keen-hearing ears heard a soft unfamiliar sound. 

With his body frozen at the start of stalking mode, his remaining hawk-sharp eye stared dead straight ahead in total concentration trying to see from where that sound came from before using the telescope nearby.

He didn't meow; he let out a barely audible 'arr'.

Pebble was too interested in the bottle of rum to care.

PS: Our human don't seem to be able to find a suitable hat or pirate bandana. 

16 September 2012

Strict Scrutiny


When the neighbour's pipe sprung a leak, water seeped through the connecting wall in the meowyard. Being in a sunny area, the damp wall soon had algae growing.

Afraid that the increasing patch of algae would affect the health of both human and cats, EJ decided to paint the wall with an acrylic waterproof sealer.

First the 18-foot long wall had to be scrubbed as clean as possible.

The painting took days as multiple coats are better at sealing than a single coat. But the real reason for the many days taken to do the job was the constant supervision and quality control inspection.

09 September 2012

Sleeping Like a Log


It may look like but this is not a rabbit sleeping on its back.

This is Tanya spending her weekend sleeping like a log!

02 September 2012

Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK Gets Help From Captain Hook

Unable to finish his breakfast, Captain Jack Sparrow HAWK used Captain Hook to hang on to his food bowl !

26 August 2012

Fat Cat in Narrow-Necked Jar

More than 40 years ago, EJ and siblings wondered whether their fat cat, whom to their eyes had a silhouette of a miniature elephant, could go inside mom's narrow-necked ceramic jar or get stuck trying to get in. The very thought of how hilarious it would look with its fat rump sticking up and legs kicking in the air gave them courage to try out. 

First, they made sure mom went out. Then they took that narrow-necked ceramic jar and placed it in the middle of the hall. 

Yeow-Yeow, yes, that was the fatty's name, resisted when they tried to put his head in the jar opening. EJ and siblings laughed at the comic sight.

When put down on the floor briefly, fatty got fascinated and started peering in. They tried again and fatty went in after some leg kicking in the air.

Peering inside the jar, fatty could not be seen. It was dark inside. Colour of that jar (which was almost similar to the one below) did not help as it was deep brown almost black both outside and inside.

Fatty stayed in for so long and was so quiet that EJ and siblings panicked. They thought they had to rescue him by breaking Mom's jar. 

Luckily fatty got bored squatting in the dark and popped out. Can you imagine how relieved EJ and siblings were. That jar was quickly put back in its place before mom came home.

EJ thinks fatty is number 3 here. Cat on the floor was fatty's mother, Meowmy.

19 August 2012

Kenggy Paper Play


Whenever Kenggy happened to eye a pile of old newspapers on the floor which EJ stacked up neatly to be sent off for recycling, Kenggy would never rest easy.

She would dive into the pile and scatter the newspapers with her forelimb stubs. And when extremely excited, she would hop around on her powerful hind limbs like a miniature obese kangaroo. (Kenggy's name is short for kangaroo.)

Well, EJ simply could not and did not want to stop her having fun in creating havoc messing everything as it was such a cute sight.

Kenggy took many frequent short breaks to catch her breath, smoothen her 'out-of-place' furs as well as look at cartoons.


12 August 2012

Cinders' Say

We would like to thank all who sent countless warm comforting, encouraging wishes, thoughts, purrs, headbutts and woofs including graphics done with much love.

EJ could not locate Cinders' young photos but found some taken 10-15 years ago when EJ was a squatter in mom's home.

Cinders had cute, unique sleeping styles which was weird at times...

...and claimed whatever was EJ's, paper notes included.

She worshipped the morning sun. (Note her sagging belly!)

Of all places, between EJ's knees were her favourite.

When her cross-eyed brother, Cookie, was alive, they both were always together, resting or watching the world go by under the Jasmine tree.

After Cookie passed on, she sat on the table by the window looking out at the spot where Cookie was buried in the corner of the playground next to the house. (See arrow) 
There were times she would sit under the Jasmine tree alone to look at that spot or watch the world go by.

Cinders need not eye that spot anymore for she would be frolicking and resting with her Cookie always.
PS: Cinders laid on EJ's lap on the eve of her passing from afternoon through evening and night till 1am.
EJ played this music for her to listen daily when she was not well.