While younger cats in the parking lot of that wholesale store (in Indonesia known as Indogrosir) came running after us like crazy, she sat quietly at the corner. She watched quietly in the corner when they each backed out with their share of fish.  she looked at us quietly as the other kitties enjoyed their meal of the day. That wholesale store has never been a friendly place for stray animals, many of them perished due to starvation and traffic, yet people dump their unwanted cats of all sizes and ages to fend for their lives there because it’s a store and a store supposed to have food. Being so old, Grandma Chai (named after her tea-like color) does not have a chance to fight over food like a younger, stronger cat. She eats what the cats left for her, and scavenging scraps from people’s lunchboxes. She had developed arthritis and her overall health declined overtime, so we took her home to retire. Grandma Chai loves sitting on the cat tree by the window. She sleeps a lot. When she is awake, she enjoys watching the world go around her: the kittens running and chasing each other, the mother cats nursing their babies, or us running all over places to get chores done.

Grandma Chai

If someone paid arms and legs for Milo, it’s Milo. She took a pack of Milo energy drink from a stall and the owner of the stall beat her up. One of her front legs was torn, some ligaments were broken, one finger dislocated, and she was left there crawling for her life, trying to go home to her two babies. All she want was food for her starving two kittens whom she hid at the corner of a slum alley. A young student (elementary grade student) who often drop by to play with our cats told us in tears about how she failed to protect “her stray cat” because the cat was injured when she was at school and how her parents were scraping money to bring the cat to the vet, so we stepped in. We took Milo to the vet for treatment, but her babies were too far gone and died of malnourishment. It took Milo months to be able to sit again. The torn ligament was mend, but we must be a bit more patient until the torn flesh on her leg reform. The dislocated finger cannot be healed, so she will walk with one finger twisted. The only person who can tell whether she will be OK again is Milo herself. What we knew from the girl who took care of her, Milo used to be a cheerful, outspoken cat. She is now a quiet girl who prefer to be alone. She will respond when called, and her only friends are our two red eared sliders. She will growl to everyone else to keep them away although she will not be hostile to anyone. We are hoping so much that time heals and that Milo will open up to her old cheerful self.

Milo

Sinergi foundation (though the name contains “Foundation” Sinergi is actually a sharia for profit MLM company) have been the life of that SOHO complex. Living in the parking lot of that company is an old semi feral cat who never misses us out. We feed her every morning, whether we go to the ATM nearby, buy a snack and drink (and extra pouch of cat food) from the next door minimarket, or simply pass by for a shortcut, we will always find her following us. One night we left grandma after checking the box we gave her, and the next morning when we came again with food, Letizia was there. She follows grandma everywhere and learns to live as a stray. Every morning she would sit on a patch of sun near the company office for food and pats on the head, but about a month after she was missing. Two weeks later we saw her walking like a drunk cat trying to reach us. We picked her up and found a rotting stab wound as big as a pencil just below her shoulder blade. We took her to the vet, and our vets said she was indeed stabbed with a pencil. The untreated wound was infected, and our vets pumped out a cup of pus from the hole. It took her months to heal from the wound. Letizia ends up having to walk with a bit of a limp, but we are glad that the puncture missed vital organs and that she can still live normally. Letizia is a quiet, timid cat. She never prances or claws or screams or fights. Whenever she wants food she will jump on the kitchen counter and wait patiently for us to get the idea. When we get her a plate of minced chicken that she likes so much she will jump back down to the floor, never eating on the table. Other than following us, Letizia likes to watch the birds from the window, if she is not enjoying the view we will find her curl up at the corner sleeping

Letizia

Kunoichi and her brother Ronin struggled after they were dumped without their mother in traditional market. They were 3 months old. Clinging to life by taking shelter under a fried rice cart, the cart eventually find them and kick them to the middle of the street, just when we’re passing to go home from work. Her unfortunate start in life gave her chronic pneumonia. Rainy season is especially torturous for Kunoichi as the fluid in her lungs makes her difficult to breathe. Still with all the respiratory problem that plague her, Kunoichi has gentle demeanor. She replied when called, is calm and composed, and love cradles. Despite her name, she is a lady waiting to bloom. 

Kunoichi

What would you do if you entered an ATM chamber only to find a box of cats inside? I don’t understand how someone gets the idea of dumping a mother cat with five babies in a fridge cold ATM chamber and letting them shiver all night, but I understand that if I ask more questions the whole family will die, so I dragged the box out and got the cats home. Mama Bree is the best mother cat a kitten can have. She is caring, and loving and protective, and she is paying back by nursing orphaned kittens in the sanctuary. She moves from one box to the other to nurse as many kittens as she can and all of them grow to see adulthood. When her job as mother finally comes to an end (we spayed her immediately after she weans the last kitten) she is still wonderful to be with. She is calm and easy going. She will sit by us and listen to us talking about the rescue of the day, and when we stay up late at night she will curl on our ankles trying to calm us down. If only every mother in the world is like Bree!

Bree

Roaming around in an abandoned lot, Mage and his two siblings.  3 months old at that time, know nothing about survival, and there was no mother to guide them. The smallest, shyest and weakest of the three, Mage followed his other siblings and mimicked what they did, including when the two starving siblings ran to chase the food we put out for them. The biggest and strongest of the three, a male was neutered and released in a quiet park where many old people and children would feed the strays, but Mage, still as small as a 6 months old kitten at 2 years and immune compromised, stays with us. He loves raw chicken breast. Quiet and shy, he will sit by our legs with his round eyes, but is very quick when a piece of raw chicken dropped from the kitchen counter. Mage enjoys the company of people, head rub and loving kisses.

Mage

Leon’s front left leg was cut, for reasons we will never be able to establish. Then he was dumped in a SOHO complex to fend for his life. It’s a common practice in third world countries and falls behind towns like Bandung that still see animals as commodities. People prefer perfect looking, long hair cats that they can use for props in their photos, or whose kittens they can sell and leave the rest like a bunch of other things they no longer use. It makes me angry, but that is the world I live in. So instead of wasting my time and energy toward the unfairness, I use my anger to turn the lives of cats like Leon around. Leon is a timid and kind gentleman cat. He is generous to the kittens, and is always available for them if they need to snuggle. His fluffy long hair makes him a teddy bear for the orphans.

Leon

Julia lives under the sink provided by the entrance of every shop when Covid swept the country. When there is no one around, she will creep and sneak to find scraps of food in the garbage bin. It took us about a year to gain her trust so we can help her with her chronic Upper respiratory Infection. When she eventually learned to trust humans, someone catnap her and we lost Julia for about a month. People in the market nearby who got to love her helped us find her. She was mysteriously returned to under the sink in the parking lot of the shop where she lived before one day, and it was then she decided to allow us to take her home. She got treatment for her URI and is now a healthy cat. We tried to find help for her left eye as well (it’s smaller than the other and the eyeball was twisted to the left, she does not have crossed eyes, that damaged eye is blind), but veterinary technology has not advanced in Indonesia. Since the eye is relatively of no danger to her overall health, we do not seek surgery or other invasive treatment to correct that damaged eye, instead help Julia adapt to her single vision (she had trouble with depth)

Julia

Petrified out of fear in the middle of the busy road in the market, doesn’t mean that Hosekiis ready to die. He puffed and screamed to everyone who pass him. People step aside, motorbike steered away, but cars? We were on our way to the colony and we had a work appointment coming soon, but we couldn't abandon the tragic and ironic sight, so I jumped off the motorbike and swept him off the street, just 2 minutes before a large car drove past. Hoseki is as beautiful as his name, but also as tough. Seki lives with a gastrointestinal defect that will not allow him to properly digest any food he eats. He will live with diarrhea and soft stool the rest of his life and he must eat more often than other kittens to make up for the nutrition his body cannot digest in time. To prevent bowel irritation Seki eats special food that can be absorbed quicker than normal food. 

Hoseki

Min Min walked alone in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night. It is impossible for a kitten to be in the middle of the road completely alone (no mother, no sibling) so whoever dumped him in there did it with malicious intent to borrow someone else’s hand to kill an innocent cat. Though he is generally a sweet cat, he knows what he wants, when he wants it. He will follow us if he wants something and will not stop meowing until we give him what he wants. He can wait, and he will, if he saw us nursing other kittens, but as soon as we get our hands free, he will start all over again. 

Min min

Goliath was running around our residential cluster under the rain. It seemed like he couldn’t remember his way home, and we felt sorry for him, so we let him in. After the rain had stopped we went around to ask our neighbors for his pawrents, but no one stepped forward. Quite a number of neighbors, especially in the slums nearby, told us Goliath belonged to them, but further checking revealed that they simply wanted Goliath to breed or sell him for free money. Such is the reality in Bandung. Domestic shorthair cats are deemed worthless and are killed. Those with long hair deemed to have higher economic value, so many people want to breed them or keep them. Bandung is the capital breeder of Indonesia. 98% of Bandung residents (including veterinarians) are backyard breeders (unlicensed breeders) who are notorious for their trickery. For example: a mix between persian and domestic is called “Persian medium nose” or other races that never exist. After a year of going around with flyers and whatsapp posting everywhere, Goliath seems to be tired of trying to go home. He started to accept the shelter as his new place, and made friends with other cats. The only remembrance from his pawkids days is his collar which he refused to part with. He will look for that collar if we take it off for long.  

Goliath

Whiskers’ Syndicate is the first animal sanctuary in Bandung, where pet breeding for profit is unregulated and out of control, so results in much neglect and cruelty.