| Azaraimy HH |
CAT rearing is regaining popularity in Brunei, especially exotic breeds, although the costs of good up-keeping and vete-rinary needs are not as cheap as before. For cat lovers, especially those who own several cats, spending few hundred dollars a month is normal.
It is indeed a costly affair nowadays, but that does not stop people from owning cats. One owner, Nur Khaliesah Bazilah binti Haji Mohd Salleh, in an interview with the media during a recent cat show said she currently owns a total of 61 cats of both domestic (local) and exotic (foreign) breeds.
She possesses seven breeds of cats, among them were Norwegian Forest, Exotic Short Hair, Persian, Domestic Long Hair and Domestic Short Hair.
According to her, her fond-ness of cats began when she was in a sixth form centre. She said that sometimes keeping cats is easy and sometimes it’s hard, especially when the cat is infected and can incur costs in terms of medication and intensive care, which can reach around $1,000.
For her, when any of her cats becomes sick, she will first try to attend to it herself for a few days by buying over the counter medicine, but if the sickness continues, she will bring the cat to see a vet.
Nur Khaliesah Bazilah binti Haji Mohd Salleh poses for a photo with her cat
Her advice for people who just started to rear cats was that for them to start with the domestic (local) cats before going for different breeds and to keep a healthy cat, one must look after its food and upkeep (such as cleaning and grooming), as well as their living/sleeping quarters.
She said one can easily buy a cat of exotic breed from locals who breed them or import them from other countries.
There are differences in taking care of a certain type of cat to another, for example, when rearing long-haired cats, they must be properly bathed, shampooed and its fur needs cleaning and grooming to prevent the furs from becoming entangled or damaged.
One of the cat show organiser, Siti Noriah binti Haji Mohd Buhari from Sarah Sanisah Enterprise, said that the cat show will provide information and knowledge sharing on taking care of cats and keeping them.
She organised several cat shows recently, which included a Cat Exhibition at the Mechanical Training Centre in Tungku, Pusat Insani Seria Mega Fair on March 24-27 and during the Brunei Food Festival at the Indoor Stadium on March 28 and 29.
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