A few months ago, a friend of mine who also
has a cat was looking for a good vet in her neighbourhood to get him spayed. I
would have—and did—offer my excellent vet, but she wanted to stay closer to
home so transporting him around wouldn’t be such an issue. (Have you ever
driven in a car with a cat? It defines Einstein’s theory of relativity. Even a
short two kilometer drive feels like it’s been going on for three hours.)
Asking on Facebook seemed to be the best
idea, but all the animal activist groups I belonged to were all dogs all the
time. Now, I have nothing against dogs. Perfectly fine animals in their own
way—and very nice pets if you’re looking for children who will never grow up
and never be able to fetch you a nice cold vodka tonic should you need one.
What a difference from the rest of the world where cats are not only the most
popular household pet there is, but also have forums devoted to each particular
disease they can get. I decided then to start my own Facebook group for people
like my friend and I and call it Fans Of Cats, Delhi. The first question? Who
is the best cat vet in the city?
Since that time, Fans of Cats has grown.
Not very significantly, I still know more dog owners than cat ones, and still,
in my own particular group of friends, know more people without furry friends
than ones who have made the commitment, but the 65 member strong group has a
lively discussion almost every morning on everything from how to cook chicken
and fish the best possible way for cats (they can’t digest carbohydrates very
well, so you have to make sure they’re getting the right amount of vitamins
from chicken, that makers of dry cat food already add to it) to kitten
adoptions, to people looking for pet sitters while they are away on holiday. I
myself use it as an invaluable resource, collating information from cat owners
across the city to help with behavioral problems, messed up medical exams and
more. With three cats, I find myself both offering and asking for advice more
regularly on this forum than I do anywhere else on Facebook.
The Facebook group is not a beautiful
thing, like say, the Facebook page. In terms of design, it stays strictly old
school: a picture on top, a description on the side bar, and rotating posts by
group members. However, it is the easiest way to see and search for information
in this age of almost too much information. The Facebook group Eat Treat, for
example, a community of foodies that writes reviews and talks about food,
recently received funding to the tune of $350,000 to turn the community-based
group into a fully fledged website. The website called Eattreatonline (a bit of
a mouthful, no pun intended) will offer vaguely food, fashion, home chefs and
other such trendy things.
But perhaps because the Facebook group is
so unbeautiful, advertisers are not jumping on it as much as they should be.
And they really should. Your average popular group usually has tens of
thousands of very engaged, very active members, more than you can say about the
most well-liked Facebook page, where users can “like” the content but may not
contribute to the active discussion. Occasionally, a savvy group creator will
turn this around to their advantage, at another food group called Gourmet
Planet, for instance, the founding member organizes meals at fancy restaurants
where members can pay a fixed sum for a prix fixe menu. Or, in another group
meant for real estate in Goa, the moderator earns a commission on each house
rented out through the group. It’s a clever way to be, because it doesn’t
require you to actually do any extra work, seeing as your community will do
that for you. If you get lucky, and popular enough, you can use it for good.
Meanwhile, on Fans of Cats I’m feeling
happy because a first time kitten owner has just posted an update. He had been
feeding his kitten milk and she was listless and weak. The group told him cats
are lactose intolerant, and to shift her to another diet with more protein. His
kitty is now bright eyed and bushy tailed, leaping in the garden, and “it’s all
thanks to some of the members of Fans of Cats,” he said.
That’s almost worth $350,000, I think.
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Gratuitous Lord Squishington photo. ("We're still getting the paper???") |
(A version of this appeared as my column on mydigitalfc.com)
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