Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

Little kitty has been finding a number of comfy places for sleeping in the apartment. In the beginning, we kept her in the living room, then later decided to set-up the unoccupied studio as her “bedroom.” I placed some yarn, Trevor’s slippers and Edward and Mandy there for her to play with. She never pees or poos in this room.

Then later, she found her way up Trevor’s bag hanging by the door of her “bedroom.” She grew a bit fond of this suspended bag for playing in and sometimes for sleeping in.

Later, she found an old house dress of mine lying on the floor and she really liked it. She slept on it immediately.

So I took Edward and placed it there with her. Now, this corner near our bedroom door is her new sleeping place, although she still sometimes sleeps in the studio with the yarn and Mandy, and climbs up Trevor’s bag.

Below is Kitty doing one of her “in the wild” type of stares!

When I am at the computer, she likes to sleep on my notebook computer’s little power supply. She likes it a lot because it’s warm. However, she doesn’t sleep on it when I or Trevor are not in the room. I guess Kitty likes to be with us all the time.

Kitty has grown quite big in the past 3 weeks - she loves the tuna and ocean fish we get from Friskies, as well as the fish-shaped kitten pellets from Whiskas. She doesn’t use the feeding bottle anymore, although Trevor still puts a bit of milk in her plate (with the pellets) in the morning. Kitty also loves the chicken and fish that I cook for our dinner.

Kitty was immensely amused today when Noemi, our cleaning lady, came to clean up the apartment. And after I’ve just bragged to Noemi that we’ve toilet-trained Kitty to poo in the plastic tray lined with newspapers, she pooed in the kitchen! Luckily all her poo are solid and so aren’t too difficult to clean up!

Yesterday, I got a book from my sister, with a dedication from Alwin - a book called “Meditations for Cats who do too much” - a humorous book with really lovely illustrations.

Anyway, I hope that Kitty grows up to be a big healthy cat (with a sense of humor!)!

Saturday night and there seem to be at least two groups of people celebrating birthdays through karaoke singing. The guy singing “Killing me softly with his song” seemed most apt - he is definitely killing people in the neighborhood with his singing!!

It also seems that “collecting societies” are being organized and institutionalized by the Philippines intellectual property office - thus, these accredited management organizations may more efficiently collect payment for use of the works of their members, for example, use of songs in public places.

I suppose if the street-side carinderia-karaoke-bar must pay the collecting society every time a copyright-protected song is played in their establishment, then perhaps the public can sue for damages and get compensation for the public nuisance!

In the meantime, Kitty is now getting more and more comfortable in the house, peeing and pooing everywhere. I think we will need to get a litter box soon. Above is a photo of her with Edward.

And actually, earlier today I did go to a birthday party - my new nephew Aldrich who celebrated hi first birthday. It was really fun - and all the kids enjoyed the party. Of course, big brother Alwin was there, and here is a photo of me with Alwin.

I also finally got to wear the new crocheted top that I finished several days ago. It’s the first one where I used crocheted flowers for decoration - not too bad, I thought.

Have also been working on the Internet Society (local chapter) website - with lots of work (particularly materials to go in it!) still need to be done.

In the meantime, Kitty needs feeding!

What a strange week - and it seems that Trevor hasn’t yet recovered from the exhausting trip to the embassy. I hope next week will be much better. The trick really is knowing how to relax - both the mind and the body.

In the city, relaxing the mind and body can be difficult, if not impossible. I don’t know how anyone can really genuinely rest with the noise outside - particularly motor noises from cars, motorcycles, airconditioners.

When I was still teaching at university, I just shuffled from school to home, and avoided the rest of the outside world as much as possible. This way, I shielded myself from the direct impact of noise, pollution, the visual assault and human congestion in shopping malls, even the mental assault in television. I also managed to avoid much of media junk on the Internet because I had (and still have) a slow dial-up connection.

Anyway, it will soon be my little nephew’s birthday. I should get the crocheted shoes ready - below I took a photo of the inside of the shoes to show the printed fabric inside it. The fabric came from a Japanese magazine on sewing children’s bags and clothes.

I washed these shoes a few days ago and had the electric fan pointed at them to dry - it took a couple of days. It hasn’t been very sunny lately - quite gray, and rains in the morning, so things take a while to dry.

In the meantime, our new little kitty is taking over the house now. She really loves playing with Edward and the blankets. I took a photo of her, below, just when she woke up.

She has also taken Trevor’s new slippers. I think now she prefers these new slippers because they are softer. Below is a photo of Kitty sleeping inside Trevor’s slippers.

At the moment I am trying to finish a crocheted shawl (or something like that). The work started with a number of crocheted squares which I was planning to put together into a blouse, then I thought of putting together into a skirt, and then decided that maybe a shawl would be better. Whatever, my crochet work is becoming more and more spontaneous - just like Trevor’s Java programs!

And here is the crocheted beige blouse that I made some 3-4 months ago. This also started as a dress, then I cut the skirt part off because it looked awful. Then I removed the buttons and used drawstrings instead, and now I’ve crocheted the neckline together but still kept the drawstrings. Really complicated work!

It’s all trial and error, and hopefully, later, I can get back on my work and draw out the pattern.

I think Kitty has really adopted us now ….

It has taken us almost a whole day to recover from the visit to the embassy - I still find it difficult and unpleasant traveling in Metro Manila.

Anyway, last night, I was able to finish crocheting a new pair of shoes for my nephew Aldrich. I made a pair last year but they were too small - I hope that these are going to be just the right size. Perhaps later I should make much bigger ones.

Well, below is a photo of the crocheted baby shoes. This time, I used colorful fabric for the insoles, padded with kapok from the pods that Trevor and I picked up last year around the area.

I have also managed to complete three sleeveless blouses during the past three months. Below is one that is made from pink thread.

I am now making my own designs, without following any pattern. It could be difficult trying to draw the pattern from the finished items later, but it is even tougher trying to draw the pattern while making the piece. I had to do a great deal of re-working too.

At the moment, our new kitty has been eating quite a lot - I still have to feed her, though, using the syringe that our vet gave us three months ago. She likes the milk and tuna a lot. She’s asleep now, on my pillow. I took a photo of her below.

She really looks so much like our first little kitty.

Anyway, back to the crocheted shoes, I found a good comparative shoe size chart from the Bata website, which could be useful for anyone interested in making shoes.

Early Monday morning, Trevor and I decided to apply for our visa to India.

And as it turns out, the Embassy wouldn’t process our visa application. They said that we were applying too early and added that we should apply 2-3 weeks before our scheduled flight to India.

My excuse was that we needed to get our visa because we will be out of the country for 3 weeks in November. The Embassy insisted that we apply last week of November since it takes only 3-6 days to get the visa.

I insisted saying that we needed the visa to confirm our reservation at the Homestay - the Embassy said that we will definitely get our visa so we can confirm the reservation, but we can’t just apply too early.

Because that didn’t work I told her we are not so sure of being in Manila end of November as we might still be in Mongolia. The Embassy said that we can try end of October. I said but that’s not 2-3 weeks before our flight to India. They said they will accept it then. They added that the Embassy may also give us only a short term valid visa and may no longer be valid when we leave for India if we apply too early. I said, but isn’t the tourist visa 6 months valid? They said the Embassy has the discretion to give shorter visas.

I guess the Embassy was really really keen on not letting us apply at all until much later.

What an ordeal. The Embassy was located in an exclusive rich village (Dasmarinas Village) and they wouldn’t let a taxi go in or people (non-residents) walking in. People had to pay a ticket at the guard’s entrance to ride a shuttle service to take them to the Embassy (or other place in the exclusive village). What’s worse, they said that only foreign nationals or those married to foreign nationals could walk - un assisted, or should I say, un-guarded - inside the village.

So to walk in Trevor and I showed our marriage certificate (I always bring it with me - I may not be in Saudi Arabia, but it helps). The guard looked at it and remarked, but you are a Filipino citizen. I said OF COURSE! They were probably expecting Filipinas married to foreigners automatically kicking their nationality.

But imagine, I can’t even walk freely in my own country because I am still a Filipino!!!!

What a world!

We got home, rested, and shortly as I was starting to cook dinner, I heard a loud meowing outside. I looked through the window and saw - right under the tree next to little kitty’s tree - was an abandoned little kitten!

I immediately woke Trevor up and told him we should get it. So we went down - it was raining a bit - and took the little kitten. It was inside an open plastic bag indicating that someone had thrown her into the fence and right under that tree.

Our new kitty looks so much like our first little kitty we found some 3 months ago, under the tree and also while it was gently raining. Little kitty is also a tri-color, so we can say that it’s most probably female. I took a photo of her, above, asleep on my old soft cotton shirt which I placed on top of Trevor’s slippers.

This new kitty has her eyes open and is able to walk around, definitely older than our first kitty who still had her eyes closed when we found her.

I gave our new little kitty some food (some baby milk left over from before) and then I gave her a good wash with warm water and made her pee. Our new little kitty has a short rather fat tail. She’s really quite cute. I’m so glad we found her (or she found us!)

Our new little kitty had quite a good rest, especially fond of Trevor’s slippers. I guess we’ll need to get a new pair soon.

This photo of her back really reminds me of our first little kitty … I was also reminded of the day that kitty died but I don’t feel as sad anymore, in fact, I feel happy that in some way kitty has come back to us.

I truly hope we do better this time and help kitty grow up to be a big cat - so George and Fortun can have someone to play with.

Incidentally, I just learned that stray cats/kittens were used as targets by an air-gun toting folk in Dasmarinas village last year. See in the news, and from the Makati local government website news, below.

BINAY ORDERS INVESTIGATION OF CAT SLAUGHTER IN DASMARINAS VILLAGE

posted 01/05/2008 12:58 PM SATURDAY

The Makati Police Department is currently investigating the recent killing of 29 kittens and cats in Barangay Dasmariñas.

Makati Police Chief Supt. Gilberto DC Cruz ordered the investigation following verbal orders from Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay. Cruz said Makati Police investigators are coordinating with Barangay Dasmariñas officials and the Dasmariñas Village Association (DVA).

“I have ordered the Makati Police to arrest those responsible as soon as possible. The suspects have violated a national law and a city ordinance on animal welfare,” Binay said.

The mayor said the suspects must be found to secure the safety, not only of animals, but of residents and visitors of Dasmariñas Village.

“Whoever did this does not seem to have a sound mind and may cause harm to people the next time. I am asking anyone who has information to cooperate with the authorities,” Binay said.

Last December 16, several cats were shot at using an air gun with lead pellets inside two holding cages at the back of the DVA gym. The cats were cared for by the Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) Philippines, which is helping the DVA address the stray cat population problem of the village. The cats were reportedly up for adoption. - From Makati Gov