Milky cats

Cats love milk. But most of my cats don't like milk. Except this Siamese family which can lap up all milk from a small carton box every morning. The mother cat still occasionally breastfeeds her kittens though. I give them Bear Brand Sterilized Milk in the morning when I have little time to prepare their solid meal. It's also the fastest way to shut them up even just for a while or until the last drop of milk is gone. :)

Flip-flop cat

I snapped this photo of one of my Siamese kittens (this is Maki, again) during one of her afternoon playtime. I didn't think much of it until I studied the photo. She's still not quite as tall as my 6" flip-flops that have seen better days. But she and my slippers share one thing in common. Can you see it? Maki's eyes are as blue as the flip-flops. And though she has no use for flip-flops, she and her siblings are natural when it comes to flipping and flopping everywhere around the house. :)

Hanging cat

This is Maki, a two-month old Siamese who loves to play in the garden during afternoons. I had new pots that are still empty hanging by a low tree and I thought of putting Maki there to see how she'd manage. She did fine for several minutes inside this "basket" which were all I needed to snap some photos. I want to shop for real cat baskets though for my dirty dozen (I have 12 cats, but they're not at all dirty), as the one I have is now all worn out. But pet stores price their cat baskets way too high. I can try making one, but I think my time is worth more than what a basket would cost. Maki seemed at first to be happy to sit in the hanging pot, but soon she wanted to go down to play with her siblings in the grass.

Cream but not sweet

People, meet Cream. He is Puff's brother. He is not a lap cat. He hates being carried around. He is not the typical sweet domestic cat.

However, Cream takes good care of his sister by always being at her side to fend off attacking cats. He doesn't go out of his way to pick fights with older and younger cats in the house. He seems to follow the motto "live and let live" and he is simply content to play with his sister and his cotton mouse. Most people won't like him, but I try very hard to see the best in him. I admit he is not one of my favorites, but I'm fair enough to give him his own solo entry in this blog.

Cream is one of those cats who walk by himself, a "cold" trait that somehow helps him to standout in a house full of needy cats. :)

A kitten's smile

I LOVE YOU AMO!

Cat collars

I need a quick way to identify my cats, especially those that have the same color and patterns. A collar or leash is the perfect ID but the smallest ones available in pet shops are usually designed for toy dogs. The ones that they say are really for cats are quite tough and long. In short, I don't really like what's available in stores, but with too many cats in the house, they need to be tagged!

So, out came my box of pet stuff where I unearthed old collars from my previous pets that are now resting in peace. I also took out some of my personal accessories that I no longer want or need and fashioned them into new cat necklaces. It took me one whole afternoon fixing up the collars you see in the picture above because I had to resize them, sew the ends, and refit some of the bells and buckles again. Aside from being an accessory, the bells serve as an early warning device and cat-locator to let me know where my cats are. For my cute kitties, since they are still small, I simply fitted them with rubberized cloth in yellow, red and blue that I use to tie my hair. I really need to give my little dirt-devils some kind of ID to tell them apart because they are like 90 percent identical!

Happy with the result, I immediately dressed up my models as you can see from the pictures below.

Puff the Magic Cat

Meet Puff the magic cat. She's my one-year old adopted female cat. One fine morning, I found her crying outside the gate of my house. This was a few days before the devastating typhoon Ondoy hit Metro Manila. Minutes after I took her in, I spotted her brother also meowing desperately as he chased a man walking in front of him and was obviously oblivious to his existence. I named Puff's brother Cream. Together they are Cream Puff.

Why did I say Puff the magic cat? I have at least two good reasons to date. First, she managed to hide herself underneath a moving car and managed to stay there until the car brought her back. It was raining like cats and dogs (pun intended) that afternoon when "clues" to her whereabouts became more apparent. To cut the long story short, the driver went back to my place, parked the car and searched for Puff under the car where she was found nestled inside the rear bumper. She must have covered a distance of two kilometers through a hilly drive punctuated by lots of humps. Talk about a cat hitching a ride.

Puff is like a runt. She doesn't grow much. She still looks like a kitten EXCEPT when she wants to keep other cats at bay. Boy could she growl! At first I thought the big cats are the ones making the low and threatening growl. But it was Puff all along, like she swallowed a sub-woofer!! This is why I also now call her Sub-woofy if not Puffy. She's really a very sweet cat, but hates competition to the max.

Puff's favorite food is wet Whiskas. She loves to sleep on top of a black pillow shaped like a cat but not after kneading it like she wants to milk the poor thing. Maybe it reminds her of her mother cat. Or maybe she's just being Puff :)

Cat family

Meet my cat family. One night Chong, the biggest cat in the left side of the photo, decided he wants to be with his sister/wife Chang and their babies, so off he dove right into the brown box. Chang didn't mind at all. They just all slept there. Very adorable. :)