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The story behind Deanna and the Railway Cats

I was happy that the Sunday Times finally published my story "Deanna and the Railway Cats" yesterday. Many thanks to the National Arts Council (NAC) for making it happen.

Just thought I'd give a little background to the story. It was inspired the closing of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and the plight of the many cats whose lived in the station. I wished that I could have done something for the cats, but by the time I found out, the cats were already well taken care of by the Cat Welfare society. See http://www.catwelfare.org/node/4906

As a cat lover and proud owner of three adorable Singapore cats, I thought the least I could do was write a story inspired by these railway cats. I knew that many cat owners named their cats based on the colours of their fur, and favourite coffee shop drinks. So I named the cats Alia (ginger), Teh (brown) and Kopi-O (black) roughly based on the colouring of my own cats. Too bad ST had not picked up on this and got the illustrator to reflect this in his accompanying picture.

I hope that the story encourages children to have positive feelings about cats, and to think about their welfare. I know there are many children who love cats, as well as children (and adults!) who are terrified of them. For me, there can never be too few stories about cats!

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