Dorking, Hams and Mermen

In Canada, we have some fun town names.

Lucknow Ontario looks different to the one in Uttar Pradesh, India.

These towns have the right kind of syrup.

I ended up at Lake Huron, where I saw Paula and we were photogenic.

I had lots of great food and wine, but all I got was a picture of grape vines.

And the world's best corn chips, which are thin, warm, and not really that photogenic.

Speaking of photogenic, I also went to Spain to have vermouth and tapas with Kevin & Andrew.

This time, I did a better job of foodtography.

The specialty is the garlic shrimps.

I chronicalled their life in Spain. They measured luggage.

Took mugshots,

And consulted maps while in the train station.

We went shopping for interesting things like mermen.

And of course hams.

I hung out with this fat cat in the rain.

And wondered about these sketchy characters portrayed in stained glass.

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Jeju: Island of Hanyeo and Hareubang

In Jeju, an island in the South of S.Korea, the rocks are volcanic, and the abalone and other seafood used to be caught by the free diving Haenyeo women, seen here in sculpture form. The dolphins, in the distance, also say hi.

My friend Kevin is living in Jeju, and here is what we look like through the igneous rock.

The island is protected by many of these little guys, called dol hareubang.

Pretty lava flows.

These are lava people, and they wish to greet you.

It was time to harvest the (small amounts of?) sesame.

And seafood of course.

Hiking in the sharp rocks caused a wardrobe malfunction! (Those are not my legs; Kevin is more fit).

Anyway, time for some steamed fish stew!

And Jeju tangerines which are extra delicious.

Of course, we can't have a Korea trip without some fashion.

Butter, Whith the Verblee, and Dotureboy Backer.

I got a great selfie with this guy and his deathly complexion.

Maybe it's from too much composing.

Also, I've finally learnt how to take selfies.

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Would you like some Pinto Beans?

Hi, my name is Pinto, and I've had the craziest couple of months! I was just hanging out by my garbage dumpster home when I was put in a carrier and taken to a new place. It has new smells and a nice soft bed.

Since I'm a clever young lady, I adapted quickly. I do not scratch furniture or people, and I use the kitty litter politely. The humans like to give me snuggles.

Ok, I like to snuggle them too, and I'll come and chill next to them. They taught me how to eat treats, which was new for me!

My favourite thing is to play. I didn't get to do this before, and I'm very good at it. They're working on a video montage of my skills and agility.

I am a very pretty 2-year old bicolour mask and mantle (that's the fur pattern, nothing fancy) lady, with green/blue eyes. I have at least 3 colours of toe beans!

My fur has recovered too, it's now soft and smooth! I say that I'm blossoming: you can see the difference in some of these photos.

I love sitting close to my friends, pets, elevator butts, playing with toys, playing fetch with treats, and all of the foods. I am active, polite, and social, but a bit scared of other cats. I haven't met any kids or dogs yet, but I like to follow the big people around! I'm neutral on catnip, not really my thing.

Anyway, the adventures continued, and I had to go to the vet! I showed my displeasure with my airplane ears but I was very good. I prefer to hide in the towel, and don't mind my carrier backpack.

The vet said that I will always be a small (under 3.5kg) cat, but I'm super healthy! I am sterilized, microchipped, FIV/FELV/FIP negative, vaccinated, with good bloodwork. I had a few infections/parasites from my previous home, but they're gone, and now I'm rounder, softer and I have longer fur and whiskers already. I had to go through the humiliation of getting my ears cleaned and claws clipped. I disagreed, but they did it anyway.

I'm a bit bored in my foster home, since Barry can't always play, because he says he's "allergic" to me. So now I'm ready for a life of play and leisure, after my original hoarding house and the outdoors dumpster life. I'm practicing this already.

Would you like to adopt me? You're welcome to come visit first. Please reach out to @laura_slamdoozle if you are interested in adopting Pinto. Standard CWS guidelines apply. 

PS. I think you should work less, and play with me more.

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What's up with all the Cats?

Moose before and after

Back in late 2020, when we walked along the highway bridge due to no people, we found Moose. Since then, several key things happened:

1. Barry became very much a cat person despite having allergies.
2. We learnt about the cat situation in Singapore.
3. We found cats and they found us.

Moose

Moose, whose full story is here, will be 5 this year. He says that his fabulousness encouraged us to help other cats glow up. He's not wrong.

Harvey Bodhi before and after

After Moose, we met Harvey Bodhi, who had the best transformation of all. On the left, his face was swollen and I edited out some of the pain dribbles. On the right, smart and playful thanks to his amazing adopters. To confirm, we do not keep the cats, we get them new homes.

Tigger

In the beginning, we didn't look for cats, they found us. Tigger was walking along a multi lane intersection. But after each of these lovely cats got adopted, we would ease our empty cat nest sorrows by petting the local community cats. These cats live in and around apartment building communities, and are fed on a schedule by local feeders, supported by donations etc.

Tigger

The more time you spend with rescue cats, community cats and vets, well, the more you realize community cats are often well fed and loved, but not always healthy, unfortunately. Many of them have been abandoned outdoors.

Marcel (Donut)

Marcel, (formerly known as Donut since we found him the day Tim Horton's opened), was our first intentional community cat rescue (with permission from the local feeders of course). He was malnourished, which we found was due to the general parasitic load he bore.

Marcel

It's not his fault, and this is common. The cats we've rescued have generally had some combination of lice, fleas, gut parasites, worms, ear mites, ringworm, other fungi, random fevers and infections. They are often malnourished as a result of parasites and/or food spoilage in the tropical heat, which is why they have drastic fur improvements as they heal.

Marcel

Recently, we have figured out how to get involved a bit more formally, and have been able to trap, neuter and return six more timid strays in our local community. Jeju here was very surprised. (Also, this cool speckled fur is common in Singaporean cats.)

Jeju (TNR)

Lately, there has been an excess of cats in our local community housing after a cat hoarding situation. Since these buildings will soon be torn down, we have tried to help more of the cats. Both of these two had major fur loss due to overgrooming stress (cat equivalent of nail biting).

Nakia (formerly Melba)

We've now rescued six cats, sterilized another six (and treated one elderly curmudgeonly lady).

Nakia.

We're not going to turn this into a full operation, for various reasons including Barry's need to use his lung capacity for air rather than fluid.

Pinto before (stress grooming) and after.

Pinto

(Also, I can't get the cats to pay for their own vet care, though you can see Pinto working on it here.)

Now, I've written this without a goal or conclusion, and I don't want to be a patronizing jerk, but I'll end it with some requests.

1. If you are thinking about getting a cat, please help a rescued cat through one of many organizations out there. Or let me know!
2. If you want to rescue, foster, take care of and adopt out a cat, please let me know! This is a short term (up to 2 months) commitment, with some marketing effort.
3. All of our rescues have been adopted by friends of friends, so please spread the word!

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