Finally photos of the cat that Penny brought to the vet to have the badly infected eye removed. It cannot be seen in the photo but the remaining eye has a large opaque patch.

This cat has now found a permanent shelter at Rashida's home... unless someone is willing to adopt him. He will not be returned to the bin center because we don't know how much vision he as left and there is also the risk of him becoming blind eventually if the cataract gets worse.

Met up with Penny and Rashida yesterday morning to discuss some matters, then we decided to go and see the TC Property Manager, as it was already the deadline for removing all but 5 cats from the bin center. 

The Property Manager readily agreed to work with us and not to have any of the cats rounded up... as long as the number of cats doesn't increase. She also explained to us that the mistake occurred because the block number where the pest control was supposed to go to in Woodlands that morning was similar to the block number where the cats were actually trapped.

We even mentioned the idea of a cat cafe on that little hill... we will have to find out how to go about it.

Just received an sms from Penny that one of the cats, a black-and-white was killed in an accident. Sadly, our community cats are exposed to many dangers...

I hope that more people will be aware that hit-and-run is a crime even if the victim is merely a cat or a dog. Note down the car licence number if you witness such an incident and of course bring the injured animal to a vet if possible or at least call the SPCA.

After several calls to the Pest Control Company, they finally called back to admit that their employee "made a mistake by catching the two cats at the bin center" and that they were actually supposed to catch cats in Woodlands that morning. Luckily there was a resident who had seen the trapping going on and later informed Penny. So the 2 cats are now at AVA (one ginger boy and a tortoiseshell female). The pest control company (and caregivers) will try to claim them back on Monday morning. No wonder I was told there are no cats from our area at AVA, because they were recorded as being caught at Woodlands.

Two more tipped-ear cats had gone missing from the bin center earlier... but no one saw what happened. They probably were the victims of another "mistake" and it will be too late to save them now because AVA will keep the tipped-ears for only about 3 days before they are killed.

I guess many such 'mistakes' happen on a regular basis and it seems we caregivers have to make a trip down to AVA whenever any cat goes missing.

I am still trying to verify with TC...so far have not been able to contact Ms Veron or Andrew.

The agreement was to give us until end of this month! AVA will call me if the cats come in and we will try our best to claim them back. I was told by AVA that lately more cats are being rounded up and that it will be very, very difficult to claim any unsterilised cat back.

We still don't know exactly which two cats have been caught, but there were no unsterilised ones left at this bin center.

Sponsors have come up with a total of $550.- to get 10 of the cats sterilised quickly...and 10 more were done with the help of SPCA. None of the many families we spoke to wants the cats to be killed...

Are the TC officers afraid because this complainant, who wanted to call in the police because Penny mentioned "Race" when talking about abandonment, would complain to the MP if TC didn't remove the cats?

TC denied having activated pest control...and the cats did not turn up at AVA.  The Pest Control company employed by TC is Clean Solutions.  I suspect they have relocated the 2 cats...

A mother cat from Tampines is being held at AVA for more than a week now because TC refuse to issue a letter to the caregiver who wants to sterilise the cat and board her at a cattery. All her kittens have already died at AVA.

Can someone please tell me why there is a need for such a letter in the first place when the caregiver is willing to home the cat in a cattery and is paying for all the expenses?

More closer to home, the Town Council Manager informed Penny that the (sterilised) cats will still be rounded up after end of this month because there is a complaint from a resident at Blk 172 about too many cats and that they are making noise. She refused to reveal which unit the complaint came from.

So all the families that we spoke to at Blk 165, which is even closer to the bin center must be deaf....because we asked them and they said there was no noise! Also it doesn't matter that none of the residents we spoke to wanted the cats to be killed.

All that matters is that that the one complainant and one property officer want them removed. I wonder if the complainant is actually aware that the cats will be killed and that there is a better and humane way of controlling the cat population... probably not!

There are around 10 cats at the bin center now, 2 have been removed. A caregiver has adopted the one that had one eye removed. Another cat gave birth at a caregiver's home, while waiting to be sterilised and she is now nursing her 6 kittens there untill they are ready to be adopted.

We actually came to know about this problem because a resident feeder named Caren contacted me... but in the end she was not willing to do anything at all. Penny then took over as it is quite close to her area... then another 2 caregivers and some sponsors came in. I am quite encouraged by such community spirit... what a shame to have such an unsupportive TC.

Altogether about 20 over cats have been done, those at the bin center as well as those from nearby blocks.

However the property officer still insists that there must not be more than 5 cats at the bin center by end of next week. Otherwise the Pest Control will be called in to round them up .

Helped Penny to do a survey today, in 2 hours we covered about half of the block closest to the bin center. 23 families did not want the cats removed, and none of them had any complaints. 2 people were indifferent and one family wanted some of the cats removed as they were scared of them…but even they did not want them killed.  Frankly I was surprised that there was not a single complaint about caterwauling, cat fights…I mean we only started sterilizing 2 weeks ago!

Penny will talk to the property manager and show him the result of our survey.

Why must these sterilised cats (there are now about 10 at the bin center) be removed, when the overwhelming majority of residents does not want them to be removed…just because one family has a phobia?

The bin center is not even close to the first block and there is lots of greenery surrounding it...including a quite steep hill with overgrown grass…. more than enough space for 10 cats to play and hide away from human beings.

We managed to get all the 7 unsterilised cats that were there, just nice to fit into the number of carriers that we brought. It was really quite fast and easy. First we let them eat some food, than I quickly grabbed one after the other by the scruff while Penny was ready with the carrier. In no time we had them all in carriers. Tomorrow morning they will be sent to the clinic for sterilisation.

The other night we explored the little hill behind the bin center...that would be a very suitable location for a Cat-Cafe.

One of the caregivers had taken a very pregnant cat from one of the blocks near the bin center to be be sterilised today...but the cat gave birth to 6 kittens yesterday. The caregiver will foster them all for the time being.

Penny saw that one of the cats had ‘a big lump’ at one of the eyes, so last night I went over with the trap. We didn’t see him and decided to try for the pregnant female instead. She was not hungry enough to go near the trap… at the same time we had a hard time keeping all the young and playful ones away. After about one hour the injured cat turned up and we got him trapped.

Penny brought him for surgery. One eye was removed and there is also some infection in the other eye. He will be discharged into Rashida’s care on Tuesday. She offered to give him a permanent home so he won’t have to return to the dirty bin center.

Yesterday, we tried once more for the pregnant cat but again unsuccessful. We trapped another female instead.

Another caregiver, Wong, contacted me today; she managed to get one heavily pregnant cat from a nearby block. Wong also saw the pregnant bin-center-cat and felt that she could catch it. She tried this morning but also failed.

Some very kind people have offered sponsorship for the sterilization of the remaining bin center cats, and also for the surgery expenses, which is really great, because the eye removal was $300 plus, after discount.  Penny also had rescued an injured kitten less than a month ago, spending $1100.- for the surgery. The kitten had her leg amputated at Mt. Pleasant Hospital and is now recovering under Penny’s care… until hopefully an adopter can be found.

A lady called me about a month ago as she was interested to start TNRM in her area. However she gave manny excuses. Penny and myself offered her our SPCA vouchers but then she said that she could only sterilise one cat this month. So Pest Control was activated today.

Two caregivers went to the area and somehow the captured cats were released. Phew...what a relief! Another caregiver has agreed to start sterilising those cats, so I will pass her my remaining 2 SPCA vouchers and Penny also has another 3 vouchers for her. The little black female kitten in my Area 1, called Bumboo, can wait until next month...I think she is not  even 5 months old yet.

Another caregiver in my estate was given my number and called for advice because she started feeding 15 cats at her block and the nearby Bin-Center.  Now the number has increased to 35 due to breeding and dumping. There are complaints and she worries that the cats will soon be rounded up.

She did sterilise some cats at first but then had stopped after these cats were rounded up...as her effort had been wasted. I explained to her that she needs to start sterilising again and the importance of letting her TC know what she is doing, explaining to them the benefit of TNRM...and also offering to look into complaints.

I was quite blunt telling her that by just feeding and not sterilising she enables them to breed more and causes more harm than good. There is no way that she can protect them unless she starts sterilising.