Kitty Central on Vacation
A few weeks after three of the four fosters left, we had to pack up and relocate to my friend Alex’s place about ten minutes away from home. My air conditioning system was being upgraded – six large units were being replaced, and it would take “five working days plus a few days for repairs and painting“. Alex was overseas for two weeks so I had plenty of time.
My apartment was in Salcedo Village, one of the inner “suburbs” of Makati, which is the central business district of Manila. It was an older, ungated community undergoing a revamp with lots of new condos and retail outlets opening. Today it is quite a foodie hub. There were a few embassies around, so it was safe and accessible and the place where many expats chose to live, however when the new area of Rockwell was built, many expats decamped to that location.
Getting into the Rockwell area required travelling along a major congested highway or through the red light district, neither of which I enjoyed so despite it’s close proximity to my apartment, I didn’t visit often. Once arriving in Rockwell, it reminded me of Singapore – pristine wide roads, lush greenery, and towering condominiums. My friend’s apartment was on the 35th floor and was twice the size of mine – a massive four bedroom place which like mine, had floor to ceiling windows but with a different view. The kitties had been allocated a bedroom for overnight which was twice the size of their room at home, so before they arrived I set everything up for them to make it as familiar as possible, and removed all the objects that non-cat owners have lying around that looked perilous to either the cats or the object itself.
I did two car trips before I loaded all five kitties into the car. Food, toys, their tunnels, blankets, bowls, the chair from their room – everything I could fit to make the relocation less stressful for them. We were moving to Rockwell!
The decor at Rockwell was much better suited to Maxi’s pretty colouring
Four kitties travelled in their cages in the car for the journey, smuggled down through the basement of my condo, where I was allowed just one pet. I don’t like cats roaming free in vehicles, I worry they will distract the driver and if the car comes to a sudden halt, they can become lethal projectiles, harming others as well as themselves. But I only had four cages as I had donated a couple with the departure of the fosters. Rather than squishing kitties together when they were already stressed, I carried Chico (formerly Kabo) on my lap. Pip and Kai tend to travel in stony, shocked silence, Maxi and Asha bleat repeatedly. All are more comfortable with a cover over the cage so they can’t see anything. But Chico! He was so excited by this new experience! Once clear of the basement and the condominium security guards, he squirmed out of my arms to look out the window. People! Cars! So much happening! His big eyes were wide with delight!
When we arrived at Rockwell, Kai wailed his misery at the change. Most cats don’t like change but Kai gets upset even if he is served his food in a different location. The other kitties scampered around, sniffing unfamiliar objects and patting their things from home. They met Perlita, my friend’s helper who was a cat lover herself and who loved to dangle their toys in front of them to see how high they could jump. Lyn remained at my condo dealing with the mess, but visited the kitties each morning.
Chico was adjusting perfectly well to life without his siblings, but me? Not so much. I had been following their new Instagram account and their new mum (let’s call her Ray) had told me that she had decided to keep the three kittens herself. Munro, Leyte and Lulu (now Oreo, Velvet and Lulu) would live with her and her boyfriend and their other two cats. I was a bit concerned about this. The Instagram photos I saw showed that they lived a modest life in a very small apartment, and raising five cats is not an inexpensive exercise. When the fosters were handed over, they were still too young for vaccination and spay/neuter so there were expenses coming up. And I had already had some feedback from Ray about how they ate a lot of food. As well as living as indoor cats in a very small home, both Ray and her boyfriend were out at work all day for extended hours, leaving all five kitties unattended. Not that this is a problem – many cats (including my own back in Sydney) live like this, but I was struggling with the thought of my poor little babies wondering what happened to them that their lives had suddenly changed so drastically. “When can we go back home?” I was sure that there was plenty of love in their new home, but I worried about the expenses and also what would happen when five darling little kittens grew into five big cats.
One day I had a text from Ray. Oreo was sick and needed antibiotics, and she had to take time off work to get him to the vet. Could I help with expenses? Of course I could, but it confirmed all my greatest fears about these little babies’ future lives. Over the next few weeks, a couple of times I “accidentally” bought the wrong food, or too much food, so sent supplies up to their new home to help out. My driver did the delivery but it was always arranged at a shopping mall, so we never actually knew where the kitties were. I knew I had to let go, so I stopped following the kitties new instagram account and focussed on my own five, and our new life on vacation.
One of the kitties favourite games developed at this time, and it’s still a regular hoot now. Each morning after breakfast, I would drag their tunnels out of their bedroom, up the hallway, around the corner, up the entrance hallway and into the lounge area. All five kitties chased the tunnel, taking it in turns to run in for a “ride”. Sometimes one would pop out of the hole at the top, making way for another to jump in for the journey, and sometimes one would run alongside smacking any little heads that popped out of the hole. It was hilarious! We had four tunnels so I would drag one at a time, with all five charging back to the bedroom ahead of me to take up position inside the next choo-choo-tunnel in the queue. Sometimes I’d also drag a blanket off the bed and along the same route, and all five kitties would jump on the blanket for a free ride. In the evening at bedtime, we played the same game in reverse.
On a recent trip from Cebu to Manila, I visited Rockwell for dinner with Alex, and it was a lovely memory, that time we spent living there, the week that turned into two weeks, before we got the call about Lulu….
