YOGYAKARTA – Lovers of cats in Yogyakarta participate in the cat festival, the 1st Anniversary Jogja Cat Carnival (JCC), at the UGM University Club (UC), Saturday (19/3). The activities initiated by the UGM Pet Study Group (KSHK) Faculty of Veterinary Medicine includes a number of contests, fashion shows, eating competitions, plumpness contest, free vaccination, and seminars on how to look after and train the pet cat. Various breeds were competed in the two-day cat festival, including Angora, Persian, Scottish, Bengal, Sphinx, and Maine coon.
Chairman of KSHK, Okky Rahmat, said this festival is a forum to exchange information between cat lovers in Yogyakarta. Having pet cats has become a lifestyle, thus people need to share information and experiences with other cat lovers. "Providing information to the public on how to protect and treat pets well, because we also see many stray cats on the streets that are not looked after," said Okky who was met on the sidelines of the event.
Coordinator of the event, Darliana Surbakti, said that for the first JCC anniversary celebration activities was followed by 80 participants from cat lover community members. "In Yogya, there are two cat lovers communities. For now, the JCC has 200 more members who always communicate through Twitter," he said.
Yesika (23), one of the members of the cat lover community, admitted to purposely come to the JCC to check her Angora’s health that has been in the age of 4.5 months. "I came for the vaccination, not for the contest," said Yesika who has the cat in her boarding house. Her love for the cat has started since her childhood. In addition to being cute, cat fur is the particular attraction for Yesika. "Cats are cute and have cute feathers, too," she said.
The girl who has just graduated is hoping events like this are routinely conducted as a forum to increase knowledge about health maintenance of cat.
Prof. Dr. drh. Ida Tjahajati said maintenance and treatment of cat is not an easy job, especially in terms of maintenance, including feeding, vaccinations, and grooming. She said that pet consultancy should not be done in animal hospitals only, but also in private practice veterinarians and veterinary clinics. "We recommend that consultation is not only done when the animal is sick, but also when the animals are healthy, too," said Director of Prof. Soeparwi Animal Hospital in the Seminar of the Handling of Bacteria and Virus Disease in Cats.
On that occasion, Ida also announced some diseases in cats that need to be aware of and get serious treatment from veterinarians, among others are Feline rhinotracheitis, feline panleukopenia, feline calicivirus, and rabies.