New Cats On The Blog

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

Less than a week, I flew to Kuching as Sarawak Cat Club is having their very first CFA International show held on 20th December 2008 at Kuching Civic Centre. Congratulations to Dr. Huey Lee, President of Sarawak Cat Club and her team for their effort of affiliating one of the pioneer cat club in Malaysia with an international cat association, The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA).

Sarawak Cat Club and the show committee of Cat Friends of Asia-II Show had been working together to make both shows a success. Cat-City International Show 2008 had caused many people excited till some cat fanciers (so to speak) started poking their fingers into it with thousand and one questions even before the Show Manager had announced it.

Kudos to Dr. Huey Lee and her team for able to convince Sarawak Department of Veterinary Services to obtain quarantine waiver for cats coming from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and other Asian countries after one man had failed in his attempt. This shows the determination that Dr. Huey Lee has for the betterment of the cat fancy in Sarawak.

Just to enlighten some of my readers and to avoid any misunderstanding, Malaysia consists of 14 states which includes the state of Sarawak and Sabah. The reason I highlighted here is that many foreign exhibitors had been confused that Sabah and Sarawak is actually another independent country (named Borneo).

Sarawak Cat Club’s inaugural show had opened the eyes of local exhibitors, educating them about pedigree cats; being some of them had never seen breeds like Korat, American Shorthair, Sphynx, Abyssinian and Javanese. We have a few CFA Ambassadors during this show and many thanks to Puan Zamina Zainal Ariffin and Adilah Roose from Malaysia, Rachaphol from Thailand and Vera Chan from Hong Kong for educating local exhibitors and the public about CFA. Thanks to Phebe Low, Ambassador Program Regional Coordinator for Asia/Latin-America for the Ambassador banners and leaflets. Thanks to Mr. Bob Zenda for conducting the CFA Clerking School in Kuching as well.

In this show, I play my role as the Entry Clerk where I received entry forms from all exhibitors and process their entries, Chief Ring Clerk for Judge Cheryl Pollock as well as exhibitor who shows 2 cats.

Above: The 4 distinguished judges, ring clerks and show committee

Above: Stormy, my blue European Burmese and Molly, my black Maine Coon resting in their cage.

Above: Stormy got 9th Best Premiership Cat in Jan Roger’s ring

Above: Molly got 10th Best Premiership Cat and Best Longhair Premier in Jan Roger’s ring

Above: Memorable picture taken with Wain Harding and Brad after the show

Above: Me and Cheryl Pollock

Above: Me and Bob Zenda

Above: Me and Jan Rogers

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Huey Lee for giving me the trust and confidence negotiating with Royal Canin for their support in this historic show; Head of Veterinarian, Dr. Chin, Senior Veterinarian, Dr. Chia for their undivided support in Sarawak Cat Club’s inaugural show; Samudra Court staffs for their great hospitality and not forgetting all exhibitors for the success of this show.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all….

For more info about Cat-City International Cat Show 2008, please visit Sarawak Cat Club website

Just 2 weeks after the Indonesia show, Cat Friends of Asia-II Show was held on 14th December at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya. This 4-ring show was organized by Astaka Management and I was the Assistant Show Manager. The judges that we had invited were Cheryl Pollock from Australia, Bob Zenda, Jan Rogers and Wain Harding where all three of them were from the US. Intially, we had invited Pam Delabar, the President of CFA but she had cancelled her judging contract just 3 weeks before show day. This had upset my entire working committee and not forgetting the amount of money that had spent but instead of crying over spilt (bad) milk, we were very fortunate that we able to find a replacement judge in such a short notice and many thanks to Cheryl Pollock to able to make it in our show and having her is certainly fun. For your info, Cheryl Pollock had judged in Malaysia in 2006 during the MiCatz show held in Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur.

Perhaps let me take the liberty to say this but in my opinion, as a responsible judge, he/she should not (and will not) burden a club in any way especially when it concerns monetary when they were invited to judge. It is certainly not easy for most cat clubs to raise funds to run a cat show especially an International shows. I’d observed that some judges had their own preferred airlines so that they can accumulate that extra flyer points but that is still ok as long as it doesn’t burden the club. I had also noticed that there were some had refused to fly with other than their own preferred airline although there is a cheaper alternative.

To clubs, just bare this in mind that you are paying for a judge for 1 sole purpose which is to judge. You are hiring them to perform a task and not paying for their expensive fares and wine and dine luxuriously with them. As long as the judges were provided with a reasonable place to stay with all the basic necessities, that is all that matters (read and understand CFA Show Rule : Article 26 - Judging Fees and Expenses and that is all you need to do!!) and please remember to have all written contracts what is covered and what is not during the duration of their stay to avoid any miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Anyway, back to the show, I must congratulate Puan Zamina Zainal Ariffin for being the most magnificent Show Manager I had ever work with. I must admit that there were some obstacles running this show but at the end, through her leadership and experience, we managed to run it smoothly (with some manageable minor hiccups). She did not dictate the committee and had specifically identified what roles or task each of her committee members need to do for the success of the show.

Besides being the Assistant Show Manager, I was also the CFA Ambassador manning the Ambassador booth, emcee and announcer for the show as well as coordinating with our sponsor, Royal Canin. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Royal Canin and Embellie Maine Coons Sdn Bhd for their sponsorship.

In this round, I showed my lil girl, Yelena, a brown mackerel tabby and white cat in the Household Pet category. This is Yelena’s very first time participating in a cat competition and I certainly impressed with her show temperament.

Above: Jan Rogers called upon all owners and had a short interview with them. Here am I being asked to tell the history of Yelena. Yelena’s previous owner had abandoned her when she decided to move to another location and I decided to take her in.

Above: Yelena got 6th Best Household Pet in Jan Roger’s ring

Above: Yelena got Best Household Pet in Wain Harding’s ring

Above: Yelena got 3rd Best Household Pet in Cheryl Pollock’s ring

Above: ‘Oooo look at her white furry tummy.’ said Bob Zenda. Yelena got Best Household Pet in his ring

For more details, please visit Cat Friends of Asia Show website.

Cat Fanciers Society of Indonesia or CFSI in short is having their very first 4-ring show and this biggest cat show in Jakarta, Indonesia was held from 29th-30th November. The judges for this historic show were Karen Lawrence (AB), Nancy Dodds (AB), Edward Maeda (AB) and Donna Fuller (AB). I was invited by CFSI to be one of their Ring Clerk and I am honored to be able to clerk for Karen Lawrence. She is certainly one funny lady and clerking under her is really entertaining and fun. The show was held in a shopping complex, POIN Square, approximately 35 minutes from the main city of Jakarta.

There were participants from Malaysia as well as Thailand but due to unforseen circumstances, the Thai exhibitors could not make it for the show. There were 149 cats registered in this show and I must say I am certainly impressed with the number in their second show just after 7 months from their very first.

Above: Royal Canin corner

Above: Me with the judges, VIPs, sponsors and part of the working committee

Above: I was assisting an exhibitor to show her Abyssinian kitten. He won 2nd Best Kitten in Karen Lawrence’s ring.

Above: An American Shorthair and a Siamese were also in the Kitten Finals.

Above: Me as Chief Ring Clerk whilst Tanto is my Asst Ring Clerk

Above: Karen Lawrence being interviewed by local media

Above: Malaysian exhibitors with their cats who went into the Finals in Edward Maeda’s ring

Above: Nancy Doods holding a near 8kg red tabby Maine Coon

Above: Nancy Doods showing the spectators a red Abyssinian

Above: The Malaysian red Abyssinian won Best Kitten in Nancy Doods’ ring

Above: Malaysian Siamese kitten won 4th Best in Donna Fuller’s ring

Above: Here am I posing with an exhibitor and her odd-eyes Persian

Above: On the 2nd day of the show, I was the Assistant Master Clerk as well as CFA Ambassador manning the booth

Above: The judges, working committee, Malaysian exhibitors and RC personnel

Above: At the end of the 2 days show, we had a BBQ dinner celebrating the success of the show