Remembering Mouche

It's been a long, long while since I blogged about Mouche. I was too busy with projects, friends, family, guests, other things that I could list on and on and on but neither has any importance as a real excuse right now. But I'm not going to start blaming myself on that. No, I won't. Because it's over now. She's gone.

Yes, you read it right. She's gone. To the heaven of little cats. She's gone.

It's been only 20 days since she breathed her last breath, and though I've run to the Borneo jungles and to the arms of my mother, my soul doesn't rest yet. Not quite. So I'm hoping this could be some sort of closure for me. Not to forget her, but to remember her and her good days with us.

This was Mouche in Vincent's wrap just a few weeks before she died.

The Return of Mouche

The vet called early in the morning asking if he could bring Mouche back at 10. I thought that was super quick, but I said yes. I told Vincent and he delayed going to the office to welcome Mouche back.

When she was finally here, she couldn't wait to get out of the cage. She dashed out as quickly as she could and she tried to climb up the stairs.

But she couldn't. She fell down showing how weak her limbs were.

The vet said that she was still drunk due to the anaesthesia. Vincent took Mouche back so that the vet could explain to us more clearly about the operation. We saw a rectangle shaved part of Mouche's stomach, on the side, and there was a bandage covering the wound. He said basically the drug is going to go away after a day and she'll be fully recovered in a week when we can peel off the bandage.

We actually wanted her to be vaccinated as well, but the vet gave a better option: he can go here again next week to check on the week and at the same time have her vaccinated.

Mouche was so needy the whole day. She could barely open her eyes but she knew when I was moving from one room to another. She followed me everywhere, I think based on the sounds I made, and she kept stumbling down the stairs. I put her food bowl upstairs so she didn't have to do all the work going up and down the stairs when she was so drunk like that. It was almost hard to leave the house for the ad print meeting.

Anyway, it was weird to see the so very loud Mouche the night before and the so very quiet and helpless Mouche now. Yes, she's normally pretty quiet, but not this quiet. I'm worried but Vincent says she's gonna be okay soon.

Desexing Mouche

Mouche has been very difficult these past 2 days. The normally quiet kitty has become crazily so loud. Vincent suspected that she was coming to puberty age and perhaps was having her first period. There have also been two other cats that were checking out our house and meowing loudly. They're probably thinking, "Oh, there's a girl there!"

We felt alarmed as we didn't want Mouche to continuously have babies. So I called a vet yesterday and asked him to check her out. Mouche knew that a vet was coming so she was hiding under the couch. Vincent had to lift up the couch so I could reach her. The vet then did a short check on her and he confirmed that she was ready to mate - proven by her excitement as you touched her bottom. We agreed that he could take her so that he could perform the operation.

If yesterday I couldn't sleep because the teenage cat kept meowing, last night I couldn't sleep because I was worried. Mouche was never happy with the existence of other people but me and Vincent. And now she's away from us in Sanur and with nobody she knows. She must have been terrified.

However, I'll see about it today. The vet promised to return her today as he would be performing a new desexing method - cutting the side of the stomach instead of the one under. He said this method was much safer and wouldn't hurt the kitty as much as if the incision was made under the stomach. Because then there would be no gravity effect to hurt the wound more.

"He'd better be good," Vincent said about the vet. Obviously we didn't want anything to happen with Mouche.

Her Mom is Dead

When arriving home yesterday evening, Vincent was saying to Mouche,

"Poor Kitty; your mommy is dead."

I got out of the office and asked him to explain more. Vincent said that he heard from his colleague that Mouche's mother fought with a dog and she lost.

Poor Mom.

I hugged Mouche and told her, "Don't worry. I'm your mommy now."

And to think that last year I didn't even like cats....

Not As Greedy

Mouche is starting to be not as greedy as she was before. She also behaves when we eat. She would sit by our feet, but she wouldn't meow to beg for food. Good girl!

Sleepy Head

Yeah, she is not exactly feminine when sleeping...

Foot Lover

As in foot biter.

She can't see a moving foot and she'll just catch it and bite it.

Under the Chair

Mouche likes to be under the chair where I sit on when working. Sometimes she rubs her body against my feet, expecting my toes to react and tickle her a bit.

Patient Hunter

Once she tried it, she could never stop.

Ever since Mouche caught and ate the bird, she consistently sat here by the window of the living room, looking at the dense bamboo tree where she could hear so many birds chirping noisily in the morning. Her face alert and occasionally she would stretched her neck outside to get a better view where the birds might be.

Patiently waiting for another bird to come close to the house

She could be there for hours. Once she fell asleep from waiting. She looked so cute though at the same time her intention was not that cute. :P

Falling asleep after waiting too long

The Little Hunter

Compared to Geisha, Mouche is a more clingy kitten. She makes sounds as if she was sad or hungry or lonely almost all the time. She gives you that sad "I'm dying" look if you ever let her food bowl empty. She's afraid of new voices and new people and she will always hide under the sofa if she senses danger coming from other people but me and Vincent. It makes us think she is a weak kitty.

BUT IT'S ALL A DISGUISE!!!

She's a mean, senseless, cold-blooded, bird-killer kitty!!!

One day I was working early in the morning in the living room. As usual I opened the window so that the nice morning breeze can get in. Mouche was sleeping under a chair far away from that window.

Then I heard something and Mouche was already flying in the air by the window then she landed on her four feet on the chair next to the window.

I was like, "What? What happened?"

Then I heard something chirped from her mouth. I thought it was a mouse at first. But there are never mice in our house, thanks to the so many snakes here (yes, that's an irony). And why would it be in the air? I watched her closely and asked her what it was in her mouth.

She said, "Grmmmeeeehhhhrrrr," which meant, "Shut up, it's mine!"

Then I saw it.

It was a bird!!!

The bird was still alive and it struggled to get away from her teeth grab.

I was SO freaked out.

I told Mouche sternly to let the bird go away. But she hid under the chair.
When I tried to get the bird, she ran downstairs.

After a short while, I didn't hear the bird's sound anymore. I concluded that it was already dead.
There was no way I would want to go downstairs and find the bird's dead body somewhere there. So I waited until Vincent woke up and told him all about it. Then I also told him to get rid of the bird's body so I wouldn't have to see it when I went downstairs.

He looked at me in amazement, "Bibou, Mouche is a cat. There won't be any bird anymore."

I screamed. She couldn't have possibly eaten the bird, could she???? She was just a little spoiled, weak kitty!!!

But she did. As Vincent went downstairs, there was only the head of the bird and Mouche was playing with it.

I hated Mouche for two days.

Spoiled Mouche

Hi-Tech Kitty

Who likes to sit on the laptop after a fresh bath?
Who likes to sit on the laptop just for the sake of intruding me working?

Yes, Mouche.

Mouche after bath

Like any other cats, Mouche hates to be bathed. But she doesn't normally struggle a lot. She just makes sounds as if she was dying for touching the water. Anyway... as long as she's smelly and maybe still infected by fleas, she has to be bathed. This is how she looks like on typically Saturday morning.

Playtime

Mouche finishes her hybernation period of only eating, sleeping, pooping, eating, sleeping and pooping. She has been with us for almost a month now and has started to enjoy playing.

When I gave her Geisha's toys 3 weeks ago, she was not the slightest interested. Now you threw her a little ball, and she would go after it. A few days ago I was just wiggling my toe and she snapped at it. I also wagged my finger in front of her face and one of her front feet snapped at it back. It was really like playing the hom pim pah game.

So yes, it is fun to see her interact with us. But one morning I went to my laundry room and saw such a mess on the floor with my nursery pots going upside down and the potting soil all over the place. It seemed that Mouche found it also interesting to climb to the windowsill and drop the pots down!

Urgh....

Mouche's first video

Mouche and Vincent

Vincent thought Mouche was afraid of him. But the fact is Mouche is afraid of anybody who is new or any sudden movement. She is such a delicate little kitty who jumps at everything and hides under the sofa or bookcase or table when she sees someone new or senses aggressive movement.

But after one week, she gets comfortable with Vincent. She sleeps on his lap and more often than not, she approaches him as he eats. She doesn't even bother to get near me as we eat because I tend not to give pets food when I eat. I think it is a bad education. Pets can have the food AFTER we finish eating or before. Normally I feed her before we eat in the hope that she won't beg for food when we finally eat. But of course, being a cat, no matter how full her stomach is, she will always meow under our table. Before Vincent arrived here, in her first week in our house, Mouche tried to climb the table where the food was. I slapped her feet lightly and she never did it again when we eat.

I guess one thing that I like about Mouche is that she listens. She knows when we teach her that something is bad, and she never repeats it again.

However when there is a bad police (me), there should be a good police (Vincent). So he's spoiling Mouche as he always spoils all cats. It's fine with me. He is only here in the evenings and during weekends anyway. Not enough spoiled moments to make Mouche a spoiled cat. :)

Cute when asleep

What? Did I say that Mouche looked mean and not cute? Apparently it is only when she has her eyes open. Look at the photos of her below when she's asleep or just awake. She is as cute as the other kittens!

By the way, she has claimed the pillow hers since the first week she was brought here. You can try to remove her from that pillow and sit on it. The second you leave the pillow, she'll be claiming it back!

Twice fatter

I think Mouche is twice fatter (read: more healthy) now compared to the first time she arrived in the house. I try to give her nutritious food since the experience with our former cat, Geisha, showed that if a kitten was spoiled from the early period of their life with only fish, it would be very picky later on. Not to mention that it would result to even worse smell and shape of poop and the lack of energy because of the lack of carbohydrate. So whenever possible, I would differ the menu for Mouche every day. If I cook rice, then she gets to eat little rice with her kitten fish food. If I cook pasta, she gets little pasta (without the sauce). But most of the time I feed her with oats. We have a lot of oatmeals that we don't eat that much except when I make cookies. Oats are very healthy so it should be good for Mouche.

I think she is a happy kitten, though she is still very shy with unknown people (even with known ones). Too bad she is not very photogenic in front of the camera. She looks so mean more often than she looks cute. :P

Mouche

Mouche, 2 months old (maybe)

So... it's been decided. The kitty is named Mouche, which means "fly" (the animal, not the verb) in French. Of course I thought it was weird. Why would you call your pet another animal's name? It's like calling a dog "Elephant." But I didn' resist, because even before the kitty was officially named such, I'd already called her "Mush, Mush." It has no meaning in Indonesian or English, I just thought it was cute. And Mouche is pronounced the same.

Before Vincent got to the name, though, he was observing the kitty whether she had the "thing" that distinguishes a male mammal or a female. He decided that he couldn't find the male's reproduction weapon, so it's gotta be a female. Only a few days after that, he found out that a calico, the term for tricolor cat, has always been a female. Chances are little to none that it would be a male. And even if there is, it's almost certain that a male calico is infertile or inable to reproduce. With Mouche having white, black and creme colours, if we had known this before, we wouldn't have had to spend time guessing what her gender had been. :P

And not surprisingly at all, Indonesians made up a cute story (more like superstition) on the supposedly scientific explanation on why tricolour cats are nearly always female. It is said that male kittens that have three colours will never survive because the father cat always eats them; while he lets the female kittens alive. When I asked why it was so, the answer was: "Maybe the father cat doesn't want competition at the mating season."

I guess the superstition was a quicker way to say that tricolour cats are always female. Imagine if you have to explain it scientifically to an Indonesian that it is genetical, the difference between male carrying xy chromosomes and female xx and how the fur colour is highly affected by those chromosomes. It already seems very long and tiring just to imagine it.

Comfort Zone: Armpit

The kitty relaxes more and more each day. She is not afraid to ask for food, though not as demanding as Geisha, but she surely has the potential to be so (doh!).

(Notice how I address the kitten as "she". Until we figure out that it is not a male, it will be a she for now)

She also enjoys snuggling a lot. She doesn't want to be left alone. When I go downstairs, she'll follow me downstairs, stay with me until I finish cooking and go upstairs once I feel like watching TV or working. At times she'll meow underneath my table begging me to pick her up to my lap. But she tends to find the comfort in the weirdest place: my armpit. Once she does, she will be fast asleep.

My sister says, "It's normal. She's a baby afterall. All babies want to hide in the mother's armpit, no matter if it is sweaty and smelly."

Shy Kitty

The (still) unnamed kitty whom I keep calling with different names all the time is probably the shiest kitten I've ever known. She jumps at every little movement around her, at every louder sound made and at every approach my sister or I make.

The first morning she spent in my house, my neighbour was performing the dengue spray. It was super loud and she was totally terrified. She managed to climb the bookcase, which was very tall, and sat on top of a range of my thick Jamie Oliver cookbooks.

at the bookcase

Then a few days ago I was looking for a bag to contain a present for my mother, found it and threw the rest of the bags on the floor. She took it as her safe haven for days, feeling comfortable to sleep inside it.

one of her secret sleeping place

Now she is more comfortable with me. She starts eating a lot. When she is hungry she makes noises so that I would move my arse downstairs and fix her some meal. When she's lonely, she'll rub herself on my feet and hope that I will pick her up on my lap and pat her neck.

still highly alerted

But she's still got that awareness in her eyes. Like she doesn't trust me wholly. That's absolutely understandable, especially after I was mad at her for pooping in my bedroom. :P But she's getting to like people. And hopefully when Vincent comes back from France next Monday, she'll behave herself.

Such a lazy kitten

It pooped in my bedroom!!!!

Last week it pooped on the bathroom mat (I threw away the mat because it was cheap anyway). Not long after it pooped on the towel I put in the kitchen. Soooo.... lazy to get itself to its own litter box. But I gave it a good slap yesterday while pointing at her poopie mess on the wooden floor in my bedroom, then took it downstairs to the litter box. It knew I was angry and it tried to make it up by rubbing itself against my feet, but I wouldn't take the bribe until it knew it was wrong.

I think the kitty learnt its lesson.... for now. I just saw it go downstairs to the litter box 5 minutes ago.

Unnamed Kitty

Hello,

Welcome to our kitty blog. I wrote our to refer to me and my boyfriend, Vincent, but I don't think he will ever write here. Even to write an email consisting of 2 sentences is already very hard for him. :) But this blog is dedicated to the new member of the family - a kitten that I adopted a week ago as one of the Christmas presents for Vincent. Mr Boyfriend is now still in France and he hasn't seen the kitten in real yet. But I sent him this photo so that he would be aware that there would be 2 beings welcoming him back home this weekend:

Since Vincent is the one who is most fond of cats, and the kitty is meant to be his, it is unnamed yet. Plus I don't know whether it is a he or a she. But since it is soooo very shy (so different from Geisha, our former beloved cat who was super extrovert), maybe it's a she.

Right now I'm guessing that the shy kitty is hiding under the sofa or book cabinet as I'm writing this blog.