It all started in September 2013.
I was walking home from work when I saw a cat with her three kittens.
I like kittens.. when I watched them from a distance. Otherwise, I'm quite fearful of them. I saw two black kittens playing with one another and the mother cat and her little grey kitten laying side by side.
It was a good photo opportunity. So I quickly snapped a photo.
A month passed, and my sister and I begun to see the three kittens running about the park outside my house without their mother. When I came home from work, the kittens will be mewing from afar. Seeing how thin they were, we thought they may be abandoned and starving.
So we begun to secretly feed them.
As I was scared of cats, I'll usually put the food a few steps away from them and watch them eat from a safe distance.
The kittens, were more than happy to run ahead and eat to their hearts' content.
Eventually my neighbours also started putting food out in the park for them.
We stopped feeding them until my maid said she hasn't noticed anyone feeding them for quite a while.
So we begun feeding them again and I realised they have became a bit territorial. One example was when one of the black kittens stalked a dog and hissed after it when it entered 'their park'. Their mother visits them occasionally and there was a big and unfriendly black and white cat that spends time with them once in a while too. Realising there's a population of five cats in the area, I figured since the neighbourhood cares for the cats by leaving out food and stuff for them, it's best if they are caught and neutered before they reproduce more and the situation gets out of control..especially when a neighbour told me some neighbours dislikes cats and once someone called animal control to round up a group of stray cats in the area. So I sought the assistance of a local animal welfare group to help to trap, neuter and release them.
Then when she came to assess the kittens, we realised there were more cats, however some were thankfully neutered.
We also met another neighbour who also asked us to help to neuter the cats as she couldn't cope with doing it by herself. The animal welfare volunteer also identified the gender of the cats. We had three males and two females to neuter.
We waited for a couple of months for the kittens to reach maturity (See this was how clueless I am about cats, I couldn't even tell how old they weree). Eventually a cat trapper came and managed to trap the mother and her three kittens. About a week later, the four cats were released back to the park outside my house.
I thought, that was it.
I've helped the cats by having them neutered so they won't go round the neighbourhood causing trouble and at the same time maintaining the population so they can continue being fed by my neighbours without competing for food.
A day or two went by before I realised something was wrong.
We were used to seeing the three kittens tumbling about in the park, but we now realised there were two. The little grey kitten and a black kitten. The other black kitten and the mother were missing. I contacted the trapper and they assured me that they did released all four back in the park. I asked my friend who's obsessed with cats and she said that sometimes neutered strays who were released tend to be traumatized from the experience and hide away from humans... either that or they died or migrated to other areas due to the trauma.
However, a week or two went by and still no sign of the mother cat and the other black kitten.
I was wrecked with guilt thinking that it was my fault, if only I didn't get them neutered, the other two cats would not have disappeared. My friend assured me that I did the right thing and told me not to feel bad.
That was in mid November 2013.. and at that time, it was Singapore's rainy season.
Almost every single day, it poured.
Out of guilt, I continued feeding them at night and sometimes in the day when I can despite my parents objecting to the feeding because they said the cats will follow me home. I always made sure to feed them in the park.
At this point, I begun to slowly pat the remaining black kitten. The tabby understandably was cautious of me.
I begun to wonder if I can adopt them... but I know it's not feasible because I have two elderly rabbits (10 and 11 years old respectively) and a naughty rescued rabbit.
One day, the black kitten started sneezing and started having runny eyes. I realised it caught a flu and it needed care. However, I couldn't put the kitten in my house as my parents already objected. Luckily, a friend of mine always wanted to adopt a black cat. She decided to trap the black kitten, bring it to the vet, take the kitten home and keep it.
The tabby girl was left alone in the park after that. My sister and I continued to feed her in the park.
In December, my sister and my maid decided to feed the girl outside our gate.
It was a big mistake.
It was still raining a lot that month and one day, she entered our house to seek shelter from the rain.
And kept doing that every single day.
My family eventually took pity on her and let her come in to seek shelter.
However, I noticed she still gets a little wet by the rain.
So I took an old basket, put an old tee shirt in it for her so she wouldn't catch a flu like her brother did... my maid got her a little steel bowl and I got her a little water bowl... and the rest was history.
She only left the house to go outside to explore, otherwise, she'll spend the day sleeping on my front yard or porch.
Eventually, I made her a little bed for her to sleep in and got her a collar so we can hear her movements especially when she goes to the back where my rabbits are. My sister bought her toys.
We agreed to name her Shell.
The smart girl also ensured she won the hearts of my grandparents and father by catching pests like cockroaches and grasshoppers.
My mom unfortunately is still quite apprehensive about her (probably due to the fact that Shell pooped on her prized plants and climbed up her trees).
She got her own litter bin which she uses to sleep in instead of doing her business. My friend reckons she goes somewhere outside and does it. We got it for her for fear that she will do business in the yard and piss off my parents.
Soon it was 2014, a month after she came into the house, and I fashioned a simple cat house for her with a $2 cushion I bought from Daiso as the winds were pretty cold and she's still not allowed to stay in the house.. (but Shell has been ignoring that by strutting into the house meowing loudly when it's her meal time and occasionally sleeping on the sofa)
And now, from becoming fearful of cats.. my family and I ended up being adopted by a stray cat...
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