Belgium: Chagritte Led Me to the Surrealist Rene Magritte #art

You can run.

But you cannot hide.

Chagritte will get you. 

~ grabbed from #BrusselsLockDown Tweets on cats

One of the cat pictures tweeted in #BrusselsLockdown is this one, with a cool and collected cat sitting in a bowler hat.  It took me a while to catch the nuance that this was a takeoff on the work of the Belgian surrealist artist, Rene Magritte.  The name "Chagritte" is derived from "chat" (meaning cat), and Magritte. 

Some commentators pointed out how the Belgian tweets of cats, in response to the police request not to post their location, was surreal. Indeed the spontaneous and vigorous postings of cats had whimsy and humor. It was unexpected and somewhat strange given this was a fearful time for the Belgians. It was a wonderful response, a way of countering the negative energy created by the "dark side."

MAO THE ORANGE TABBY KITTEN IS ON YOUTUBE

It's official, Mao, my classic orange tabby kitten, now has video clips on YouTube. Search "Mao the orange tabby."

Here are some video clips:

Mao the Orange Tabby and the Feathered Toy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059XCiqr6yo

Mao the Orange Tabby and the Paperbag - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isV6p5gEvjo

Mao the Orange Tabby and Toy Mouse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059XCiqr6yo

MAO COMPETING WITH MARU THE CAT

Here is my orange tabby cat, Mao, competing with Maru the cat's New Fashion,
Look at the short video of Mao and the Paperbag, and also the pictures below to see Mao's New Fashion. After you've seen these, take a look at Maru's New Fashion.






























































Click here to see Maru's video. http://www.youtube.com/user/mugumogu#p/u/0/J3wsDZV0KFI

Update - Mao and his Purple Toy Mouse - (Mao is the best classic orange Tabby around!)

Our kitten Mao has gotten over his upper respiratory infection although he still sneezes now and then (especially when you are holding him close to your face! - Yuk!) Here are more pictures of our kitten, Mao, playing with his favorite purple toy mouse.









STAY TUNED FOR MORE MAO UPDATES!

OUR CAT MAO AT THE VET (DR. ROBERT GOLDMAN)

Here's our kitten Mao at Dr. Goldman's office. Mao has upper respiratory infection, nothing serious, but he started wheezing in addition to his sneezing and watery eyes. We wanted to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia.

Upper respiratory infection (URI) is common among kittens. It's caused by a virus and runs its course of 7-10 days. Kittens get it when they're stressed and their immune system is down. With Mao, I noticed he had teary eyes, and then he started sneezing. I started to give him pedialyte to prevent dehydration and he seemed all right for a few days, but when he started wheezing and struggling to breathe, I decided to take him to the vet.

In any case, Mao had the chance to meet Dr. Robert Goldman, who is connected with the anthology, Cherished: 21 Writers On Animals They Have Loved and Lost, edited by Barbara Abercrombie. My personal essay about Kiki is in this book. Dr. Goldman's Preface shows his compassion for animals and so I chose him to take care of Mao. I searched his name in the internet and found Petville Animal Hospital at 12108 Venice Blvd, Los Angeles. Just as additional information especially to pet lovers who may read this entry, Dr. Goldman also gave Mao some supplements: Lysine and Liquid Immuno, aside from Penicillin. He told me to give him canned food (for the moisture) and to continue giving him pedialyte. He also said that a humidifier would help Mao's congestion. I bought Vicks Humidifier (warm mist)at Rite Aid.

Dr. Goldman said to call him in a week to let him know how Mao is doing. Mao is still snuffling but he should get better.

By the way, Dr. Goldman took this picture of Mao at his office.

WELCOME MAO - 3 month old Classic Tabby Kitten

Introducing Mao, our new pet, a 3 month-old Tabby kitten. He's wearing the cone of shame because he was just fixed. Mao is a red tabby with the typical M on his forehead and the classic bullseye on his sides. He's beautiful, bright, and has a great mellow personality. His name Mao means Cat in Vietnamese; 2011 is the Year of the Cat in Vietnam (it's Year of the Rabbit in China).

Excerpt from my cat Kiki's Memoirs!

(I found this excerpt of my cat Kiki's Memoirs. I knew she was working on a novel, but didn't know about her memoirs. - Cecilia)


When I think of my mother,I recall her soft belly which I loved kneading. A memory comes to me of a sunny afternoon and Mother and the six of us in the wicker basket near the kitchen door. The door was partly open and sunlight angled in, warming our basket, warming us. I was kneading the belly of my mother and she was licking me all over so that by the time I was suckling on her teat, I was damp all over. The memory of it sends shivers up my spine. Mother was white, pure white and she always smelled of milk. I don't remember a lot of details about her because we were together for only seven weeks. I know that she had long lashes because they used to tickle when she licked me. Her pink tongue felt raspy as she licked me all over and the feel of that sand-papery tongue against my tender skin was heaven. She was meticulous about keeping the six of us clean. I believe this is where I got my own meticulousness; I can spend hours grooming myself.

Mother was just a year old when she had us. She had a flighty Feeder, a student who forgot to bring her to the vet to have her fixed, and since my mother was a gad-about who enjoyed staying up late in back alleys, she quickly became pregnant. I do not know my father, but I assume he was one of those late-night encounters behind some garbage cans under the moonlight. He was no doubt a tuxedo cat like me and two of my siblings. The other three had white fur, like Mother.

Thinking of that distant past fills me with conflicting feelings of happiness and sadness. While my mother seemed to be the perfect mom - feeding us, grooming us constantly, she had a marshmallow personality. She didn't know how to handle the intense sibling rivalry that went on: the white furred ones against the tuxedo ones. Unprovoked the white ones constantly nudged us away from Mom's teats. The other two males fought back, and got their share of Mother's milk. But not me. This saddens me even now, because Mother could have done something. Certainly a little nip to the ears of those wicked siblings would have done the trick. But no, she lay there, smiling, looking content, as if we were in paradise when in fact hellish fighting went on right under her nose.

I became the runt of the litter. I looked like someone from the third world with kwashiorker, and truly,I could have died, if the student hadn't given me away to another student. I was not yet weaned and this Boy-who-opened-the-cans had to bottle feed me. In fact, he didn't do it; his girlfriend did. Bless her. By the time she was out of the picture, I was fortunately big enough to eat regular cat food, which the Boy-who-opened-the-cans used to leave before he left for school. He would be gone all day and I used to get terribly bored in his apartment, so I took to chewing and ripping apart whatever clothes and papers I could find. And I didn't always use the cat box, just to get a rise from him when he got in at night. Once I peed into his leather boot, and shortly after that, he turned me over to the Woman-who-opens-cans. At that time she had another cat, a white one whose appearance reminded me of my mother, except that this cat absolutely hated me...

(And here the excerpt ends. I'll have to hunt around to find more pages. Kiki hides them in the most unlikely places: under the sink, under the bed in the guest room, etc.)

MY CAT KIKI CAUGHT A BIRD!

I shouldn't be happy, I know it. The bird certainly isn't, if the poor thing survived at all. But I actually feel elated that my 16 or 17 year old cat, Kiki, caught a bird! It was a real bird, not a featherless one that fell out of its nest. This one had brown feathers and was almost adult-sized. A sparrow. I was working in my office when I heard a loud yowl from Ms. Kiki. I turned and saw her by the doorway. She had on her bratty expression, and I thought maybe she was asking for food again, or complaining about her food. It took me a split second to see the little sparrow scurrying away from her and hiding near a pile of books. I picked up Ms. Kiki and locked her up in the bathroom; she wasn't happy about that.

I opened the sliding doors wide so the bird could see the sunshine, the outdoors; usually, they fly out that way. Not this dummy. It remained huddled near the books. I poked it with a ruler and it flew the opposite way. And hid. This went on several times, until I had to move furniture away, and using a paper towel I gingerly picked it up and brought it to our thick bougainvillea bush that houses half the bird population in Santa Monica. The bird probably came from that bush in the first place. The bird didn't fight me when I picked it up. It looked dazed. I didn't see any blood. It's feathers were damp, probably from the gumming of my old cat. I placed the bird on a branch and told it to hide. It hopped away from me, vanishing into the bougainvillea, and I left it there. I waited a while before I released Ms. Kiki from the bathroom. Boy was she pissed! She yowled, louder this time, and sprinted out of my office, to show me her disgust.

I know she was showing off when she had brought the bird into my office. I know it took a lot of effort for the cat to have caught that bird. Kiki almost died in April! She had a serious allergy attack and she started ripping out her fur and lost so much weight. After treating her with antihistamine, Immugen, and using the Elizabethan collar on her, she got better. Not completely well, but better. Some days are better than others. Some days she looks like death warmed over; other days she looks almost normal.

But even during her good days, she looks ghastly. Her black fur has turned three-toned:a reddish-brown where she'd licked excessively, a lighter black, and a deeper black where the new growth has sprung up. To make matters worse in April I'd cut off some of her long fur when she had been yanking her fur out; every day is a bad hair day for her: she has long fur, short fur, and a black fuzz.

But she's alive!

And she's just proven she can still catch a bird!


~~~
The Answer to yesterday's Jack Pot question is: Back row, 6th from the left.
And here's tonight's Jack Pot Question: Where's the Revolutionary Poet in this picture? And what's her name? And what are these four women doing in bed with Eddie Quirino in that enormous four-poster bed in Vigan? (click on the picture to enlarge)

Second Update on my Cat Kiki' Allergies

Here's another pet update: My cat Kiki is better than she had been. She lost her Elizabethan collar a few days ago and I didn't bother getting another one since she seemed better. She was well enough to sit outside for the 2 nice super-hot days we've had - and how happy she was to hear the birds, feel the sun, and just sleep outside. Then the yesterday she had a setback - suddenly she developed a hot spot on her side. She started ripping out her fur in that area, and the skin actually had welts, like hives. I dapped this area with peroxide and applied some of the Tea Tree lotion. I also gave her 2 mg of antihistamine, which seemed to help her. On her own volition, she stayed indoors, hid behind the radio and rested. Today, she seemed better but was still itchy. I gave her a Selsun Blue bath, which helped her a lot. She was able to go out and carry on with her usual activities.

She is old, and is in a frail condition. She will need daily antihistamine, and will need a bath every 5-7 days. She gets her Advantage or Frontline for fleas, she's allergic not just to fleas but to other things. I suspect it's some pollen or something outside. But she loves the outdoors so much I can't bear turning her into a 100% indoor cat. She stays near the house, and I'm observing her to see if the daily antihistamine and weekly baths keep her allergy in check.

I continue to give her an egg yolk every day. She loves this very much, so I'm able to give it to her as is, or with a bit of olive oil, or mixed with her food and Immugen and even her anithistamine, although it's better to pry open mouth and pop the antihistamine into her throat.

It's touch and go. She's an old cat, but as long as she can still be happy listening to the birds, or getting her ears rubbed, I'll do my best to keep her comfortable. If she should be in pain, or her quality of life goes down, or if she's plain miserable all the time, then it'll be time to put her to sleep. It makes me sad thinking about this, but she is 16 years old and that's very old in cat years.

DIARY OF MY CAT, KIKI - #2

Dear Diary,
Sometimes I feel I have a cold heart. I know that the Man and Woman, and their Sons do their best to please me, but I generally look at them with contempt, except of course when I am hungry and have to suck up to them. But in general I use them. It's a fair trade: they feed me, and I'm cute.

I didn't always belong to the Man and Woman, but belonged to their oldest Son. I heard them talking once that I was the runt in my family, and the Son got me when I was very young and weak. He bottle fed me. Life was all right then although it was boring because he'd leave me at home all day. Then one day, he whisked me up and put me in a box and brought me to the Man and Woman's house. I was to stay there. It didn't seem too bad of a place - they had the room, they had a garden, and they even had a cat door so I could come and go. The problem was that they had this old dour white cat who hated me. I simply could not understand how she could be so mean to me; she should have mothered me. I was so cute. Then I understood that she was jealous of me - it was as simple as that. She hissed when I was near her, and she whacked me with her paws. In the beginning she frightened me very much and I used to cower under the chairs and tables. The Woman would pick me up and console me, and better yet, she would spank the white cat for being mean to me.

Later I realized that the white cat was old and slow. I learned to come up behind her and quick hit her with my right paw, then run fast so she didn't even know what hit her. I got my revenge this way.

This white cat was my nemesis. It gave me pleasure to see her punished for being cruel to me. Then one day they brought her to the cat-doctor and she had to have her ears cut. She had growths or something. And the worse part was that the Man and Woman moved her to their upstairs bedroom and I was forbidden to go up there. This was the lowest point of my life. I learned about bitterness and anger and my heart turned so icy and brittle I thought it'd crack.

I snubbed them. I went out all day. I found neighbors to feed me. They thought I was abandoned, and they gave me food and water and I could even sleep in their patio. But in the evening I returned to remind the Man and Woman that I was still alive and that I hated them. On several occasions I pissed on the carpet, but the Man caught me and rubbed my nose on the pee-stain and threw me out of the house - so I decided that wasn't the best tactic.

It was really best to be cool and calculating, to use them and never to kowtow to them. That's how I acquired my cold heart.

Remembering all this is upsetting to me so this is all I'll say about this matter. Oh - the white cat, she died one day and things got better for me, but I still feel resentment now and then.

Kiki

DIARY OF MY CAT, KIKI - #1

Dear Readers, look what I discovered hidden under the kitchen cabinet - my Tuxedo cat's diary. Let's see what she wrote today:
~~~~
Monday, March 2, 2009

At 6 a.m. I was hungry and as much I detest begging, I had to go to the upstairs bedroom of the Man and Woman. I jumped up their bed - let me say that again - I clawed up their bed. I have some arthritis now and it's not so easy to leap and jump, but I can dig my claws into their comforter and drag myself up. Then, right away, she grabbed me and hugged me close to her. Frankly I can't stand all that closeness; the claustrophobia gets to me, but I try to be patient and let her hold me tight. In five minutes, she has to change position in bed, and she relaxes her hold on me, and I slip away. The Man does not grab me, and I much prefer sitting on his lap or on his chest, but this morning he's fast asleep. She's awake though and is my only hope for getting fed this early. I proceed to lick my fur, fuss-fuss-lick-lick, so she knows I'm hungry. By 7, she finally drags herself down to the kitchen. I race downstairs, leading the way in fact. I made a zigzag going down, and raced to my plates and sat there, staring at yesterday's old food. Dear God, I prayed, don't let her mix new food with that. Fortunately, she picked up my food plate and she washed it. Then she scrutinized the array of food she has for me: Fancy Feast, Friskies Classic Pate, Friskie's Slice, and Chicken by the Sea tuna. The latter is for people, but she likes to give this to me now and then. Sometimes she mixes the people-tuna with the canned food, and sometimes she doesn't. She does funny things with my food. Sometimes she puts a raw egg in it; often she pours a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in it; and she also puts some Immugen and Glucosamine in the food. Sometimes, the taste is God-awful, but sometimes I'm just so hungry that I go ahead and eat the food she seves.

This morning it's Fancy Feast with raw egg and Olive Oil -yuck, double-yuck, triple-yuck, but I ate some of it anyway just because I was starving. For that awful breakfast though I swore I'd snub her the entire day.

It was a cloudy day but I sat outside on the steps. It's nice to sit here especially when it's a sunny day. I can lay around and lick myself and nap. There's a spiral staircase outside and right on the fourth or fifth step is where I like to rest. When the sun is up, the wrought iron staircase gets nice and warm and it's heavenly laying out there. This morning it was chilly but to punish her, I lay outside anyway - I don't mind Fancy Feast, but to ruin the flavor with raw egg is criminal.

At noontime, it started to drizzle and I had no choice but to go in. I had to be extra quiet and I lay on the Man's chair in the den, hoping she wouldn't notice, otherwise she'd grab me again to squeeze and stroke me. I don't mind a bit of this lovey-dovey stuff, but too much makes me want to barf.

Kiki

SPOTLIGHT ON ~TA DA ~ KIKI THE CAT - #2

Today, I'm posting a picture of our tuxedo cat, Kiki, whom I found sleeping on a handtowel that happened to be on the bed.

Isn't it charming how cats will find that bit of clothing on the bed, and sleep on it?

This is Ms. Kiki's routine: up at around 7, hang around near her Staff, jumping on their chests and bugging them for her breakfast. Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. She gets her Immugen and her Glucosamine with her canned food. There is dry food at all times; she will eat this only when desperate.

She suns herself in the morning. In the afternoon, she's back inside the house, sleeping in the guest room or in the den. Sometimes she hangs in my office and wants to be picked up to have her ears scratched. She LOVES having her ears scratched! Early evening she visits the den where her Staff are watching T.V. She will jump on laptops, newspapers, make an absolute pest of herself, to get her ears rubbed. She usually falls asleep, and stays asleep even when her Staff have gone up to retire. Sometimes her Staff will carry her upstairs; if not, she will - sometime during the night - join her Staff upstairs. She's old now and has difficulty jumping, so she claws her way up the bed. And then she wants her ears rubbed.

She HATES it when her Staff is holding her and reading the newspaper at the same time. She hates children - I am embarrassed to write this, but it's true; she will disappear when children are around. In general she hates people and is very selective of the people she will allow to see her. She does not even like my housekeeper who's been cleaning our house for over 20 years. You must never, never touch the lower part of her body - that is her butt end - she will bite!

IMMUGEN FOR CATS & DOGS; FELINE CRF, ETC.

Our cat is around 15 years old, which is old for a cat. As she's aged, she's developed arthritis and skin problems. Apparently she's allergic to flea bites and she gets dermatitis. We used Advantage for years, then apparently the fleas developed some kind of immunity to this medicine and we had to change the cat's anti-flea medicine to Frontline.

Well, a few months ago, the cat had severe dermatitis, and she was quite miserable scratching away. She had scabs on her body, especially in her backside. I used some medicated shampoo to ease her itching, and it would work for a day, but then she would start scratching all over again.

The cat lost weight and I thought she'd die. Then after doing some research (internet) I discovered Immugen, which strengthens the immune system to fight against cancer, allergies, respiratory and immune related diseases in dogs and cats.

I'm going to sound like an ad, but truly the stuff works! The cat recovered; she got rid of her dermatitis, and is more robust than she had been. Her arthritis is bad though, and I'm giving her Hip Action, which has Glucosamine and Chondroitin.

Here's information about Immugen:

"Immugen's unique formula combines vitamins, minerals, amino acids, botanicals and other nutrients for optimal immune system functioning. It contains natural ingredients to protect animals from bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, cancer, allergies, dermatitis and immune disorders."

Imagine - all this fuss for a cat.

~~~~~

Our Vet never mentioned Immugen to us. In fact, this Vet has been so quick to suggesting all kinds of tests and drastic surgeries on our cat. For eg. the cat had a tooth abscess and the Vet wanted to run blood tests and wanted to put the cat out to pull out most of her teeth. We decided against this. When I could, I swabbed the abscessed area with cotton balls soaked with salt water. I gave her Vitamins. And in no time, the bad tooth fell out on its own, and her gums healed.

Many years ago, another cat of ours had mites in her ears and the Vet suggested performing surgery in her ears to remove the mites. I went to our local pet store and bought some oily medication that I dropped into her ears. The mites disappeared.

The Vet of this other cat with mites, also sold us Advantage and special food for older cats developing kidney problems. This Vet never informed us that we could buy Advantage and this special food in regular pet stores. This was many years ago, when Advantage was new.

There are many sites in the internet that can educate you about health problems of cats. It's more information than you'll get from your Vet. I have found them very helpful. In fact there's a site by a woman whose cats died of kidney failure, and the site lists the various brands of cat food and the Phosphorus content; and the site has recipes for home cooked cat food. Check out Tanya's Feline Chronic Renal Failure Information Centre.

(Photo shows Kiki and her master. Note that Kiki is holding the TV clicker.)