a change is as good as a rest (1)

You might have noticed it’s been quiet around here for a couple of weeks.    That’s because we’ve been away visiting our friends in Singapore.

It was lovely to meet  them again.  Last time I saw them was just over a year ago, the day they were adopted from SPCA

Both as gorgeous as ever though lovely to see that she has grown so much in confidence, whilst he … well his legs have growed and growed … he must be one of the tallest cats I’ve ever met 😉  They’re very lucky kitties to have been rescued by SPCA and have found such a lovely furever home.

One of the first holiday activities was to go with this young lady and her adoptive parents to see a specialist vet about her eye condition.  She’d had cat flu when she came into rescue, and it left her with a sore and runny eye.  She’d waited a while to get her appointment so didn’t want to miss it, but was concerned it was a bit of a buswoman’s holiday for me.  Not at all!  Fascinated to visit the vets thousands of miles from home where things are so different whilst also so much the same.   Similar displays of quality dry food for sale, and posters about pet health.   Very similar looking scenarios of families clustered round loved pets in waiting room.   It could have been our usual weekly vet run had it not been a cool 30C and most of the faces Chinese.

thanks to adoptive mum Jo for this lovely photo

Much of day to day life with cats in Singapore seems pretty much as it is here.  Eat, sleep, litter tray, play.   Some things though are quite different:  there’s no snuggling up infront of the fire or draping your fur over the radiator,  and somehow sprawling in front of the aircon isn’t as attractive.  However the in house entertainment is more fun – with lizards racing across the ceiling/walls.   When it comes to food and drink most of the same foods are available, however mosquitoes and ants and heat come into the equation.  Still water is a breeding ground for mozzies, so water fountains are safer.  Ants are quick to sniff out any food left lying around (whether that be cat or human food), so the amount of time that food is left out has to be limited.

There appears to be more emphasis on keeping cats indoors than there is in the UK … one rescue describing allowing them outdoors as “a death sentence”.   These two live in a pretty safe contained area so are allowed out to explore for brief periods.   They’re kept in on certain days when “fogging” is scheduled … that’s when people come round and spray the area with chemicals to deal with the mosquitoes.  It’s a necessary exercise but not something you’d want on your cat’s lungs.   Another consideration has to be what wildlife might be lurking in the bushes – there is potential for them to drag something much worse than a half dead mouse home with them.

The other different thing you might be interested to know about Singapore moggies is that it’s typical for them to have a knot in their tail.

I got the impression that the knot made them less attractive in terms of adoption … however I was on holiday as opposed to doing any serious research so I could well be wrong.  My subjective experience is that it looks cute, and makes them who they are … however the natural (for me) stroke of head start .. down the neck … along the body … and up the tail is a little thrown by the knot.  My human Singapore friends (who have previously been used to UK kitties) assure me that you simply get used to k/not doing this manoeuvre.