Day 67 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that I haven't done the ceremony I wanted to do for Mouche."

Not sure why. But Vincent's absence makes me keep thinking about Mouche. How I wanted her to move with us here. How she would be happy to finally have her real garden to play. There is another stray cat here that seems to be comfortable staying in our place. The thing is, it's a stray cat. It steals food and it poops everywhere.  I wish it was Mouche.

We were planning to make a little ceremony for Mouche, keeping half of her ashes at home and the other half spread onto the sea. But we haven't got around to do it, due to the so many things we had to do. Travelling and moving taking place in the same month is a real work, I tell you. So, this is what I do every morning and afternoon: burning an incense with lavender smell next to Mouche's ash pot. I never really got it what was the importance of burning incense. But it calms me down and hopefully her too, wherever she is.

I still miss her heaps. Even more when my only distraction - Vincent - is not here.

365 grateful days project pets

2:55 pm

Day 53 of 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful that the year is almost over."

It would actually have been a very good year if Mouche hadn't died. It crushed me to pieces as my baby got diagnosed for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) at the very late stage of her sudden intestinal infection. I never even knew before that AIDS attacked cats, too. Or any other animals for that matter. It would sound like another excuse for stopping the blog for a while... but I wouldn't joke about death.

However, I'm back blogging. Hopefully to write the things that I can be grateful of these past weeks when I didn't blog.

365 grateful days project pets

5:24 pm

Day 38 of 365 Grateful Days Project:

"I'm grateful that Kabuki, Zwartje's son, started to eat again."

Kabuki

He'd always been with Zwartje since the day he was born. They were inseparable. The day Zwartje died, my mum kept Kabuki upstairs while she let Zwartje in the house. So Kabuki didn't, fortunately, witness his death.

After Zwartje was buried in our front sort-of yard, I asked my mother to let Kabuki wander freely in the house. I thought, of everyone, he must have been the one that was the saddest. He never spent a minute without his father. So he would need more attention from us more than ever. According to my mum, he kept checking every room looking for Zwartje and he refused to eat. The white dog with black spots was obviously very, very sad and stressed out.

Yesterday I got a call from my mum, saying that Kabuki had started eating again. Not a lot, but at least he ate. Apparently he had developed a fondness of my niece, Michelle, and the feeling is mutual. Michelle likes sharing her food and Kabuki would eat from her. I was happy to hear that. It will take time to heal this ugly wound, but it looks like everything falls into good places. Now I've got no reason to not concentrate on work today.

365 grateful days project family pets

10:13 am

Day 36 of 365 Grateful Days Project:

"I'm grateful to have had such a nice, loyal, lovely dog - Zwartje - for the past ten years."

Zwartje

I remember bringing him home for the first time. He was only two months old or so, completely black and handsome, and my mother fell in love with him instantly from the first sight. He always belonged to my mother more than us. Nobody loved him like she did and vice versa; and it was all with very good reasons. Zwartje was the nicest, loveliest, friendliest, most loyal family member we've ever got in our life. His dark fur colour and deep bark might have scared people the first time they met him, but compared to any other dogs we have had in the family, he was the one you would expect the least to bite you.

He passed away yesterday and it breaks my heart so much I can't stop crying. It doesn't seem like I will stop crying in the next fortnight. I know he was old. I know he had a good life. I know he knew that he was loved. And I know I had done everything I could to save him from the heart problem. I shouldn't regret anything; yet I still can't seem to stop the tears from falling. I just know that I'll miss him very much. I already do and I always will.

365 grateful days project family pets

10:47 am

Day 23 of 365 Grateful Days Project:

"I'm grateful for having Mouche back home from the sex operation."

I thought I would sleep well that Mouche wasn't here. But I was wrong. I kept getting worried about what she was thinking, what she was feeling... She must have been so confused why Vincent and I let the vet take her away in a cage. She was never put in a cage before. She never left with a stranger before. She never gets acquainted to my maid who comes cleaning the house twice a week and always hides when she's there. Every time the bell rings, she jumps to her safe haven on the first floor ceiling where nobody can reach her.

Mouche and her bandaged stitch

Luckily the operation didn't take very long. The vet came to pick her up in the evening and he already returned her in the morning. Mouche was still deep in anaesthesia when she arrived and it lasted the whole day. However, I'm glad she's home. Though I can't stop being worried since she's hardly awake. It's too quiet compared to yesterday. But Vincent says it's normal.

She could hardly open her eyes the whole day

I suppose he's right. He's the cat expert here.

Similar story to this is in ourkittyblog.

365 grateful days project pets

4:40 pm

Day 22 or 365 grateful days project:

"I'm grateful for having a quiet night that Mouche is staying the night at the vet's."

These past two days have been like hell for us. The normally quiet kitty suddenly gets crazy loud. See the detail here. So we called a vet and our guess appeared to be correct. Mouche has come to a puberty age. It's funny how I really can't see the difference in her size. She doesn't look like a teenage cat at all. Her head is still small and she still acts like a child.

However, she must be terrified now at the vet's clinic. We decide to have her desexed to avoid unattended baby cats and loud desperate cat-mating yell every mating season. But we hope for the best for her sex operation.

Mouche

Now I can sleep soundly after 2 days hardly any sleep.

365 grateful days project pets

8:09 am

Day 10 of 365 grateful days project.


"I'm grateful to have developed a fondness of cats, after spending my 30 years of life not getting used to one."


Not sure why I should be grateful of that, but the fact that we enjoy the existence of one more living creature in this world makes us look at the world better, too. And it feels warmer and more like home.

This cute kitty was one of the three little kittens that lived in Adi Assri Cottages where we were staying during our last vacation. If we weren't going snorkelling or swimming at the pool, we would be playing with the kitties. This female little cat in particular loved Vincent. She loved climbing through his chest and stayed there begging for his attention. :P

365 grateful days project pets

11:01 am

Day 3 of 365 grateful days project.

"I'm grateful for my kitty, Mouche, and how she fills in when the loneliness strikes in."

I'm pretty sure she is grateful, too, for having me and Vincent to take care of her and love her. She might not be the cutest cat in the world and her introvert-ness is ridiculous, but we can see that she trusts us and is happy to be with us.

These are the Easter eggs I designed last month.
It pictures the days when we are old.
Left to right: Me, Vincent and Mouche.

365 grateful days project family pets

6:56 am

I know, it's a week late greeting. But better late than never? :)

The fact is I was too occupied with entertaining my brother and the whole siblings in my house. I was excited before they came, but when they were actually here, it was a total BLAST! We had fun like we never did before. Here are some photos I took during my brother's vacation in Bali:

At Sticky Fingers, Echo beach

Merlin, Michael's girlfriend

The three of us, the grown up version

Michael and Merlin

At NYE dinner at Laurence's house

And here is one shot of the fireworks I took on New Year's Eve.

And the new kitty I adopted as Vincent's Christmas/New Year present. I made a blog just for him/her/it here.

My brother and his gf are gone now so I get busy with that kitty blog and my recipe blog.

Bali family greetings pets

3:12 pm

Pets never stayed alive for a long time in my house, I wonder why. There were already two stray animals that we picked up, took care of until they were healthy and happy, and not long after they reached the contentment, they died. I didn't write about this before because I always cried my eyes out every time my babies were taken away from me. But now I am revealing it.

Geisha

She was a little kitten Vincent found at his office. At first I was against the idea of keeping her because A. I was not used to cats, thanks to my mom's phobia of cats, B. I tried to save baby cats 3 times, none survived (mainly because they were too little, only a few days old, C. I didn't want to get attached to an animal where I doubted I would always be in Bali.

Geisha when we first adopted her, so tiny with her super big eyes and ears

But Vincent won. He would have to clean the cat litters as a part of the agreement and I could deal with the food.

Over time, I developed such a closeness to Geisha even after she scratched my skin a hundred times. She was taken to a vet and Vincent spent a lot of money and time, and attention to make her flea-free and healthy again like below.

Active and healthy, as well as furniture destroyer

Until one day she was attacked by a black cat three times her size and died less than 24 hours after she was attacked. Both Vincent and I regretted that we did not take her right away to the vet after the attack, but we didn't find any open wound and thought she would be okay. Later on we suspected it might have been the snake who killed her. She ran away from the black cat to a little hole inside my pump compartment where my neighbour saw a big snake there.

We had such a hard time because of the loss.

Piment

Piment was a Balinese puppy that one day out of the blue appeared at my porch. It was in mid August if I am not mistaken. Vincent gave him some water and a piece of bacon, but we had to leave to a party when we found him, so we just decided that we would adopt the dog if he was still there when we came back.

And he was.

I named him Piment (means chilli in French) because I just liked the word piment. And he was so thin like chilli. But unlike the other stray dogs, this Balinese puppy was quiet (compared to the others) and only barked when he saw a stranger or (God forbid) a snake.

Piment

He seemed to understand what I said to him and even without a proper obedient training, he was already naturally obedient! I took him to the beach one day, put him inside a basket covered with his sleeping cushion and towel as I was riding my motorbike, and he wouldn't even budge or try to commit suicide by neurotically jumping out of it when the engine started (like any other unschooled dogs might). No. He just quietly waited while I drove slowly to the beach.

Piment, sitting quietly in the basket

Not long after, Vincent bought him a leash and a nice collar that I used only when we went for a walk or run at the beach. Yes, run. Me who never jogged and never wished to. I had a totally different perspective about running when I went with Piment. Suddenly it had more meaning than before and felt like playing rather than doing sport.

But the fun didn't stay long. Again, after I called a vet and Piment got his first shot to help eliminate his fleas, after he gained much weight with the nutritious food I gave him every day, after he looked very happy to be with us and satisfied enough by only staying outside or just resting his head on my foot while I was working, a fucking stupid car had to hit him and run. My neighbour knocked almost in the middle of the night to tell us about it. I was hysterical when I saw him lying on the side of the street, not moving actively like how he usually was and not breathing with his eyes and mouth open. His flea collar was cut and sat not far from his body. Vincent was very mad and swore that we would never take a pet again as long as we still lived in this country. Me... I was just devastated.

Piment's last visit to the beach - two days before the accident.

Maybe it is a wise move - not to adopt a pet. If every time an animal we love - a member of our family - has to die tragically, it is just too much to bear.

Bali home pets

5:01 pm