The Arrival & Departure of the Little Tigers

As quick as they arrived, they were gone.

The Year of the Tiger brought us these 3 freeloading furballs which appeared out of nowhere. We found them one morning at the back of our house about 2 week sbefore the CNY. I think they somehow knew how to pick the right house. But that's easy. If you're a food blogging hungry homeless tramp, you'd pick our house too.

The mother cat was probably shocked that we took her pictures without her permission, this being her first encounter with papparazzi. But if you saw the look on our faces, we'd probably looked just as shocked.

We didn't really wanted to encourage them but neither did we want to chase the poor little family away, especially when the kittens were so cute. So we didn't really interact with them, neither did we give them any food cos the mother cat was busy bringing little critters like dead lizards to her kitties. We thought that was a good deal cos it was like paying for their rent. Clear our house compound of those critters & you'd get to stay for free.

This is was Sylvester.

On the night before CNY eve, a grouchy looking, puffy-faced, ugly grey male cat came by & bit Sylvester by the neck, puncturing the back & front of his neck, & left him to die. It was a cowardly thing to do, & If I was there at that time, I'd have slapped the dang cat silly, & plucked out all his fur. 

Sadly, Sylvester didn't survive the CNY despite our efforts to force-feed him. I think his internal injuries were far more serious than we thought. Thinking back, he might have had a better fighting chance if the vet was opened, but this was CNY. Nothing was opened.

And as quick as it came, it was gone. And we pondered about the cruelty of nature. Truly only the fittest survive.

And that left us with 2-1=1 kitty left. And this one was a girl. So we thought at the very least she won't get killed by another male cat.

And then when I opened the back door one fine morning, she wasn't there any longer. Guess what. I found her on the main road on my way to work. Dead.

So that's zero kittens left. We felt sorry for the mom but there was more to come. That night, our neighbour suddenly popped up & asked about the cat. They complained that she had been hiding in their car engine chasis & puked on their car, & they wanted to discard her away to the housing estate on the other opposite side.

Not really knowing how to defend this guilty-as-can-be feline, I gave her away with a heavy heart, & with full regrets for the rest of the night. We pondered away the whole night on the what-ifs & finally decided that if she came back the next morning, we'd buy her a collar, start feeding her, & keep her.

Guess what. She was back like clockwork the next morning.

And so I bought her a collar with a little bell. And a bag of salmon chicken Whiskas biscuits.

Now we've got another problem. Her heat is on & that means the male cats are on to her as well. But I really can't write anymore. It's either going to sound romantic or X-rated.

So as fast as they came, they went, & only mommy cat stayed. We won't know how long she'll stay for, or the neighbour will abduct her again. We're thinking whatever happens, at least she has a collar on, & that will gain her a more humane treatment.

For now, Nee is caling her Miu Miu, like the Miu Miu from Prada. I roll my eyes.

Oh by the way, this was supposed to be a Happy Year of the Tiger post.