MY LIFE WITH THE J FAMILY

This is the fifth day I am with the J Family. Initially, I was not welcome by anyone. Everywhere I go, the rest will hiss at me. I was so lonely and I had to play with myself. Then Justin came and played with me. We became very close. It took a day before Jayson accepted me. Janice just came back from her ex-foster home and she immediately played with me. Since last night, all of us were tired from playing and we slept together on our favorite chair Daddy reserved solely for us.

Papa Jonathan upon seeing me came to me and gave me a sniff. He accepted me immediately. Mama Jess kept hissing at me but she was always near me thinking whether she would want to accept me or not. After seeing me playing with Jayson, Justin and Janice, she finally greeted me with a wet loving lick. I slowly crept to her while she was feeding the rest with her sweet yummy milk and she did not reject me at all. Maybe she did not realized I was there as I tried very hard to blend in between Justin and Jayson.

Shhhh… Don’t say it so loud! I managed to steal some milk from Mama Jess. Hahaha…

NON TOILET TRAINED JANICE?

It was only three days of vacation with her adopted family and Janice was returned to the house this evening. According to the family, she was just too much for them to handle. She was such a brat, jumping up and down the whole place, claiming certain areas of the house with her (ahem). I wonder how she could have done that since she was so properly toilet trained at my place. Maybe it could be due to the change of environment, having the different scent as she got used to. Thus, she would have to identify new (ahem) spots all over again. Surprisingly, she still knows where to do her business back home now.

Trying to train a cat regardless of age could be time consuming especially you have so many around and you just do not know who the actual culprit is. I have been observing regularly and found out that I had no problems with Jon, Jess, Janice or Jeremy. They know where the litter box is. In fact, Jon and Jess will do their business outdoor. Occasionally when I was not able to open the door for them to go out, they will just visit the house toilet. It is just one of the other two kittens, Justin or Jayson, who is having the mischievous act once in awhile. I have caught Justin red-pawed trying to do it on my sofa and I have caught Jayson doing it at the corner of my bookshelves quite a few times. Even with the regular spraying of strong scented lemongrass lotion, they will still know how to avoid the areas but doing it few inches away. LOL… They are just too smart for me.

It is cruel to use violence on such tiny creatures but sometimes discipline is a must to maintain cleanliness and obedience in the house. Even though these few kittens are barely two months old, this is the best time to train them to follow the rules of the house. Straightforward method could be the best. Whenever a kitten commits a “crime”, I will just carry it to the “scene”, let it smell the “business”, give it a soft spanking, telling it “You can’t do it here!” with a stern voice and redirect it to the litter box. It works initially but after awhile, kittens are kittens, they are just too young to remember the golden rule and repeat themselves. It will need lots of time, patience, tolerance, commitment and responsibility to train them repeatedly until they remember.

One of the most important things to take note is that the litter box should always be cleaned and changed regularly. In the case of those who use shredded papers instead of litter sand, the box should be cleared twice a day. Cats are sensitive and particular about “overcrowding” and “smelliness” of their “business” area. That is one of the reasons they will seek other cleaner areas for their business. Moreover, if you have detected an area where there is cat urine on it, clean it properly with the right detergent and spray the area with anti-bacteria formulation such as Dettol or in my case lemongrass lotion (it repels mosquitoes at the same time .. hehe). Cats tracked the scent of their previous transactions and will repeatedly do it at the same spot. No scent… no unnecessary cleaning up!

I have found another method to be real efficient too. After each meal, lock them in the toilet for half an hour or so to ensure that they do their business in there. Eventually, they will get the idea and you do not have to worry about them messing around your house anymore. Please make sure that you close the toilet bowl lid. You would not want to have a kitten flushed down the toilet! Haha!

NOTE: You must also have scratching planks or poles around the house to avoid having them defacing your furniture.

CATS ON TUESDAY – NEW MEMBER OF THE BRAT PACK

The link above is where cat lovers all over the world gathered and share their updates on their pets on every Tuesday.
Feel free to drop in if you are a cat lover.

After the heartbreaking farewell to Janice last Saturday, the sadness was turned into happiness within just a matter of hours. I managed to save another kitten from the street. Now this kitten is under my care, pampered and loved at as the rest of the J family members. Well, please welcome Jeremy, the new brat in the pack! Haha… he’s just as mischievous as Garfield the fat cat but he’s just too cute to be left as a stray. He’s going to be the star of my blog soon at the rate he’s acting so naturally and wonderfully.

Here’s what Jeremy did upon hearing the meaning of his name. For your information, Jeremy means God’s Exalts in Hebrew. In simple English, it represents high rank, power, dignity and high praised from many. Do enjoy the short preview of his first captioned photographs below:

HELLO JEREMY MY BABY GARFIELD!

It was barely few hours after Janice left and I ended up with yet another new member to the J Family. I am still wondering who is so cruel to dump a helpless stray kitten in front of my house. This kitten is surely not from this neighborhood as I can recognize any Mummy cats which were pregnant. As an animal lover, I just could not stop myself from running to the distress of the crying kitten.

Oh My God! This tailless long furred kitten is just too cute to be ignored. By the look of its face, fur and prominent orange body marking, it is not any normal kitten. Either it is a pedigree or a mixed pedigree. In fact, it looked just like Garfield. No kitten of this size or age will run away until so far. I even knew all the cat owners around my place and no one has any cats with orange coats. I would believe that it is the fate of this kitty to land itself into this sanctuary. Welcome Jeremy to the family!

The first thing I got hold of Jeremy, he was scratching from head to toes. You can imagine the quantity of fleas he has on his little body. There were hundreds of them running crazily even into his ears. He was just too pitiful to be left in this state and he might even infect the rest of my cats. Although it was already night time, I have no choice but to wash him 6 times in a row, all within 5 minutes to avoid him getting a chill. I later towel dried him and let him wrapped in another towel. I then slowly cleaned his ears, body and between the paws to get rid of any fleas that might escape my anti-flea shampoo.

Alas! I have to skip my regular commenting during the weekend but it was worth it as I have helped another living creature who almost became ignored and homeless. At least Jeremy now has a warm place to sleep in, food to eat and toys to play with. The only problem I am facing now is for the rest of the members to accept him into the family. Well, Jeremy is still young, so are the rest of the kitties. There should not be any problems at all for this barely two months old kitty to adapt himself into the family.

JANICE HAS BEEN ADOPTED

My friend Wilson came over to collect Janice back to his place barely few minutes ago. He was rather excited with the beauty, obedience and cuteness of Janice. Who won’t with such a beauty? I do hope that she will be pampered and loved at as I did. I just could not stop myself from taking photos of her as part of my collections. Maybe I should at least post some photos here so that on and off I can pop in and have some sweet memories of her. I will surely not forget the cute moments she had with me, snuggling with me, playing my hair in bed, giving me those baby bites, jumping onto my lap to get my attention and enjoying her sleep comfortably there. She even had her scratch marks left all over my body now.

Wait~! What’s that sound from the kitchen? It sounded like Jessica. Ouch! I am feeling the guilt of giving up Janice for adoption now as Jessica is purring nonstop hunting for Janice from upstairs until downstairs of my house. Now, lots of questions popped up in my head. Did I make the right choice? Am I supposed to break the kitties and parents apart? Is it wrong that I gave up one so that she would have the sole attention of her new owner? Well, I have no answers to the above. I am still feeling the attachment to her in me now. The tingling sensation is just too strong and it made my eyes wet. I hope these tears are the tears of joy that she will be having a new life all together and to grow up to be a beautiful lady in years to come.

JANICE! I MISSED YOU NOW!

CUTE SLEEPING TECHNIQUES

Sometimes, any bad day will change for the better just by looking at the cuteness of your cats or kitties while they are sleeping. As proven medically that by owning a cat at home, you may free yourself mentally and physically from the many sickness that will take years to recover. Let the kitties of the “J” family show you how to sleep cute and have a healthier lifestyle.

THE GREAT ESCAPE

It was one of those days when your cat got real dirty for roaming outside the house for days. What would you do? Do you just let it do the cleaning as in its cat instinct or would you give it a good bath? Cats are believed to be clean animals which can cleanse themselves well but there are some areas of the fur that can’t be cleaned by mere licking. What about those pesky fleas that they will bring back? Will you just let them come into the house and infect the rest of your bundles? The only solution that I can think of in this humid weather of Malaysia is to give them great warm baths.

Bathing cats has been a taboo for many cat lovers but it depends on the weather conditions and climate of different countries. You would not want to bathe your cat during winter and chill it to death right? In fact, cold has been known to be one of the killers in the life of a cat. Poisoning and untreated wounds are also the other threats.

My readers were concerned about the welfare of my kittens when I gave them some medicated baths a couple of days ago. I can assure you all that all my cats are well taken care of. In fact, they are pampered real well. After the bath, each individual was given a dry towel to wipe them dry, followed with hot fur blowing and wrapped in a new dry cloth. They were then given thorough ears and claws cleaning by using some cotton buds soaked in olive oil. In the case if there were still some unwanted pest stuck to their body, inspections were done with tender loving care, ensuring that they are flea-free.

The only problem I had was that the big fat and chubby Papa Jonathan escaped before he had his “bath sentence” punished upon him for bringing in the infestation. It had been awhile since I was puzzled on how he managed to escape through my high grilled gate until I shot him digitally red handed doing the escape act by using my neighbor’s rusty gate. What a laugh I had! I will let you all decide if he is eligible to be entered in the Funniest Cat Video Contest? What do you all think? :P

THE GREAT ESCAPE

DADDY’S VALENTINE CARD

“Toot! Toot!” came the honking of a motorcycle in front of the house. “Hey Jayson! The postman is here!” shouted Justin anxiously. “I wondered what letter did Daddy have this time?” exclaimed Janice. The trio quickly scrambled to a safe place as they heard the running footsteps of their Daddy towards the main gate to retrieve the mails.

Daddy was smiling all the way as he open up the letter. It was a Valentine card from Aunt Deana from USA. As Daddy was opening the card inside, something fell out and flew towards the floor. Jayson, the expert paper catcher rushed to the falling paper and pinned it onto the floor. “Gotcha!” exclaimed Jayson. “Yo guys! I’m richer now. Should we go to the mall and get ourselves some Friskies since Papa Jon has gone MIA again?” laughed Jayson hysterically.

“Cool Valentine card. Is that Papa’s new lover on the cover?” remarked a confused Janice. “Shhh… Don’t say so loud Janice! Mama might hear what you say,” said Justin. “Hmm… who is that black cat at the back cover? It says Bad Cat! She’s so sexy!” remarked Jayson. “Grrrrr… Shhhhh!” shouted Justin.

“What are you boys and girl looking at?” in came Mama Jess. Jayson hastily kept the card away. “Nothing Mama” said Jayson. “It’s just Daddy’s Valentine card!” “Hehehe …” giggled the triplets.

JONATHAN’S FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY PRIZE

Deana and her cute gang awarded Jonathan the Funniest Valentine Photo in the 2008 Toonces and Rollie Valentine Contest based on cuteness, sweetness, personality and fun. It was Jonathan’s first online photography contest entry and he won.

Well, here is what Jonathan has to say to those who have supported and voted for him… A BIG Thank You!