Pet project: Students and pets strut their stuff at FC College

Earth Watch Club received more than 100 requests for registration this year.

LAHORE:

Raucous caws, meows, and neighs rang throughout the university ground of Forman Christian College, which held its fifth annual pet show on Monday. More than 35 species of dogs, cats, birds and horses paraded through the ground.

The event was organised by Earth Watch Club. Mostly students and their families attended it.

Tahir Rehman, president of the club, said “We received more than 100 requests for registration this year. Most of the entries were for the dog show.” There were several categories for the best kept pet competition.



While mostly Labradors and German shepherds prowled the vicinity, beautiful Rottweiler’s, old English mastiffs, boxers, bulldogs, kuchis, great Danes and Maltese featured too.

The dogs were paraded in front of the audience in several sessions before the jury announced the winners.

Haider Kamran had a reason to be happy and proud. All three of his dogs – Bruno, Buddy and Nancy – won in the old English mastiff, great Dane and Rottweiler categories, respectively.

“This is not the first time my dogs have made it to the victory stand,” Kamran said, pampering and attending to his giant dogs in a tent set up near the ring. He was at the event with his brother Ali Haider.

“We had earlier participated in dog shows at Bahria Town, Race Course Park and the Expo Centre,” Haider said. “These dogs are like family. We take care of them ourselves.”

Going into detail about how he takes care of his dogs, Haider said, dogs can be ferocious at times. “You have to get along with them, pamper them and be in sync with them to ensure strong bonding.”

However, Haider, like several other participants at the contest, said he was not happy with the arrangements.

“Instead of setting up huge tents, the management should have arranged separate corners for each of the participating dogs. Some of the dogs got into fights with each other amid chaos all around,” he said.

Zeus, a Kuchi, owned by Syed Komail, was declared winner in the category. “Zeus has come all the way from a village near Faisalabad to compete. We feed him eight kilograms of minced meat daily,” Komail, a student of FC Humanities Department, said. Komail said he had a battery of workers to look after his dogs.

Qasim Mustafa’s Dango was declared the best Maltese. Awards for best kept boxer, bulldog, German shepherd and Labrador dogs went to Idrees Khan, Habibur Rehman, Uzair and Junaid, respectively.

Two horses at the show strutted along the stretch of the university ground.

Boy, a red-naped falcon owned by Munib Ahmad, was the centre of attention in the bird’s category. Ahmad said he fed his nine-month-old falcon chicken and pigeon meat. “Boy has such an attitude. I have to spend at least two hours a day with him to keep him upbeat.” Urooba Asif, a student of BSc Hons, introduced her cat Aurora who won the award for best kept Persian cat.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2015.