Bouncer, Oh Bouncer...!!!

I had mentioned Bouncer in one of my earlier posts last year. We found him badly injured and taking refuge in my porch, when I returned to KL after a few weeks in Kampung late August 2007. He was skinny, smelly, with swollen jaw, eye and a big hole under his chin which had pus oozing out. One of his incisor teeth was chipped. We could not figure out what might have happened to him but felt sorry for him. I sent him to the Vet where he was nursed for 18 days as he was severely dehydratee and it seems his liver was not functioning well because his ears and the whites of his eyes were YELLOW!


He was perfectly fine after that, albeit very weak and required a few more weeks of recuperating at home. He had to be caged as his liver infection may be passed on to the other cats. He was also on some medication for almost 3 weeks which I had to administer with difficulty as his jaw was still mending and it wasn't easy to chuck in the tablets. Besides, the hole in his lower jaw went through his mouth. You could put cotton wool under his jaw and see it from inside his lower mouth!


Poor Bouncer...we didn't know how he came to appear at my house or where he came from. He was very weak but we can tell that he is a "manja" cat. He must have a human owner, surely. Either he was dumped nearby due to his injury or perhaps he had wandered from his human and got into a brawl, and hence the injury. Whatever, we decided to adopt him until his owner comes looking. We called him "Bouncer" as he looks like one, tough shoulders, big neck and despite being ill, eats tons! When he was at the Vet's, he refused to eat and drink, so he was put on a drip. I had to come by EVERYDAY to make him eat ( which he did happily - he lapped up his food while I was around).

Bouncer is a cat who thinks he is a guard dog and really lives up to his name. He used to just sit up on all fours guarding the front porch and hardly leaves the house. Whenever I am back from an outing, he would be on guard at the porch and acknowledges my return with a meow and gently rubs his head against my feet. He gets stepped on sometimes ( well, a lot actually) because I move around like a storm. He puts on a deep growl if an outside cat tries to sneak in, just like a guard dog.

When his strength grows and he puts on weight, he was more confident and started to chase the outside cats to wherever their points of origins were. Sometimes he comes back , sometimes he doesn't. That is fine with me as I was hoping he might remember where he used to live and find his must-now-be-so-frantic human owner. But thankfully, he comes back always, even though sometimes we don't get to see him for a few days . Once he was missing for about 5 days and I had felt quite sad that he might have found his owner and I won't get to see his pathetic though cute face again.

Most recently he came back with lots of "battle wounds". His ears were badly scratched, he lost his (3rd!) collar , deep gashes all over his body and really bad bite marks on one of his forelegs. He might have been entangled in a fight with a dog or maybe another fierce cat. It must have been a bad fight because he stayed home for days due to exhaustion. The gaping wounds didn't help as it must be painful for him to move around.

The photo below shows Bouncer today, still trying to recover from his wounds. It was just about to heal a few days ago when he decided to go on patrol again, and of course, he came home with his wounds refreshed and bleeding plus a few new scratches. I now keep him indoors in the day time and cage him outside at night. At least until the wound heals. He is on antibiotics and we have to clean his wound daily.


I make him sleep on an old armchair in the house. Look at how terrible that wound is - very smelly too. The wound on the underside of the same foreleg looks worse but he wouldn't let me photograph it.

This is Bouncer when he was discharged from the Vet's in August last year(when we sent him in to be treated for his liver ailment). He was rather skinny then and did not have a collar. He wears one now so that no one will treat him as a stray but with "respect".... I have heard of cruel folks who set their dogs after stray cats, and I don't want anyone to think he is a stray-stray.

Pawtrait of Bouncer just before he got caught up in the brawls. He is wearing a collar which is hidden under his multi layered chins. I am not sure what his breed is but that is okay since I am not particular about that. He looks like a British shorthair with traces of Bengal ( he has spots on his torso) and his head and neck is disproportionately big compared to the rest of his body.

His eyes are green on yellow, with one eye probably blind. His face is "flat-ish" like a Pekinese dog or Persian cat, so he has a problem feeding as his entire face rubs the feeding bowl. Unlike my other cats who have no problem licking food from a bowl and able to keep their faces clean!

Well, whatever....today we fed Bouncer freshly minced raw chicken liver with a touch of ginger, garlic and turmeric per the health-giving recipe that I picked up recently. If it is good for me, then it should be good for Bouncer, who needs all the nutrients to heal his battle wounds....

Stay cool, Bouncer. And stay indoors!! For now at least.