My Cat Is Up For Adoption

*** UPDATE *** 04/02/2011 Kasey has been adopted by a friend. His new home is nicer than I could have ever imagined. I'm happy. :-)

I'm moving out of Singapore and I'm looking for a friendly place where I can put up Kasey, my adorable little kitty cat, and best friend forever.

Kasey can also be KC, short for Kitty Cat. Very clever, yes?

Kasey is a tabby-white domestic shorthair (shorthairs are convenient as indoor cats because they don't get furballs in their throats as much). He's a rescue kitty, I found him as a week-old, malnourished little kitten near Eunos MRT in May 2009. I had no intention of adopting a cat, but I wasn't confident he'd survive if I let him back out on the streets, so I took him in.

He's very friendly and playful, but is also super-shy and easily scared. He's had all his shots, he's been spayed, and he's fully potty-trained. In my 2 years of knowing him, he has never vomitted, sprayed, or done anything overtly disgusting or spiteful, except when he is under the severest of stress.

At about 2 years old now, he's really just a very awesome cat with a gentle soul and heaps of personality, and I'm sad to have to leave him behind.

Kasey is about 2 years old.

I've been training him to poop and pee into a toilet (like in the movies, yes!). He's very far along in his training and he's just a few stages away from completing it. So if you're interested but are finding that you don't have space for a litter box, he's almost there in not needing one (and all the germs, maintenance, and expense that a litter box comes with). Once his training is complete, all you have to do is flush twice a day, and scrub your toilet bowl a bit more frequently than you normally would. Very low-maintenance, ideal for apartments and condos.

I'd love to take him with me to see the world, but as a working bachelor who travels frequently, I think Kasey would do well in an environment with more stimuli, and a pet human who is around a bit more to do his kitty bidding.

I always wanted to keep a cat since I was a child, but never did as my mom was a firm believer that animals belong outside the house, and not inside. Keeping a cat, though, is a big responsibility as I have discovered. It needs patience, and lots of love, and is by no means easy. You need to be kind and loving, but also firm and at times strict and unforgiving to establish rules and boundaries that cannot be crossed.

For example, we have no scratch poles in our apartment, but there is some furniture that is old enough that me and my flat-mates don't care if he scratches them. Kasey has spent more than a year sleeping within kitty-arm distance of my PVC leather computer chair, and hasn't scratched it, but has been scratching with particular glee my flat-mate's bed frame, and our old mattresses set up in the living room as an impromptu sitting area. To establish that kind of an understanding between you and an animal, you need to serve up a proper balance of love and approval, and discipline and firmness.

Discipline! Discipline is the thing! Builds character, and all
that sort of thing, you know?

I'm going to miss him a lot, but I'd like to know that he's having fun wherever he is, making new friends, and living life to the fullest.

If you're interested, please e-mail me at iftekharul dot haque at gmail dot com.

Cricket Spot-Fixing Trio Should Face Maximum Penalty, If Found Guilty

If Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammed Asif, and Mohammed Amir are found guilty by the ICC of spot-fixing, I believe they should face the maximum penalty of a lifelong ban.

Mohammed Amir, a particularly talented young man, is attempting to make a plea that he is young (18 years old) and has no prior disciplinary record, and should be let off easy. This plea has a lot of support from both Pakistanis and non-Pakistanis, as Amir's magnificent bowling is a match-winner for a deteriorating Pakistani cricket team at the highest levels of the game, and at 18 years of age with 51 Test scalps to his name, this young man is a legend in the making.

As much as Mr. Amir is an asset to the game, I feel leniency by the ICC would be entirely inappropriate if indeed wrongdoing is established. Competing at the international level, the apex of the game, comes with perks and responsibilities, neither of which are mitigated by a tenderness of age.

Pakistan recently demolished New Zealand by 10 wickets in a Test match at Hamilton, bowling the hosts out twice in 3 days, and finding time to put up a very respectable 388 runs in between. Beset by controversy and chronic structural problems in Pakistan Cricket, the team continues to punch above its weight category in the international arena, and the country seems to be drawing from a fairly rich pool of talent (see article). These cricketers will be replaced soon enough by new, hopefully more ethically compliant, athletes.

This is the first corruption case to be handled by the newly assembled, centralized anti-corruption apparatus of the ICC. A clear message should be sent, both to players and to spectators, that corruption, however small, will not be tolerated from anyone, however young and promising.

A verdict is expected later today.

***Update*** They've deferred judgement to the 5th of February. Anti-climactic, but wholly appropriate that they want to give the issue full consideration before considering an outcome.

Looking Back, Starting Again

Looking back on this blog, more than 6 years after my first blog post, I flirted with the idea of jettisoning this baggage of the past and starting a new blog.

A new blog, for a new sense of purpose, and a new sense of myself in the world. One in which I took myself a little less seriously, and perhaps didn't impose a sleep-inducing 2,000-word minimum to merely state the obvious.

The temptation to delete everything and start anew is one I've decided not to flirt with any longer, though. It's the temptation of the idealistic perfectionist, and though both qualities are to be celebrated, neither are to be humored for too long. This blog, in all its rambling rhetoric, and self-absorbed glory, is me. It plots my course, as a confused, idealistic nativist, to an equally confused working professional with way too much time on his hands.

I think this journey should continue. Let's see where it goes.