I seldom get photos taken of myself and the cats because I’m hopeless at selfies and wefies. So I got Jia-Wen to take these:
Cow Mau gets to come out to Tabs’ Safehouse with the Blondies. The other day, he wanted to go up on the bed to guard Jayden. Aww…
Taking care of others has always been Cow Mau’s habit and duty right from young. Such a good cat!
For those new to the blog, here’s Cow Mau’s story:
This is Cow Mau, our oldest cat. He is now 17 years 4 months old. I rescued Cow Mau and his siblings when I found them as newborns by the roadside in the morning after the rain. Someone had thrown them out to the roadside. That was on 7th May 2006.
Having absolutely no experience in taking care of newborn animals and not having even touched a cat all my life (we only had dogs, chickens, geese and rabbits when we were young), I quickly learnt how to nurse newborns. It was my first time, and all three siblings survived and thrived.
It was because of this first successful rescue that I founded AnimalCare which has helped more than 14,000 street animals today, and counting. I am still running it now and I’ve already got a team of younger friends to take over should anything untoward happens to me.
Now, in his old age, Cow Mau was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure (heart not pumping efficiently). He is also an FIV+ cat (something like the feline version of HIV) so his immune system is compromised. He is currently on blood thinners (Clopidogrel) and a low dose of high blood medication (Amlodipine) as his blood pressure is border line high. He is also on daily immune boosters.
I have always and will always give palliative care to all our geriatric pets or those who are afflicted with any terminal illness. To respect their life and their natural instinct to survive is the least we can do for them.
Cow Mau doesn’t know he has all these health issues. So he lives life to the fullest each day and eats to his heart’s delight. That’s what we can learn from animals – they live in the now and they thrive on this.