Monday, September 18, 2006

The Life of Ginger, My Little Lion Cat

I got Ginger when she was just 3 months old. I did not really mean to get another cat, was just looking around, and thinking whether I should get another friend for Shadow. Too bad Shadow was lost when Ginger was just about 4 months old.


One day, as I was having my facial at Uptown, I went to the pet shop I always visit around that area and saw her. She responded right away when I went near her cage. And when I held her in my arms, she licked my face. It was then I decided that she will be mine. Ginger was very active, naughty and rebellious when she came to my house. It was a nightmare to feed her deworming tablets. She hated it so much and made sure I know it. The number of scratches she gave me was countless.


Ginger when she was just 3 months old.


Ginger's favorite pasttime is to climb the window in my room.


Oh dear, it is kinda high up, isnt it.


As she grew up, she matured into a quiet and lazy cat. She spends most of her time sleeping and lazing around the house. When I call her, she will lift her head, look at me for 3 seconds and went back to sleep. Even during mealtime, she is not bothered as she knows that there is always plenty of food lying around. She is extremely afraid of strangers too. Everytime there is a visitor in my house, she would run and hide under the sofa. Only until she gets to know you better, will she look up and acknowledge you, and went back to sleep. I now let the pet shop or vet feed her the deworming tablets, because she is always timid and quiet when she is at a strange place.

She is not a manja cat. When she is not in the mood, she does not want to be touched. And she merajuk all the time. Everytime I bath her, she will merajuk for 2 whole days. What does she do when she merajuk? Well, she wont look up when you call her name, when you go near her, she will just stand up and walk away, and she will not come upstairs to greet me in the morning. Oh yeah, she and Garlic, without fail, will raced upstairs every morning when I opened the door to let them in the room. They will then sit and looked up at me, waiting for me to pick them up for their morning cuddle. I cuddle Ginger first, and then Garlic. Sometimes when Ginger felt that the cuddle is too short, she will follow me around the room and make her ‘I want another cuddle’ sound.



She tried to bluff you with her non-sleeping position on my bed, but if you look closely, she is actually snoring.


The famous pig pose.


Almost falling asleep.


Sleeping and showing off her fluffy fur.


Finally! A photo when she is NOT sleeping.


Recently, the shedding has become extremely serious. I have to vacumn almost everyday and yet there is fur everywhere. Everytime I come back from gym and give them all a cuddle, I have to vacumn myself before I go into my room. Someone from a www.vet.com.my had the same problem and she sent her cat for a ‘lion cut’ (Thanks Tiara!). So I decided to give it a try. I was a bit concerned at first. So I asked around and did some research on the internet. So far, all the cat owners commented that they did not see a major difference in their cats character and no skin diseases or irritation.

So on Saturday morning, Ginger went to the pet shop. I specifically told them NOT to shave her but to leave her body fur at least ½ inches long. This is so that she wont feel too weird and also there are still fur on her body in case she is cold. The hair cut cost me RM70 (more expensive than my own haircut!).

When she came back, Garlic and Pepper was very curious about her new look. Garlic followed her around the house and Pepper kept chasing after her lion tail. At one point, Ginger got so annoyed at Pepper that she gave Pepper a smack on the face. I gave all of them some new treats I bought from the pet shop. Threw their favorite ping pong ball on the floor and Ginger came chasing after it.

At night, she stayed in my room. At first, I was a bit worried that she would be cold (I have air-con in my room) but I was wrong. She still takes her spot right underneath where the air blew straight at her. Once a while she would walk up to me and licked me. She even climbed on top of me while I was watching TV to lick me on my face! When I switched off the light to sleep, she came up and slept on the same pillow. Only at about 4am, she woke me up by licking my face. So I let her out of the room. She came back upstairs at 7am to give me a wake up call. She has not done that for about 2 months now.

Below is how she looks now.



The fur is left about 1/2 inches long on her body. It feels like carpet when you run your hand through it. I am surprised on how thick her fur actually is.


Her lovely lion tail.


Her lion head. Not furry enough to look like a real lion though.


My little Lion Cat.


Ginger looking up at me when I called her.


Sleeping again. So what's new?


Sesame is curious about his big sister's new look.


Mmmmm.....she smells really nice too.


With her new cut, she is now the same size as Garlic!



Back View.


Sleeping at her position on the end of my bed, where the air-con blows directly to her.


Sleeping so soundly that she did not realize I am actually taking photo.


Snuggled in my laundry. Normally I do not let them do this as fur will be all over my clothes. But having come out of the shower and see her in this position, I grab my camera and snap snap.



Friday, September 15, 2006

From Innocent Little Thing to Cheeky Little Thing

Sesame is almost one month old now. He has learnt to walk and roam around the house. From being the unsure, innocent little thing, he is now confident, proud of himself and extremely cheeky. His fur has gotten thicker and he now knows how to lick himself. He knows how to look up at you when you call his name. He knows to walk over to you when you clap ur hands and call his name.


However, he has a minor infection on his ear. It does not affect his behaviour though. Taken him to the vet last week for treatment. Bringing him back to the vet tomorrow for a check-up. Hope he recovers soon!




















Monday, September 11, 2006

My Loyal Protector

So far, ever since I moved to Blogspot, my blog has been dedicated to my cats. I want to dedicate this post to Winter, my loyal friend and protector.


Winter is a gem. She is a 5 years old mixed breed. Maybe even a Dalmatian mixed breed, from the look of her coat. A friend picked her up from the streets and gave it to me when she was just about 2-3 months old.


For those of you who had read my previous post, knows that she does not tolerate intruders well. She has killed a total of 4 civet cats (musang) and 5 rats so far. How she managed to capture the civet cats and rats are beyond me. From the bodies we found, there were no traces of blood, so we suspect she killed her victims with one fatal bite on the neck.


Though she is a brutal killer, she is amazingly gentle with my cats. Well, gentle in a way. She is still a too rough for my cats liking when she is trying to get them to play with her. On Merdeka day, Pepper showed some curiosity towards Winter when I opened the back glass door to hang my clothes. I stood there and observed them. Pepper went close to Winter, trying to smell Winter. Winter, as usual, was wagging her tail when she saw Pepper moving close. Then out of the blue, Pepper turned aggressive, hissed and clawed then moved away.


I did not notice anything at first. Pepper ran back to Sesame, and Winter just sat there, crying. I patted her head and she was still crying. So I bent down in front of Winter, asking her what is wrong. As I looked closely, I noticed that there is a small drop of blood forming at her nose, barely noticeable. Pepper managed to claw Winter’s nose! And Winter did not turned aggressive nor retaliate. She just sat there and cried to let me know she has been hurt. It was a very small scratch. When I rubbed her nose, she went back to wagging her tail and trying to lick my face. I examined her nose and face to make sure there are no hidden scratches. Both Pepper and Winter are vaccinated so I am not too worried. After I patted Winter, she was back to her normal self, running about when I went out to hang the clothes.


Winter is a very smart dog. She knows the difference between the cats, my pets, our family, and the intruders. You protect your family from intruders. And when a family member hurts you, you do not hold it against them, you do not seek for revenge, and you still love them all the same.




When Winter is still a baby, and below is her now.








Winter checking out Pepper through a glass door when I just brought Pepper home for the night.




Winter checking out Pepper and Sesame through a glass door.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Sesame's Updates

Sesame has learnt to walk now, though not very stable yet. He stumbles all over the place. He will be running around the house soon. Its quite impossible to get a photo of him now. He just keeps moving! You cannot hold him still long enough for the camera. Haha. But he does bring me and my visiting friends a lot of joy.


Below are some new photos of him.



This is me climbing out under my surrogate mother. When mummy is not around, I stay near her to keep me warm. She is white and soft. She got no milk and does not move.


I love to sleep. This lady's lap is nice.



**SNORE**


**YAWN** What's up? Let me continue my sleep.


I wanna play with Big Brother Garlic.




Big Brother Garlic is so BIG! I wanna grow up to be just like him.



My most adorable look, a real lady killer.


I look real good, don't I? Just love my reflection.




Oh dear! Me on my bad hair day.

Friday, September 01, 2006

I finally got a name - Baby Sesame

After much thought, I am going to name him Sesame. This is also partly because he looked up to Alexis when she called him 'Che Mar' (Sesame in cantonese). Merdeka day has been a fruitful day where we took a lot of adorable photos of little sesame. Below are some of them....



Sesame with mummy.



What is the funny looking lady with the flashing light doing?



I know I am adorable. I am a proud handsome kitten.



I am not trying to wink at you. I am just sleepy.



Eh, what's that thing over there?



ZzzzZzzzz....



This lady got soft soft tummy.



Eh, she is calling me 'Che Mar'. Is that my name?