Spreading the kindness of Royal Canin Malaysia (Part 5) – to Mrs Mutharam Vasthilingam

Mrs Mutharam’s daughter helped her email these photos:

We sent our Food Fund application form and learnt that Mrs Mutharam’s husband is the sole breadwinner and he is a contract worker at a Hindu temple. The plus point is that Mrs Mutharam gets the cats adopted. She just lacks the funds for food and their medical needs. She understands and wants to get the cats neutered.

We have come across some caregivers who are in dire financial straits, yet, refuse to give up their animals for adoption. There are also those who refuse to get the animals neutered.

So, Connie and I took a drive to Cheras today, to visit Mrs Mutharam. We got hopelessly lost at first (yes, even with the GPS), but finally, with directions from Mrs Mutharam’s son on the phone, we located the block of flats where Mrs Mutharam stays.

Here we are.

Mrs Mutharam stays on the highest floor and the lift was out of service. And as a surprise for her, we had brought along three packs of the Royal Canin catfood. Big packs, too.

But never fear. Years of watching Macgyver will somehow pay off. But…Macgyverism wasn’t exactly needed, though, because another lift was working, so we took that one and walked.

After getting off the highest floor, we spotted Mrs Mutharam at the corridor and what greeted us as we approached was these cats.

These cats were in a cage at the corridor of Mrs Mutharam’s apartment. We later learnt that they are the females and only one has been spayed. The neighbours have unneutered tomcats, so these females had to be caged.

Two more cats were on the washing machine.

Mrs Mutharam explained that as a contract worker at the temple, her husband’s salary is inconsistent and she tries to save up as much as she can from her household expenses to buy catfood for these cats and to spend on their medical needs. She showed us the empty cans and the small packs of catfood that she purchases from the shop below. She normally only saves enough to purchase one can or one pack at a time. She had kept all the receipts and empty cans and packets to show us. She also buys fish and cooks for the cats (mixed with rice). For breakfast daily, it’s canned food. That’s the bonus the cats get.

Well, we brought three packs of the Royal Canin catfood for her cats so we hope this would help for a few months.

Yummy, yes?

Mrs Mutharam and I got talking and she says there is a government vet nearby and she tries to send the cats there for treatment as it is slightly cheaper than the private vets, but the government vet requires cats to be vaccinated before being neutered, so she has to save up for the cost of vaccination first.

The private vet charges RM150 for the neutering of each cat and this cost a a bit too high for Mrs Mutharam. So for starters, I have personally given Mrs Mutharam RM150 to get one female cat done as soon as possible, and have advised her to get each cat done one by one. I’ve also told her that I will try (no promises) to get that extra RM50 per cat for her from my friends (apart from our subsidy of RM100) for 3 more cats, provided she does the neutering as soon as possible. At least once the females are spayed, they can be free to roam along the corridor.

This kitten has his own story.

According to Mrs Mutharam, his family of 3 siblings was abused (as kittens) and Mrs Mutharam rescued them. This one in the photo was the youngest and weakest. The two healthy ones have been adopted (through PetFinder.my). This one was too weak and sickly then, but is now well and ready for adoption.

 Nice yummy food for you!

This cat was rescued with an eye infection. Mrs Mutharam had already brought him to the vet for treatment but it isn’t getting better. We’ve told Mrs Mutharam to take this cat for treatment again. She can apply to us for a subsidy.

This is a neighbour’s tomcat. He was watching the female cats when Mrs Mutharam let them out of the cage.

We hope Mrs Mutharam will quickly get all the females spayed. She has to depend on her son to drive her to the vet.

With rescued cats, it’s endless what a caregiver has to do, but we hope that with the little bit of help from our Medical Fund and Food Fund, we may help ease the financial burden of Mrs Mutharam so that she may continue her work of caring for these cats around her flats.

Thank you, Royal Canin Malaysia, for making it possible for us to spread the kindness.

The tally of distribution so far:

Maslinda bt Abd Talib = 22 bags (enough to last until the end of 2013)

Maizatul Masni bt Mokhtar = 2 bags

Shaeiddah Akmar bt Abd Rahman = 2 bags

Siti Noraini Suriya bt Mohd Arshad = 8 bags (enough to last until the end of 2013)

Merriam Samuel = 5 bags

Mutharam Vasthilingam = 3 bags

We have another 13 bags to distribute. Maslinda will help distribute 2 bags to a gentleman near Subang airport who feeds the strays. We will blog once this is done.

Maslinda will also not be making anymore food claims until the end of the year as this consignment is enough to last until then. She will also share this food with some other needy feeders whom she is acquainted with.