Indy was rescued at about 2 weeks old from a deep drain on 31st May 2008. An acquaintance who discovered him in a drain had requested help with rescue as well as to foster him for a week while she went back to her hometown for a holiday.
Indy stayed with us for 16 years.
A few days after we took Indy home, he became incredibly sick. His eye was infected with green pus and so was his bladder and Eustachean tube (in the ear). When the vet pressed his bladder, there was no urine, only green pus. He was in dire straits and the vet didn’t think he would survive, but survive he sure did, against all odds.
When the vet assistant asked me for a name, I said, “Indy”. I named him after my favourite legendary hero, Indiana Jones, as we had just watched the latest movie at that time, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Much later, I wrote a book dedicated purely to Indy’s childhood and I titled it, “Indy Jones and the Kingdom of the Four Brahmaviharas” and I also produced a secular version called “Indy Jones and the Four Pillars of Kindness”. Indy is our only cat who has his very own book!
Indy’s rescue and his first battle
For two weeks, I looked after him around the clock.
He barely moved, but he was very brave and stoic.
Because of the large volume on pus inside his left ear, he could only move in circles. But Indy was so feisty, we could see how much he tried to move in the opposite direction so that he could walk in a straight line. His determination was incredible and he was only 2 weeks old!
Bobby looked after him.
That’s baby Indy. From being so sick with cloudy eyes, Indy improved after being on antibiotics for 21 days. I can still remember exactly how it felt to cradle him in my palm. He was so small.
Our little Indy Jones recovered and was given a clean bill of health, mostly due to his own determination!
Indy’s dedication to Vixey, Creamy and Crackers
Vixey was a kitten rescued earlier but diagnosed with brain trauma (degeneration) and she would be a pygmy cat. But despite her disability, Vixey took Indy under her wing and trained him to use the toilet and do other cat activities. Indy adored Vixey as his big sister. But we already knew Vixey would not live a long life; the vet said her maximum lifespan would only be three years, if we were lucky.
Vixey started deteriorating before she reached two years, and Indy looked after Vixey.
When Vixey finally passed away, Indy was very upset; he ran away from home.
Indy finally came back when we were just about to take Vixey to the crematorium. He came back to say a final goodbye to his big sister. After Vixey’s demise, Indy was not himself for a few weeks. There was once he went into the wrong house and the neighbour had to call me to take him back.
At about the same time, there was also a call to rescue two little kittens who had been left abandoned in a box in the nearby neighbourhood. This was a typical call by a “caller” who said, “If you don’t take them, they will die” when she herself also claimed to be a “rescuer”. I went to look and found the box with the two kittens inside and took them home.
I named them Creamy and Crackers and Indy instantly took them under his wing to protect them just as Vixey had protected him.
Indy was a really good big brother to Creamy and Crackers. But at the time, our house was getting full so I had to put Creamy and Crackers up for adoption. We found an adopter, so Indy had to say goodbye to his two new wards and that was a very sad parting. That night, after the adopter had come to take Creamy and Crackers, Indy and I sat outside in the porch, together in silence, just looking at the night sky. We didn’t have to say anything to each other, but we both knew how we felt.
Indy and Kimba
One night, I heard mewing in the back alley and saw a blue-point kitten sitting by the drain. The moment he saw me, he jumped straight into my arms. He was covered with fleas and I bathed him that night itself and took him to the vet’s the next day.
That was Kimba.
Kimba was probably around the same age at Indy, so the two bonded instantly and became the very best of friends.
They would whizz around the house all day, play and there was once when both of them brought home a dead rat as an offering to me.
They were so happy and I was going to arrange for their neutering together when a tragic accident happened on one fateful night. Kimba had followed me out to throw the garbage but instead of following me back, Kimba decided to cross the road. A neighbour drove pass very slowly and ran him down.
Indy had lost another good friend and so had I. Kimba had a very special bond with me, as though he had come into my life for a reason. I was traumatised for months and ended up with severe depression.
Indy was such a kind cat
Indy had a big ink-heart on his body, can you see it? He was such a kind cat.
With all our losses, life had to go on.
I decided to write a book about Indy’s childhood and all his adventures. The first version was called Indy Jones and the Kingdom of the Four Brahmaviharas and the second version was a secular one, entitled Indy Jones and the Four Pillars of Kindness. It was so apt because Indy exhibited all these kindnesses in how he cared for his friends.
The secular version of the e-book is here: Indy Jones & the Four Pillars of Kindness e-book
We had fun taking photos of Indy wearing the Indy Jones hat for the book!
We weren’t really sure if one eye had been injured when he was first rescued because that one eye was badly infected and full of pus, but it didn’t affect Indy’s vision at all.
Soon it was time for us to move to this present neighbourhood.
When we moved, we brought all our cats with us with Bobby. In the new neighbourhood, everyone had to learn to be indoor pets now. No more free roaming anymore. But I really didn’t know how capable cats are in escaping, so we truly underestimated our cats. Pole made an escape and so did Indy.
In that first week after moving, Indy escaped from the house and we went around frantically looking for him, so worried that he might have tried to find his way back to our old neighbourhood. It was already night time when this happened. Thankfully, when I called out for him at the playground, I saw two bright spots of light coming coming towards me at lightning speed – it was Indy running back to me! That was a very close shave.
Indy’s Spider-Cat episode
This is a classic Indy episode, so here’s the link: https://animalcare.my/2013/03/18/indys-escape-exposed/
Here are some photos of what happened:
How did Indy know there was a gap in the netting. Until today, we still talk about this episode, so proud of our Indy Jones!! He earned the esteemed title of “Spider-Cat”!
The only reason Indy was dressed in a tshirt was that he had a chest wound and the vet said it would be best to cover the wound by letting him wear a tshirt. A friend called this his “gay rock star” tshirt! So apt!
Indy demonstrated how easy it was to escape through that gap in the netting, so we had to replace the netting with solid polycarbonate sheets.
We really spent so much money trying to cat-proof our new house because we didn’t know how smart cats are at escaping!
The guard of honour at Bobby’s passing
Bobby lived till a ripe old age of 16. When he passed away of old age, Indy and Tiger formed the guard of honour for Bobby. Indy did not budge at all until it was time for Bobby to go.
The Royal Guards
If you have seen Cow Mau’s photo album, you would have seen these photos.
Cow Mau and Indy were our Royal Guards. We only had two black-and-white cats and they were our warriors! When they fought with other cats (or sometimes, amongst themselves), everyone would be carted off to the vet’s for some sort of procedure.
There was once when Cow Mau attacked Indy and Indy defended himself by his bullseye claw scratch onto Cow’s eye. That landed Cow in hospital with two eye surgeries before his eye was restored.
Indy normally would not start any fight. He only defended himself but whenever he did, he was super accurate in his strokes.
As AnimalCare’s mascot
Indy was AnimalCare’s mascot. And every time there was any press release, it would almost always be Indy’s photograph with me.
The Star
Her World – be assured that that’s me, but being a glamour magazine, they had me made up (I do not wear cosmetics, but had to for the photo-shoot that day). I know, it doesn’t even look like me!
Malay Mail
At our present house
At our present house, life was a little less eventful because all our cats were confined indoors. Except for the noisy brawls between Indy and Ginger, life was very peaceful for everyone.
“Mr Kekok”!
Indy’s colourful character
Indy had the most colourful character amongst all our cats! We likened him to so many famous movie stars…
Indy was Indiana Jones.
Indy was also Zorro!
He could also be the Black Knight.
And of course, he was….
…the legendary Spider-Man, or more accurately, Spider-Cat, the titled he earned when he made that grand escape through the netting years ago.
He could also be Dr Strange.
And last but not least, Indy also had a funny side, like Crash Bandicoot!
The kindest and most child-friendly cats
Ginger, Cow Mau and Indy became our most child-friendly cats.
Indy with Ryan and below, Indy with Jayden.
Indy’s top-of-the-world platform
Both our Royal Guards were the undefeated champions in our house, despite being the oldest. When Cow Mau or Indy came over to Ginger’s Catio, everyone else ran in fear to hide. Our super seniors emitted an aura that was so intimidating that the Monsters had to kow-tow to them, despite the latter group being bigger and younger.
Indy could rule Ginger’s catio from his side in Bunny’s Place.
The top-of-the-world platform was Indy’s favourite place in the last few months. I’m glad we made the lookout for him. He enjoyed it so much. Indy had always loved sitting atop cars in our old neighbourhood but after we moved here, there were no cars for him to sit on anymore. Finally, we built these platforms and he had to top-of-the-world view again.
But even when he was sitting on top, he would know it was time to come down for his medication or subcut sessions. He would come down on his own and even line up at the subcut station to wait for his turn.
Indy was diagnosed with kidney disease five years ago, but after 8 months of subcut fluids, he was declared normal again. Finally, it was in an annual blood test last September that he was suddenly discovered to be already at Stage 4 of chronic kidney failure. There were absolutely no signs or symptoms at all. If there had been, I would have definitely taken him to the vet’s for intervention. Perhaps it just happened very suddenly. Despite already being at Stage 4, Indy remained as feisty as ever, displaying absolutely no signs of slowing down. It was this that made the vet agree to let him go through stem cell therapy which was reserved for those in Stages 1-2.
When Indy was 3 years old, he was suddenly stricken with unexplained high fever. The vet thought he would not make it because they could not find the cause. I rushed him for acupuncture too. Finally, Indy was hospitalised and under the collaborative diagnostic expertise of two of the most renowned vets in the Klang Valley. The vets also could not figure out what was wrong with him. But it was during this time that an ultrasound showed that Indy only had one functional kidney and they other was very much smaller. Indy finally recovered after some broad spectrum treatment was given. This means that either Indy was born with only one functional kidney or his bad start in life in the drain with multiple infections had left him with one impaired kidney. We will never really know, but Indy certainly lived a full life with one functional kidney!
Over they years, Indy also had episodes of unexplained illnesses which baffled his vets. Conventional treatment did not help, but somehow, after some time, he would just bounce back and recover on his own. We joked that Indy had some background of TCM (Traditional Cat Medicine)! There was one time when Indy had bloody diarrhoea for 7 weeks. During this time, he was still his own feisty self, but every defecation was a bloody one. I was worried sick, and took him for all kinds of tests and treatments only to have the vet rule out every single one of them. We tried allopathic and home remedies but nothing worked. I had to watch him frequently to check his faeces and I created Indy’s very own poop album with pictures of his poop, dated and time-stamped. For 7 weeks, I monitored him while desperately googling for similar cases until I found a shelter operator writing about one of his cats with exactly the same symptoms as Indy. He solved the problem by just giving the cat raw rabbit as a novel protein. So I quickly did that for Indy and voila…the bloody diarrhoea stopped after one week and all was well again!
Indy at his top-of-the-world platform, watching the world go by and enjoying every minute of it.
You’ve had a great life, Indy, all 16 years of it. You’re had a great tour on planet Earth and given us so much to remember you by.
Thank you for being such a significant part of our lives.
We will always remember you with fondness, affection, awe and respect for your very unique and admirable personality.
In loving memory of Indy Jones (May 2008 – 2nd April 2024)
I’m on the top of the world lookin’ down on creationAnd the only explanation I can findIs the love that I’ve found, ever since you’ve been aroundYour love’s put me at the top of the world