New Cats On The Blog

... your One-Stop about the happenings in Asian cat fancy

I had been extremely busy. This month had been destined as travelling month for me whereby I travelled almost every weekend!

Anyway, I just came back attending both the CFA Award Banquet and FFSS (Feline Fanciers Society of Singapore) show last weekend at Singapore lending my support on behalf of the Malaysian contingent (not club ok!!). It was certainly a magnificient show and I thanked the host and other fellow Malaysians that volunteered to put up such a flawless show. I will blog about them later.

What I would want to highlight today is that when I was at their show, the famous of all BYB (see here) surprisingly came for the show as well.

Sneaking at the back from me, he asked me what I had wrote in the internet? I gave him that ‘what-the-xxxx‘ look and said, ‘God gave you a pair of eyes and you don’t use them to read?‘, assuming that he was talking about an (or some articles) that I had wrote about some being unethical and unprofessional in breeding ethics. He asked me to step out of the show hall asking for a fight. Being a professional, I said there is a show going on in his country and asked him to save his 1 cent dignity as the countryman. I also told him to send my regards to his ‘play-mate‘, Rozita.

He left not long after that…. Ha!!!

P/s: In a not related issue, I wish Azhar and Rozita all the best in their forthcomings.

Bangkok…. here I come!! This was my next destination 1 week after the Singapore show. I was really excited since I had never been to Bangkok and spending 3D2N (although not long), I had spent the time there to the fullest. Nice food (especially the porks!!) and inexpensive beer (mind you since it costs 2-3 times more in Malaysia).

Anyway, CFCT short for Cat Fanciers Club of Thailand had hold a 4-ring All Breed CFA show at Bangkapi in the heart of Bangkok. The judges were Mr. Darrell Newkirk, Mr. Robert Zenda, Ms. Carla Bizzell and Ms. Wakako Nagayama and yes, I clerk in this show as well.

Special thanks to Mr. Surat to give me the oppurtunity to clerk in this show and I was under Ms. Wakako Nagayama guidance. Many had said that clerking under Waka-san is challenging and I admitted that at first but the secret of being a ring clerk is that you are suppose to work according to the judge’s needs and rhythm and not the other way around. I was there, as a ring clerk is not for the purpose of marking the flats / ribbons awarded by the judge and signing off the judges’ sheet but to make sure everything revolves in the judging ring is in order and everything went smoothly.

I certainly learned a lot when I clerk for Waka-san and she had never refuse to answer any of my queries and also gave her opinions on how to be an effective ring clerk. I asked her whether she would be interested to come back again to Malaysia to judge and she gave me a grin. Knowing the fact that Waka-san was ‘ditched’ after her judging contract was ‘conveniently’ voided by a club, I assured her that I am speaking to her on a personal level basis and not representing any clubs and she replied she will think about it. (Arigato gozaimasu, Waka-san!!)

Above: Benching area

Above: The crowd taking picture of a young Maine Coon

Above: The Thailand Prime Minister officiating the show

In the end, I had finally finished all of my clerking assignments as required by CFA and hopefully I will be a certified license CFA Ring Clerk soon. Hooray……

Since I was in Singapore to attend the CFA Asia Award Banquet, I took the oppurtunity to attend Feline Fanciers Society of Singapore’s show which was held at The Chevrons. Furthermore, I need to complete my assignments in order to be a licensed Ring Clerk (which I was denied such oppurtunity in my home country!!!). I was given the chance to clerk under All Breed judge from the United States, Ms. Carla Bizzell. It was Ms. Bizzell first visit to Singapore and she is a very attractive, jovial and a kind person.

The show hall was very conducive with soft music playing in the background that soothes not just the exhibitors, cats but also the crowd. The show had managed to attract a reasonable crowd. What is unique in this show is that for the first time, they had a CFA Ambassador booth manned by Ms. Phebe Low who came all the way from Hong Kong to promote CFA spirits to the public. (Well done, Phebe!!)

Here are some of the pictures taken during the show.

Above: The crowd

Above: CFA Juniorshowmanship

Above: I saw this cute lil girl walking around the show hall with her cat on leash and I had asked her to post with her cat.

I had missed the last CFA International Award Banquet last year which was held in Kuala Lumpur and I am not going to miss it this round.

This prestigious ceremony is in celebration to all cats and their owners of their outstanding achievements getting into the Divisional Winner list. Cat owners from as far as Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia had gathered in Singapore where the award was held.

I would like to stress that prior to the event, it is just a shame to some individuals who had publicly announced to boycott this event which really shows how low their mentality were and the so called un-sportsmanship they had become.

The event had been attended by close to 100 guests and Feline Fanciers Society of Singapore had been proud to organize such an event flawlessly. The emcee of the night is a no unknown figure to the cat fancy in the International Division whom is also the owner of a famous cattery in Malaysia called Masmera belongs to Miss Adilah K. Roose aka Abymummy.

The event was started with the arrival of distinguished guests; Mr. Darrell Newkirk, Chairperson of International Division, Mr. Robert Zenda, Far East (except Japan) Liason Chairperson, Ms. Carla Bizzell, Ms. Yaeko Takano and Mr. Wilson Ng, International Division Repesentative. Mr. Newkirk, Mr. Zenda and Ms. Bizzell were from the United States, Ms. Takano was from Japan and Mr. Ng was our proud Malaysian were escorted with traditional lion dance into the ballroom.

The event was down to a moment of emotion by Ms. Chloe Chung from Hong Kong whom was declared as the very first Asian to have campaigning her cat and achieved the National Winner title for her blue British Shorthair, GC BW NW CASTLKATZ PEEVES OF CHLOEADORES. Holding on to her tears, Ms. Chung had related her experience during the course of her campaign and how she had met some new breeders whom had helped her and show that there were people whom is not selfish in knowledge sharing in the cat fancy.

I was honored to be part of the event and I had the opportunity to meet some new foreign friends. Some of my known foreign friends were there and they had privately congratulate me on some of my write ups in my blog which had been an eye-opener for the cat fancy people in this region. They gave me their support in continuing to contribute ideas or discussing matters for the betterment of the cat fancy.

Here are some of the pictures taken during the event.

Above: Me and Puan Zamina Ariffin, owner of an European Burmese Maz Esemais Velvet Paws, 9th Best Cat in CFA Asia / Latin-America Divisional Winner.

Above: Mr. Wilson Ng, CFA International Division Representative with a fellow Malaysian delegate

Above: Miss Adilah Roose as emcee for the event.

Above: Mr. Felix Yeo, President of Feline Fanciers Society of Singapore giving his speech

Again, congratulations to Feline Fanciers Society of Singapore to host such an extravaganza event.