Half-day SS15 Market CNRM in Subang Jaya (11 cats!)

I’ve been talking to my colleague, Nazlina, about what AnimalCare does for some months now.  A few weeks ago, she told me she was planning a project for her General Studies students, so I suggested that she may wish to consider doing a CNRM project for the market cats and the cats on that road from the college leading towards the market.  

So, everything was arranged and today was the big day!  

I had enlisted the help of Ah Fatt and Mr Christopher Teng, both of whom have been spay-neutering the market cats.  In fact, Christopher even looks after all the kittens in a very neatly-kept area right outside the market.  There are cages and litter-boxes, and he feeds them twice a day.  AND, it’s so, so clean, too. 

Ah Fatt had suggested 6pm since that’s when the cats come out, but that was not convenient for the students. 

I also needed Ah Fatt and Christopher to identify which cats they had already spayed-neutered as they did not ear-notch their cats (Christopher said he would ear-notch all from now on).  Furthermore, none of the students had done this before, so Ah Fatt and Christopher would need to advise and guide them along.  Christopher had said it is important to check the nipples of the females to ensure they are not still breast-feeding their kittens, lest the kittens be deprived of the much-needed milk. 

We started at 8.45am.  I had only a few minutes’ break from class, so I did the introductions, and left everything to Ah Fatt, Christopher and Mr Lim, who helped bring all the cages. 

A friend had just donated these two cat-traps as well, it’s for us to use for our One-Street CNRM, so these were used as well:

When the cat touches the bait, the door slams shut.  One should not leave the cage unattended as the sound of the door slamming may frighten the cat and part of the tail or leg may be caught at the door.  So, the trapper should always be around to ensure that the required attention is given to the cat, if need be. 

These two must be siblings.  They are huddled together.  Both appear to have mange on their ears.

This is the tabby my students caught.  Apparently, they had put some bait inside, and she walked straight in.  Then, they merely closed the door. 

 Their circulation are all pink and healthy.  At the market, I don’t suppose any cat would be scrawny or under-fed, which, I suppose, is a good thing.  But this is also why people dump kittens at the marketplace…sigh.

The Calico (a female, obviously) was the fierce one, who earlier, was attacking the other two meeker ones.  Now, she’s quieter.  While at the market, I had to sprinkle water on her several times to break up the fight.

The other three.  This black-and-white one looked very sad and I felt really bad.  There’s no way I could make him (or her) understand why we are doing this.  Sigh… He (or she) kept looking at me, as though asking for help.