Category: Haru our pet cat

Last December marked a special milestone for our beloved feline companion, Haru, as she celebrated her 4th birthday. Haru’s journey with us began at the start of 2021, just days after she was born around late December 2020. Discovered by my husband outside his office on January 2nd, 2022, Haru came into our lives during one of the most challenging periods of the pandemic. She and her siblings were tiny symbols of hope, but it was Haru who stayed and filled our home with joy, laughter, and unconditional love.

The Kitty Who Brightened Dark Times

Haru is more than just a pet; she is a source of comfort and cheer. During the darkest moments of the pandemic, her playful antics, soft purrs, and ever-curious nature helped us cope with the isolation and uncertainty. She reminded us to find happiness in small things and provided a sense of routine when life felt so unpredictable. Even now, Haru continues to bring sunshine into our lives with her endearing personality and quirky habits.

A Special Birthday Tradition

Every year, no matter how busy her schedule gets, Sherilyn makes it a point to prepare a little birthday ‘cake’ for Haru on 31st December each year. It’s a delightful tradition that Haru seems to enjoy as much as we do! This ‘cake’ isn’t your typical sugary confection. Instead, it’s a carefully crafted blend of Haru’s favorite foods: roast chicken breast, fish, fried egg yolk (cooked without oil), and her trusty kibbles. These ingredients are molded together in a cupcake paper cup, forming a gourmet treat fit for our special girl.

This year was no different. When Sherilyn presented Haru with her birthday ‘cake,’ her eyes lit up with curiosity and excitement. We gave her half of the ‘cake’ as a treat during the day and saved the other half for her dinner. Watching her nibble away with delight was a heartwarming moment, a simple yet meaningful celebration of the love and bond we share with her.

Gratitude and Wishes for Haru

As we celebrated Haru’s 4th birthday, we couldn’t help but feel immense gratitude for this little furball who has enriched our lives in countless ways. We thank God for bringing her into our family and pray for her continued health and happiness. Haru has been a blessing to us, she’s a member of our family and a reminder of resilience and joy, and we hope to have many more years of companionship with her.

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As each day passes by since the day we rescued Haru from the streets in early 2021 (she’s our pandemic cat), we can’t help but to see how intelligent and emotionally in-tune this little kitty is. Not too long ago, my hubby and I found ourselves in a heated argument over something as trivial as where to place Haru’s bag of litter. Voices were raised, and tension filled the air—something that hasn’t happened in our home for a long time.

Suddenly, in the middle of our escalating disagreement, Haru decided to intervene. She meowed in a very persuasive and almost pleading manner, as if she could sense the tension and wanted to bring peace. Then, she walked right up to her human dad, meowed again, and gently brushed her head against his leg. It was as if she was telling him, “Stop arguing with Mum.” Her timing was impeccable, and her cute yet commanding meows made both of us stop in our tracks.

In that moment, all I wanted to do was burst out laughing. It was incredible how Haru, our little feline, had so effortlessly diffused the argument. She didn’t stop there. For the next 15 minutes, Haru kept following her dad around, making sure to stay close, as if reminding him to stay calm and not to continue the argument. She even climbed up the chair at the dining table when hubby ate lunch, just to stay next to him to make sure that he didn’t argue with me anymore.

The whole situation left both of us in awe. I couldn’t believe that Haru was so aware of what was happening and had the intuition to step in when she did. Her intelligence shines through in moments like this, when she seems to understand exactly how to tug at our heartstrings and bring peace to the household.

Haru is more than just a pet—she’s a vital part of our family, and her ability to sense emotions and respond so thoughtfully shows just how intelligent she is. I love her to bits, and moments like these make me appreciate her even more.

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Last week, what was supposed to be a routine vet visit for Haru’s half-yearly deworming pill turned into a dramatic adventure that left both Sherilyn and me with a few battle scars, courtesy of our feisty feline.

As usual, I took Haru to the vet with Sherilyn holding her in the car. The car ride was relatively uneventful, thanks to Sherilyn’s calming presence. But once we arrived at the vet, Haru’s true colors began to show. Like clockwork, she hissed and spat at the vet, especially when the vet checked her teeth. Haru has always been a bit of a drama queen during vet visits, and this time was no different.

Everything was going quite smoothly until I noticed some newborn kittens crying in a paper bag. A lady had brought the kittens to the vet, hoping they would take them in. Unfortunately, since the kittens were newborns, the vet had to turn the lady away. The sound of the kittens crying caught Haru’s attention, and that’s when things took a turn for the worse.

I was carrying Haru at the time, and the moment she heard those tiny cries, she panicked. In a flash, her deadly claws came out, and she clung to both sides of my shoulder with such force that it felt like my skin was about to be ripped off. I couldn’t help but scream in pain. The vet and her daughter rushed out to help me, and it was clear that Haru was not in a good mood.

Given the situation, I asked the vet to trim Haru’s claws while we were there. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t sit well with Haru, who became even more agitated. It was a tense few minutes, but the vet managed to cut her claws, though not without much hissing and growling from Haru.

Meanwhile, Sherilyn had found herself a distraction in the form of a cage filled with a mother cat and her kittens. She couldn’t resist patting the adorable kittens and was reluctant to leave them behind. However, when we finally got back to the car, Haru’s sharp senses picked up the scent of the kittens on Sherilyn’s hands. Without warning, she bit Sherilyn’s hand, clearly triggered by the unfamiliar smell.

By the time we got home, Haru was completely rattled. To make matters worse, a friend was visiting, and Haru, already on edge, decided that hiding under the sofa was the safest option. It took almost an hour before she felt comfortable enough to come out.

This vet trip was anything but ordinary. Between the near skin-ripping experience and Sherilyn getting bitten, it’s safe to say that Haru’s deworming day was filled with more drama than we anticipated. But despite the painful scratches, bites, and scares, it’s all part of the adventure of being a cat parent. Haru may be a handful, but we wouldn’t trade her for anything.

Haru’s claws that were clawed to my skin for a brief 5 seconds were almost as painful as the LA jab administered on my foot during my laser surgery last month 😖

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Even though Haru’s carrier and bed were on our bedroom floor, she never slept on her bed for the two nights that we were in Ipoh for CNY. She only went inside her carrier to hide from my squealing and overzealous nieces and nephew from getting near her.

At night when we were in bed, Haru kept jumping up the bed to be with us. I kept pushing her away but she jumped up again and again until I gave up and let her be. Haru slept in between us 😆. She hardly did that in KL, except when she’s afraid of the thunderous fireworks and once when Cass stayed overnight in the hospital and Haru was looking everywhere for her sister.

Also, when we were asleep in the wee hours of the morning, this fella had her zoomies and zoomed up and down the bed, the room, and jumped up the dressing table. She also pooped at 3 a.m. on our last night. Because of this cat, I didn’t sleep well for more than a week – before and during her boarding as well as in Ipoh.

Alycia brought Haru out of the room to let her explore the stairs and to desensitize her phobia of seeing new faces.

Have I told you that Alycia is one of Haru’s favorite people? Besides her dad, Haru loves Alycia.

I am thankful that Haru did pretty well in the car on our road trip to and from Ipoh and did not cause us any major problem, besides meowing intermittently and trying to get out of her carrier to sit with us.

I can forget about boarding Haru again in future. If I have to travel in future, one of the girls has to be around to feed her and clean her litter. Haru is happiest when she’s in her home sweet home. When Haru’s happy, I’m happy 😻

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After 2 days of harrowing experience for Haru at the catsitter’s house, resulting in her going on a hunger strike and no peeing and pooping for 2 days, we (catsitter, hubby and I) decided that it’s best to bring her home. I sent Haru to the catsitter’s house on Wednesday and she was sent home to me on Friday morning. Our trip back to Ipoh was the next day, on a Saturday morning.

So Plan B was activated, which was to bring Haru with us to Ipoh. There was no time to think of another plan for Haru except for her to follow us.

To begin with, Haru has never liked car rides. Even a 5-minute car ride to the nearby vet would cause Haru to hyperventilate and pee in the car. What more a 2 to 4 hours journey to Ipoh. We had no idea of how bad the traffic would be on the highway on the first of Chinese New Year. We had no idea of how Haru would adapt in my parents’ house in Ipoh with so many new faces in a brand new environment.

We had to Just. Do. It. and prayed for the best.

Our trip from KL to Ipoh took three hours instead of the usual 1 hour 45 minutes. Haru was put in her carrier in between Alycia and me. We opened the flap on top of the carrier and Haru stuck her head out to enjoy the view. Having all her favorite humans in the car with her helped to calm her down, though she was shivering almost throughout the car ride.

After 2 hours of intermittent meowing in the car, we took Haru out of the carrier. She sat briefly on Sherilyn’s lap and then sat on my lap quietly for the remaining one hour journey. Sitting on my lap, Haru calmed down instantly and even fell asleep. For the first time in her life, she sat on my lap for an hour. Haru is not a lap cat and can never sit on our laps for more than 5 minutes. She even licked my hand, something which she has never done before. She must have felt so grateful that I didn’t abandon her 😄

I actually enjoyed having Haru with us in the car on a road trip. I’m now even thinking of going to Penang for a holiday and bringing Haru along with us. But we’ll need to look for a pet-friendly Air-BNB. Hotels usually do not allow pets in.

Thank God everything went pretty smoothly and now we’re back in KL.

Haru and I survived Ipoh during CNY! Praise the Lord!

To be continued….

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I managed to put Haru (who is usually terrified of the carrier) into her carrier while she was having a cat nap at 2pm today. I felt so bad for ‘betraying’ her.

The catsitter, who calls herself kaima (aka godma in Cantonese) came to pick us up. I paid her RM80 for a 1-way pet transport. Cass accompanied me.

At kaima’s house, all hell broke loose. I expected it.

Haru was hissing uncontrollably. The shell shocked and scared look on her face broke my heart. She was hissing at not only kaima, but at Cass and me. When Cass tried to comfort Haru, she almost got bitten. Kaima told us to leave Haru alone.

Haru was hyperventilating while hissing at anyone who tried to get near her. She was afraid that we may harm her.

I took out all her stuff and explained them to kaima. I put Haru’s bed and lined it with my worn pajamas. Haru sniffed it and immediately calmed down. She went to her bed and sat on it. The familiar smell of my worn pajamas did wonders in calming her.

I tried to feed Haru with a kibble but she was too scared to even notice a kibble on my hand. Haru is usually very food-motivated. After a while laying on her bed with my worn pajamas, she calmed down and ate that kibble. That was the last time she ate.

As of typing this post (it’s now 7.50 pm on 8 February 2024), it’s more than 24 hours since Haru last ate or drank. She wouldn’t want to eat anything. Though I brought along her usual bowl and food but all she did was just sniff it and turned away.

From the Tapo app (CCTV) on my phone, I could see Haru either sleeping or hiding under cabinets the whole day. Kaima tried to feed Haru three times but she just wouldn’t eat.

The room is equipped with Feliway diffuser to calm cats and calming music specially for cats is played 24 hours. I paid over RM100 separately for the Feliway diffuser.

I am crushed 😭. Watching Haru on the CCTV day and night rejecting food and hiding feels like watching my child die a slow and painful death. Ok, I may sound melodramatic but this is exactly how I feel now.

When will Haru ever eat, poo and pee?

Haru must have thought that I have abandoned her. I have prepared Haru for this boarding for over two months, telling her about my plans and that I am not abandoning her, but all the preparation seemed to be futile.

I told hubby and kaima that if Haru continues to go on a hunger strike tonight and tomorrow morning, I will have no choice but to bring her home. And take another drastic measure – lug her along in our car on a road trip back to Ipoh.

It’s a big risk that I will be taking as Haru is terrified of car rides and being in the car for 2 hours or more will stress her out even more. And when she reaches my parents’ house, it will be another traumatic time for her with another new place, new faces and new routine. When she’s stressed out, so will I.

I have been praying fervently that Haru will start to eat, poo and pee by tonight. I still think that leaving her at kaima’s house is a better option vs traveling as traffic on the highway will most likely be bad during the CNY period.

My greatest worry is Haru developing gastric, serious gut issues, UTI or organ failure from being dehydrated and malnourished. To begin with, Haru already has sensitive guts and is prone to diarrhea.

For cat parents, has this ever happened to your cat when you sent him/her to the cat boarder’s house or pet hotel? Would greatly appreciate advice. Thank you from a desperate cat mama.

To be continued…

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Eight more days to sending my baby cat to the catsitter’s house. Her catsitter calls herself ‘kaima’ (godma), aka kaima to fur babies. She rescues stray cats and does trap-neuter-return (TNR) and finds these cats furever homes.

Yesterday I dug out her carrier and left it in the living room. Haru hates the carrier coz going into the carrier means going to the vet. The carrier has never been a pleasant experience for her or for us. We had to catch her and force her into the carrier each time we brought her to the vet, something that I hate to do. Now I don’t bother to put her into the carrier anymore whenever we bring her to the vet. She will be carried in my arms or put inside a cloth bag, clutched under Sherilyn’s armpit.

Kaima advised me to bring the carrier out and try to get Haru used to the sight of the carrier, and to remove her phobia of the carrier so that on the actual day, it will be less traumatizing for her.

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Our precious pandemic kitty, Haru just turned 3! She was born circa end of December 2020, right outside hubby’s office, on a staircase landing, behind some catering decor. Our country was still under a partial lockdown and his office was quiet for days because of the year-end festivities. When hubby returned to his office, he found treasure 😹😹

From a non-cat lover, I am now officially a crazy cat lady 🤪

We were all too busy to prep a cat-friendly cake for Haru, so I bought her favorite foods to treat her on her birthday – grilled salmon fish head (salt and sugar-free) and roast chicken breast (shredded).

Several weeks ago, I booked a catsitter/cat boarder for Haru for CNY this year. This is an exclusive cat boarder where Haru will get an entire room to herself. And the price? Almost a thousand Ringgit for 7 days, inclusive of pet transport!

I can even watch Haru via CCTV on my phone 24/7. I hope Haru will not be aggressive towards this catsitter or howl all day or she may be returned to me. This is one of the strictest catsitters I’ve known. Thus, I have to send Haru to the catsitter a few days before we return to Ipoh as trial-boarding. I also have to deflea Haru at the vet with only 3 specific brands of deflea meds purchased from a vet and have the procedure recorded and video sent to the catsitter, as a requirement before boarding starts.

I’ve been praying hard that Haru will love her catsitter so that I can have a complete peace of mind while we travel back to Ipoh for CNY🙏.

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Haru did it again. She killed another lizard last night when all of us were in slumberland and the lizard came out to hunt for food. Ever since we had Haru 2.5 years ago, lizards were fewer in the house. Haru’s lizard hunting skill has improved significantly recently and she now never fails to kill these reptile that come out at night when the house is dark and quiet.

While I appreciate Haru keeping our house free from pests, I do however abhor cleaning up after her hunting mess. And Haru always kills these lizards at night. So when I wake up at 5.30 in the morning, the first that I have to do is to remove the lizard’s remains on the kitchen floor, which is something that is revolting and not for those with a faint heart.

While the lizard’s body was on the floor, the bits of broken tail was on the counter top, behind the cup drainer shelf. I am guessing that Haru must have chased after the poor lizard and tortured it to death 😖

Can you see how much work it is for me to clean up the kitchen with each lizard hunting?

I also just noticed that the gas knob was slightly turned on – check out the knob on the right side. Haru must have swiped the knob during her lizard-chase. Thank God she didn’t set herself on fire.

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Haru gave us all a big scare yesterday when she suddenly shed clumps of fur on her head.

It happened a day after a bath, which Sherilyn gave her. I thought that it must be caused by the shampoo that Sherilyn used on Haru. I used to bathe Haru with Koala Pals body shampoo from Melaleuca and there were no issues with her fur shedding excessively. Koala Pals are meant for human babies and kids. This time Sherilyn used a different brand of kids body shampoo.

Haru does not always get a bath. She only gets a bath twice or thrice a year, whenever Sherilyn or I have the time. However, I wipe Haru down with chemical free wet wipes (dry big wipes, wet with tap water) everyday.

The cause of the excessive fur shedding on the head could be caused by the new shampoo, by a new scratch board that I got Haru (she was obsessed with the scratch board and kept scratching and biting it) or it could be caused by her accidentally knocking her head somewhere. Haru has been having episodes of crazy zoomies the past few days, zooming like a lunatic around the house, and even head bumped my leg and onto a cupboard.

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Haru, our lockdown cat is not a very affectionate cat. She doesn’t like hugs or belly rubs. She doesn’t jump onto my lap to snuggle up or to ask for a chin rub. But strangely, she has a calming presence in my life.

Whenever I’m seething with anger or feel sad, the presence of this fur ball seems to melt my stress away. She doesn’t judge, argue, answer back rudely or complain. And she’s easily satisfied. Haru is more than just a pet, she’s my therapy cat. Just stroking her soft fur and hearing her purr can help me feel more grounded.

Last Friday no one was home at night and Haru waited for us to come home. Hubs was in Kota Kinabalu, Alycia had gone for supper with a friend, Sherilyn was at her dance class, and I was at the skating rink with Cass. When Cass and I got home at around 11 p.m., Haru was beside the main door, waiting for us. With droopy sleepy eyes, she was trying hard not to fall asleep. My heart melted when I saw her loafing next to the door, waiting for us to be home ❤️.

Haru has been an important part of my mental health toolkit. She’s given me a reason to smile and laugh on the toughest days.

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Last Saturday we brought Haru to the vet for her yearly jab. It’s her third jab. She will turn 3 at the end of 2023.

Sherilyn put the kitty in her canvas tote bag and as usual, this scaredy-cat was so terrified of the sound of the car engine in the 5-minute car ride that she peed in the bag 😹

I’m going to be away for 3 days from tomorrow until Wednesday. I’ll be taking the ETS with Cass to Ipoh to visit my parents. I’m so going to miss my sweet girl and will worry a lot about her when I’m away. This little cheeky fella loves to wander off to the kitchen balcony whenever someone opens the glass sliding door and forgets to close it. Or she will sneak out of the house when the door is left open. I’m going to miss her more than I miss my human daughters 😬

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Haru has been very jittery and nervous since the Eve of CNY, no thanks to the deafening fireworks in our neighborhood every single night and lion dance at our condo last Sunday.

Every night when the sky turns dark and thundering fireworks start to break the silence of the night, Haru scrambles to find a place to hide. She’ll choose a different place to hide each night and all of us will go looking for her, as if we were playing Hide-And-Seek with her.

On Sunday (Chor 8), there was a lion dance performance at the pool side of our condo. As soon as the clamorous sounds of drums and clanking cymbals were heard from our unit (5th floor), Haru started to run into hiding. We brought Haru to my bedroom and showed her the lion dance from the window but she was terrified. Her body turned stiff and she was quivering. She then jumped off from my hands and went into hiding.

We spent almost 20 minutes looking for Haru at all her usual hiding places and finally found her under my bed. I wonder how she squeezed herself under the bed as it’s a low bed frame. She hid there for more than an hour and only got out when the lion dance finally ended.

Last night I went searching for Haru again and found her at a new spot – on a clothes shelf in the mil’s walk-in wardrobe. Thank goodness I found her in the nick of time as the mil was about to step into her room. The mil would probably flip and get a shock of her life to see a cat sitting on her clothes shelf 😹. This is only going to make her despise Haru more.

Thank goodness CNY is almost coming to an end but Haru will go through hell again this Sunday on the last night of CNY when people start bombing the neighborhood again 😿. And burning of fireworks and firecrackers is illegal in our country (except for 2 types) as they’re in the same category as dynamite!

And the latest I read is that the Government has only on 2 February 2023 legalized the use of fireworks and firecrackers. So yeah, we can all be prepared to turn zombified for the remaining days of CNY and all other festivals from now onwards.

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