Little Meow Place (Part I)

On retirement, EJ decided to buy a small house to share with the increasing number of cats.

This small house has a small backyard. Actually it is more of a side yard. It was a jungle!

Basic renovations were done before shifting in. The side yard was cleared and cemented. To prevent the cats from running out, a back door was fixed. Chain link fencing was also fixed above to prevent the cats from climbing up and out. 

The cats' room got wet whenever it rained as the yard was not covered. EJ bought plastic sheets normally used by the night market stall owners to cover the open netted yard. The plastic sheets gave some shade from the sun and the cats lined up to enjoy their afternoon siesta. Rain, however, still came in.

EJ knew the yard had to be covered permanently and more renovations had to be done. EJ was lucky to get a full-time job then. After saving for two years, EJ had enough for further renovations. EJ's mother and neighbour as well as classmate gave EJ their leftover tiles. These tiles though old were good tiles, some made in Italy with hand-drawn pictures.

By this time Kenggy had joined the gang. Moving between the yard and the room is through the window. Due to Kenggy's special condition, it was laborious for her as she do not have both front paws to land properly. It pained EJ to see little red spots on her nose which meant that that little nose got bumped constantly. EJ then decided to make a special 'mouse hole' for Kenggy where she could just waddle through to move to and fro the yard and room.

The bench on the left was made from discarded tropical hard wood, Chengal. EJ's brother called that bench the olympic podium.

To continue on Friday on how the 'mouse hole' fared with the cats. Click here for the continuation.

Little House for Tommy

During those days when Tommy and Tanya used to pay daily visits to EJ (they had an owner then), they slept anywhere in the porch where they thought was comfortable. Those were the days when EJ was a 'squatter' in mother's house.

Sometimes Tommy and Tanya would spend the whole afternoon at the porch. When it became too often and long, EJ decided to make a little house to shelter them from the sun and rain. It was one of the first few little projects EJ made for the cats.

This was it!

It was recycled from an unwanted cardboard box. The side that faced the front gate where the sun shines and the rain comes in was covered with plastic garbage bag held in place and taped down with masking tape, the only tape available in the house that time.

A tiny window was created by using one of mom's knives from the kitchen to cut a big 'U' and folded up as a shade for sun and rain. As you can see it was held up with lots and lots of tape!

The entrance, of course, was at the other end facing the house.

A slit on the side was purposedly made for extra ventilation and light.

Everytime EJ, mom or siblings came home and if Tommy was in his little cardboard-box house, Tommy would stick his nose, mouth and eyes out of that little window to greet and welcome them home with a meow. He cannot stick his ears out as his face was too broad for that window. Everyone was pleased, both human and cat!

This little house was much loved and constantly occupied. When it became worn out as well as when other strays started using it, constantly depriving both Tommy and Tanya of resting in it, EJ had to destroy it.

Since it proved so much loved and appreciated, it encouraged EJ to bigger and more ambitious projects later.

To see how Tommy and Tanya looked like those days before they adopted EJ, please click here for Tommy and here for Tanya.

Prevention is Always Better

Anticipating the new neighbours, being young bachelors, may not keep their surroundings as clean as EJ would like them to be, EJ decided to take action a few months ago before they shifted in.

There was a gap at the lower part of the dividing chainlink fence between EJ's and neighbour's porches where dead leaves and carelessly discarded stuff can move across when the wind blows.

Luckily EJ did not discard the remnants of the plastic mesh (considered junk) used to cover all windows and grills in the house to deter the cats from sneaking out. These remnants were used to line and cover that gap along the dividing chainlink fence.

The work was pretty fast. It only took only one whole morning to put together using plastic cable ties.

Less dead leaves and other stuff migrated to EJ's porch now. Dead leaves are still on the neighbour's porch on the right while there are none on EJ's on the left.

EJ is pleased as nothing was wasted. All remnants were made use of as well as less sweeping and cleaning of the porch.

Make your Bathroom Smell Good

When EJ's favourite mug chipped which would make drinking out of it dangerous as it could cut your lips, EJ did not want to throw the mug away and decided to think of ways to make use of it.

The chipped mug was placed on top of the cistern tank as a decoration as well as container for pandan leaves.

EJ used to hang the pandan leaves collected from the garden to make the bathroom smell good. In this picture, the pandan leaves have been split to allow the release of more pleasant smell.

Pandan or screwpine is widely used in Asian countries. It is used to flavour rice, puddings, cakes and even ice-cream. It is a repellant for pests such as cockroaches and ants though EJ has not tried it.

Scratch me, I am Priceless!

The following conversation actually took place recently between EJ and brother who resides in Canada and was back for a visit. Both found it hilarious as an afterthought.

EJ feels the conversation was too funny to pass up and decided to share.

(Psst, they were talking about me!) This was what transpired.


BRO: I do remember this chair/stool which mom bought from the wet market in Yulek (now known as Taman Cheras). It was among the first piece of furniture we owned when we moved house in October 1974.

We could not afford any furniture then for the living hall and did not have enough chairs in the dining area for all of us. That was the very reason why mom bought it. It was handmade from a piece of raw lumber and not stained nor painted in any way.

Over the years, we got better dining furniture and most of the better-looking chairs/stools found their way into bedrooms while this one stayed in the kitchen beside the door to the backyard.

We had about nine cats those days and somehow, one of the senior cat, Yao-Yao or Chien-Chien but definitely not Su-Su, started using it as their scratching post. Other junior cats followed suit. None of us mind as we knew then that cats have to scratch to keep their claws in shape. We constantly had to rotate the chair so that the scratched-out parts of the legs were consistent.

This chair/stool has a lot of good, bad, happy and sad stories to tell, especially when it is located in a prominent place, the kitchen, where every member of the family visited daily, numerous times a day and gathered around for family meals, where family battles had been fought and settled. It has seen three or probably four generations of the family living there and withstood the constant mauling from the generation of kitties, too.

EJ: Yes, mom did buy from Yulek market but not this particular and especially hardy one. This immensely popular chair/stool was bought in the even earlier days during the sixties when we were at Jalan Pasar.

BRO: Really? This chair/stool is older than I thought then... almost a semi-antique now. I have to approach the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) on how much they may want to pay for this piece of antique/art!

EJ: Good idea! And would certainly worth a lot more after one of the cats had the honour of getting the shock of the last scratch with the chair/stool standing on three legs! And worth even more if standing on two legs!

BRO: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
IT WOULD WORTH MILLIONS IF IT IS STANDING ON ITS OWN...ON ONE LEG. IT WOULD WORTH BILLIONS IF IT IS FLOATING ON IT'S OWN...WITHOUT LEGS.

GET THE KITTIES WORKING!

EJ: Agree absolutely. Certainly priceless if it stands on one leg but will be worshipped if it floats without legs with the kitties on top!

Believe me, the kitties are working on it...very hard!

I Love my Letter Box

During our grandparents' time, news were mostly conveyed through radios and hand-written letters were delivered by post.

Nowadays with advanced technology, news were sent efficiently and quickly. But each house still has a letter box for the postman to deliver mail.

EJ believes that everyone still look forward to the postman delivering letters as there is a feeling of warmth and a special touch of happiness in opening a friend's handwritten letter or postcard.

Unless houses were constructed with the letter boxes concealed in gate pillars like in many modern housing estates; most people would prefer to buy their own choice of letter box. Letter boxes are sold in a basic box shape but with slight variations.

When EJ's brilliant red plastic letter box dropped and smashed to a million pieces (suspected due to unseen forces) coupled with a busy schedule at that time, EJ decided to put up a temporary letter box.

After finishing the last biscuit, EJ stared at the empty biscuit tin and thought, "Why not?"

EJ took out the hammer, a nail, a coil of wires and started work on the biscuit tin. Holes were made at the back of the tin for the wires to go through to tie the box to the gate. Holes were also made at the bottom to drain out whatever rain that may collect. EJ was extremely pleased with the result.

Visiting friends find this unusual letter box very amusing and would walk in with big grins on their faces.

With the biscuits finishing soon, EJ feels it is time to change the letter box as rust has filled the whole bottom of the existing one.

Useful Junk

When EJ's mother was a young lady, plastics did not exist. Whatever food and things that were exported and imported were not transported by aeroplane then but by ship. To safeguard its contents, foodstuffs and things were packed in wooden boxes.

It was not known how EJ's mother got hold of these two boxes - the box with lid that contained the Lactogen milk powder for infants from Denmark and the box without lid that contained fruits from California, USA. The guess was her grocery friend probably gave her these two boxes.

To make good use of these two boxes, it became EJ's and siblings' 'wardrobe'. Those days, clothes were usually folded and not hung on clothes hangers.

It was also not known or remembered how EJ inherited these two 'wardrobe' boxes which by now would be termed and viewed as 'junk'. Since it held such happy childhood memories, EJ decided to convert it to something useful - a coffee table!

The box with the lid would be on top.

The box without lid would at the bottom. Castors were screwed at each corner at the bottom of the box so that it could be easily move about.

Two fastener clips were purchased and one on each side was screwed on. The clips can be unfastened to gain access to things stored in the bottom box. When the clips are fastened, the top box will not slide off or move from the bottom box.

A thorough wood polish completed it.

Well, the two boxes did not exactly fit but the difference in size created a useful gap for easy retrieval for magazines and other reading materials.

At times, it is also a laptop table.

To EJ, this useful 'junk' is a beautiful conversation piece.