An Afternoon At Cat Cafe Neko No Niwa

Date: 2nd May 2014

Time: 1600 hrs

Weather: 35° Scorching Sun with no clouds 

I believe that most cat lovers in Singapore would have already visited the first ever cat cafe in Singapore, Neko No Niwa. We had a little expedition to the cafe, just to chill and relax on a hot Friday afternoon.

The cafe is located on the second floor of the shophouse rows at Clarke Quay. Upon arriving at the entrance, we were greeted by an elegant ambiance. You would enter through a sliding glass door and what awaits you behind them is the cooling air conditioning!

First thing to note when you arrive there is that your shoes should never enter the cat play room. You are to remove your footwear, no questions asked... So wear something that you can just slip off your feet easily!

Right after that, there will be a short briefing by the staff on the do's and don'ts when you are inside the playroom. Just a few simple rules, nothing hard. Each group of customers are given a booklet with short introductions about the cats stars in the cafe. I guess this is so that you need not meow your way through the cafe when trying to interact with the cats... Hmm..

So, a cafe has got to have drinks and cakes isn't it? How do we order them?

The booklet that you have received has a number on it. For example, if you are #19, you can just go over to the counter and order your drinks and quote them the booklet number. Simple and efficient.

Drinks and snacks there are not of exorbitant prices. Prices ranges from $1 for mineral water, and coffee or tea at $2.80.  I just love how they make the tri-colored coffee, and that exquisite cup cover! No furs will be in your coffee with that!

The cat trees they are using are of the highest quality. Cat owners would have heard of the brand "AeroMark" before. They are made of solid wood. Sturdy and strong, when accompanied by some soft cushions, you get a perfect setting for your cats!

You must be wondering why are they all sleeping? We visited during their afternoon nap time. If you are going, do make a evening appointment after 4 PM. They only started waking up when we were getting ready to leave..zzzz...


Well, watching cats sleep do have a soothing effect on your mind. It makes you relax, slow down, and appreciate the beautiful things around you. Look at them closely and you would realize what beautiful creatures they are.

They even have Catopoly there, if you want to play. 

The overall experience was quite a good one. It is a great hideout from the unforgiving weather, saving us from a meltdown. Ambiance was great, with soft music and just enough sunlight shooting into the room. A great place to spend your weekend afternoons away.

There's just hardly any quiet cafes left in Singapore, away from screaming children and buzzing traffics. Its even quieter then the library. Its just amazing how people will automatically talked softly when surrounded by cats.

We simply loved it. 5 Stars!

Before we go, can anyone guess what's this for? ^-^

Have fun guessing. 

Or

Simply visit Neko No Niwa and ask them!

MEOW!

Signing off,
The Team @ PawMart

Bishan Dog Run

Guessed that this place is nothing new to dog owners. Most of us would have heard about this place one way or another.

Yesterday was a boring Sunday. Mdm Bear has gone to a new home in the afternoon and we were all missing her. Peanut, Sasha and Santi were looking listless. So, to cheer up everyone in the household, I decided that we should make a trip to Bishan Dog Run! It is located along Ang Mo Kio Ave 1. The nearest carpark would be the one with a Macdonald's sign. Its quite hard to miss it.

When we reached there it was about 4 pm and there wasn't any crowd. Just a few small dogs and some larger breeds running around at another field. Didn't really know if there is any rules regarding the separation of fields for large and small breeds, but it seemed that all the bigger dogs were in the bigger field. Haven't been here in awhile.

The Dog Run areas are actually quite well maintained. No litter of any sorts. This feels so much better than those dog runs at Pasir Ris.
Please do not be mesmerized by the greenery and forget to look at what you might step on. There are a lot of "land mines" (Dog Poo) on the grass areas. Kelly was the lucky one to step on one of the "land mines" today. LOL. Its just so funny when she asked me if I smelled poo around her.

 

Peanut was as protective of us as ever when we were there. We were glad that he at least tried to socialize with a group of small dogs who were playing. He has improved a lot we thought. Previously he growls at any dogs who tries to sniff us. From today's experience, we estimated that his proximity of tolerance is about 5 meters radius. Kelly and I then decided to split ourselves, each standing at one corner of the compound so that he may have a chance to walk around instead of following us like a pack.

Sasha was having a blast. She occasionally got lost walking around the compound, looking back to see where were we. She's an adventurous one that will sometimes dash out of our home when there's a chance. She got lost once though. Luckily we heard her bark, 2 floors down from our place. After that incident she got traumatized and stopped the running away. 

Santi was the superstar there. She's a Corgi Shepherd mixed, rescued from the SPCA years back. Adding to her resume, shes a therapy dog. Everyone was petting her, asking what breed she was and was all surprised by her reaction to other dogs. No growling of any sorts, just polite sniffing at the usual areas. She would walk up to people and sort of ask them to pet her. I suspect.. that she may be trying her luck to get some food. Hehe. Sorry Jane (Santi's owner). She's really a greedy one!

It really irks me to see people who judges dogs by their sizes and appearances. There were some owners who immediately picked up their dogs when Santi walked over to say Hi. Its hurting to see that kind of reaction. I really just want to say.. @#*&!@#. If you are so afraid of other dogs getting near yours, don't come to a Dog Run. Just run in your living room. ZZZ. 

The crowd started coming in at 6pm as the weather cools down. We decided that it was too crowded and its time to go get some drinks. There's a bridge to walk over to Macdonald's. The jogging tracks to the bridge are quite congested with joggers, skaters and kids on roller blades. Watch your way while walking over so as not to have people tripping over your pets if they are small sized. No pets are allowed at the fast food restaurant, but there are nice resting areas facing a man-made river for those with pets. Its a nice feeling, to sit down there, enjoy the breeze and watch people fly kites in the evening. Best of all, your dogs are with you. Heavenly!

Sun's going down! Time to go home. No doubt that all three of them were happy. Just look at their smiles! 

Where should I bring them next? Any pet friendly places to intro?

Signing off,

Travis

www.pawmart.com.sg

Grooming The 6 A's

Responding to a S.O.S posting on Facebook, we went over to Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter  today and did grooming for the 6 Shih Tzus which were rescued on Monday.

Click to see the actual Facebook post

You can read about the story of the 6 doggies at the link above. To summarize it all, they were conceived in an "accident", owners were ill equipped with knowledge or didn't bother to even try to take care of them and finally the owners got complaints from their neighbors and had to give them up before AVA comes "hot on their heels". O M G ain't that classic. Just by looking at the heart wrenching pictures of the doggies you could have imagined how bad their lives were. 

Kennel 1

Kennel 2

They are now housed in window kennels at Ericsson pet farm. This two pictures were taken on the day of the rescue. Still filthy and untidy, only one of them was bathed. The rest of them had to wait for the grooming to happen before the bathing as the mats( hair tangles ) were too terrible. Bathing a dog with mats only worsens the state of the tangle, and may even be harder to take them out during grooming.

It was already Day 3 at the shelter when we managed to go over. Hilda and Irene were there to greet us. Greetings exchanged and no time was wasted. I set up shop to start the grooming. 

The first boy, Astro, arrives... Thought I've seen it all. Not so now. Smell was pungent, and the worst was I couldn't make out where the eyes were. Turned out that they were behind this thick layer of eye goo with hair. 

An hour later, Astro saw the world clearly for the first time. Too bad the first thing he saw was my ugly face. Hah. Nothing like a walk in the sun after bathing. I thought I saw a smile on his face from the picture above.

Then came the next boy, Austin. For a moment I thought that the Flintstones were in the house.

WHAT IS THAT?! He really looked like a caveman. Or cave dog. Never mind, I'll fix that bad hairdo for you buddy. An hour elapsed and he came out nice and clean. Looked way handsome now.

If I featured all of them this blog post will have spanned 2 pages. I would just show you guys the ones that really swept me off my feet, with their bad hairdo.

This boy here was the last one I tidied up. He had the worst mats I've seen thus far, in my time as a groomer. Picture a reggae hairstyle on a dog's face. That's what you will see.

This boy here didn't like grooming at all. And he's the strongest of the siblings. Struggled like a fish out of water. He was also especially terrified of the buzzing sound from the shaver. It took three of us to pin him down and a whole lot of coaxing to finally remove that bad hairdo. 

An hour later, a runway success is born. Looking all cool, macho and hairless. Managed to keep a bit of manly hair on his face, minus the bad reggae mats. 

After a good five hours of hard work, a happy ending for the 6 A's, for now. Look at the before and after photos.

Average time taken was 1 hour per dog. They were unfamiliar to grooming and thus very hard to control. Luckily I had Irene and Hilda taking turns to hold them in place to speed things up. They also did the bathing for the doggies. Kudos to the two of them. I believe not everyone would be brave enough to touch them. A pity that my hands were too busy to take photos of the two heroines of the day. 

Due to the time constraints I could only give each of them a rough shave down to ease their discomforts. I would be going again this Friday to do a final touch up for them. 

Personally, today was a wonderful experience as I had always wanted to participate in social work for animals. Thank you Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter for this opportunity to use the skills I've learnt for a good cause. Meanwhile, the Team at PawMart would be praying for the 6 A's , Amos, Archie, Austin, Astro, Ariel and Abby, that they will finally have a real happy ending. 

That is to have a place for each of them to call "Home".

Signing off,
Travis
www.pawmart.com.sg

To know more about Uncle Khoe's K9 Shelter, please visit https://www.facebook.com/johnny.khoe.5
and their blog at http://www.unclekhoe.blogspot.sg/

Visits to AVA Sembawang Animal Quarantine Station (SAQS)

Just last week, we received a text from one of our clients that she's coming back from Korea after a 1 year stint there. We were elated to hear that, and best of all, her cats are coming back too! Missed them much this whole year!

So Sesame and Mustard are coming back by plane, a week before Tina touches down into SG. We were contacted by her to visit her two precious while they were quarantined at SAQS. As most of us would already know, pets imported back into SG are to be quarantined for 30 days at the station. Sometimes I really wonder what's the fuss about it. But protocols being protocols, we have no choice but to abide.  

It was our first time there, despite living so near the station (10 mins drive). Tales we've heard about AVA before were anything but bad. So prior to stepping into the Station, I've imagined it to be a run down, dirty place with dogs howling and cats growling. Plus unfriendly and grumpy staffs.

To our pleasant surprise, we were quite impressed with the station. On the outside, it was clean, green and serene. The front desk staffs were friendly like your good old neighbor. They even guided us to the cat kennels because it was our first time there. While walking we were reminded on some house rules such as no touching or disturbing of other cats.

So let us describe abit on the cat kennels. Sesame and Mustard were bunked in at the air conditioned kennel. Now, as we entered the cat kennel, we were even more in awe. The air conditioning was comfortable, set at 24 degrees. From the entrance, you can already see that the kennels were clean and dry. There were cat litter boxes for them, food and drink bowls placed tidily at the corners. You would still encounter the usual cat scent while inside, but it was almost negligible. And best of all, there was radio broadcast for them. Seemed like a better life than ours!

And finally, we were so happy to see Sesame and Mustard looking good, like they were before. When we saw them on the first day, they were clearly stressed out. Most probably by the long flight back. Guessed it was normal. The two of them were hissing and growling at us, fearing that we would be taking them to another flight I suppose. To appease them, we even asked Tina to do a recording of her voice and played it for the cats. They came out of their carriers and started looking around for the source. How sweet was that! They really do missed their owner bad.

On Day 2, they came straight out to look for Kelly, asking for rubs and some petting. A tremendous improvement from Day 1, we thought. Though the Station provides the dry food for them, Tina also requested us to feed them with their usual diet of Fussie Cat canned food and Wellness dry food. At least the hissing and growling has stopped. 

By Day 3 they were already accustomed to us coming into the kennel, fighting for our attention (or just simply looking for food ?). Got to put on some clothes for them just in case they were feeling cold. 

Day 4: They were already at the windows waiting for us to come. A pity that SAQS is closed for visits on Sundays, another rule that I can't make any sense of. 

(Sunday =  Family day, but you can't visit your family? Rubbish.)

We took the chance to visit the other areas of the station. There were grass patches for dog owners to walk their dogs and to have some outdoor play. Grass patches were trimmed and the dogs were enjoying their timeout.

We've heard from friends who brought their pets back from overseas that their pets had a total change of character after their stay at SAQS. From this 4 days of visits, we can safely say that the effects from the stress created by the flight back and quarantine period would be greatly reduced if the pets were given enough human interactions.A little human touch goes a long way to healing your pets from this stressful transition. 

On our way out from the office, we saw a wall of "Thank You" cards written by the pet owners. Looking at the amount of thank you's on the wall, it gives us more confidence that Sesame and Mustard will be well taken care of during their stay. 3 weeks more to go for them!



Signing off,
Travis
www.pawmart.com.sg

A Lunch @ Sun Ray Cafe

Finally, the haze has gone down and its time to bring the fur kids out today! We were at Sun Ray Cafe at Serangoon Gardens.

Its located at a row of shop houses, and parking was terrible at the front. For those driving, you might need to go further down and park along the road. We managed to park along the streets of private housings in the end. Just a short walk before our lunch!

Peanut and Sasha's day out

The cafe is well furnished and cozy in a sense. There's even a piano in the restaurant! Ambiance was great and it felt like a good place for an afternoon tea break. They have separate areas for customers with animals. Dogs were free to roam the restaurant, so be prepared for lots of barking and growling at the start. 

Orders were taken by a friendly staff, who didn't shun our two barky rascals. The food pricing is of those pasta restaurants, with Cabonaras at $12.90, Risottos at $18.90. No worries though, there are 3 course set meals at prices of $20 +  for 2 persons. Comes with soups, drinks and main courses. Do order that if you guys visit. So in the end, we spent $30 + for a lunch for two humans and two dogs. That's quite a good deal, considering that you can bring your pets there, air conditioned dining, and of course, nice food.

Risotto @ Sun Ray Cafe

Broccoli soup @ Sun Ray Cafe

Munching off boiled salmon

You can also order food like boiled salmon or chicken for your furkids at $5 to $6. Looked yummy to us, but Peanut and Sasha shall be the judges.

 After a good meal, its time to go home again. Seems like Peanut is ever ready! Go Go Go!

Time to go home!

And that's all we have for this week. Thank you for reading!

The Team,

www.pawmart.com.sg