31/10/2017
Kakato Scholarship 2017 Oct‘s Diary

Six newborn kittens!  They were picked up by a senior’s roommate, the senior took care of them and I learned from the side.  They were only a few days old when we picked them up, eyes still unopened, and needed to be bottle-fed.  I was overwhelmed the first time I did the feeding and was kept reminded by the seniors to put in the feeder from the corner of their mouths and hold their heads still.  It was a wonderful experience for me because I have never handled any kittens.  I never knew kittens sucked like human babies, and it was so lovely.

Newborn kittens should be fed 6-8 times a day with 2-3 hours intervals, apart from eating and sleeping, what they did was meowing.

Since kittens could not adjust their own body temperature like adult cats, they easily lost their body warmth, so they needed to be kept warm in the first few weeks of their lives.  To provide such an environment, we were taught by the senior to put warm water into rubber gloves, tight them up and then put them under towels to make a warm bed.

— Chau Sin Lee

There were already exams this month so I was very busy. There was no time to rest because more mid-term tests are coming in November. In this semester we have to study parasitology which is a course I am interested in because it is closely related to the practical aspects. Also, there were a number of football competitions and our team got second place with a few victories and one defeat. The defeat allowed me to realize the problems of our team in terms of basic skills and advanced strategies. I hope that I could have time to undergo training with my teammates in that aspect. What worried me more is that not many students are interested in football so there is a shortage of substitute players. Since many of them are going to be promoted to Year 5 next year, I am concerned about whether we can have enough players to play next year when I will be the captain. 

Yeu Ernest

Time flies. It has been two months since I came to Taiwan. The campus life in Taiwan is totally different compared to that in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I have never thought of being able to transport by bike, and by no means would I imagine there would be 10 courses to be taken in a semester. In the past, my major was economics and finance which mainly focuses on graphs and mathematics, and I almost didn’t have to memorize anything. However, veterinary medicine put heavy emphasis on memorizing a sea of unfamiliar words in a short period. Hence, under such a completely new learning environment and mode, it is undeniable that I found it hard to adapt to it at the beginning. However, after these two months, I started to get used to the learning skills gradually. Last but not least, I sincerely hope that I can keep improving, and make good use of what I have acquired here.

Lau Wun Lam