Hello Kitty!

Boy, there was some hullabaloo at my workplace this morning! There was a kitten loitering around so someone warned zoophobic Candy (Candy is a pseudonym to protect the identity of my colleague) who in particular has ailurophobia (fear of cats) and cynophobia (fear of dogs). she squirmed, "yee... got cat!" we had to gather at some place and i told her, "don't worry, i will protect u" so we walked towards that place and on the way saw a group of people looking at a kitten crouched in the cavity of the stair railings on level 2.5 and i immediately forgot my promise to Candy, bent down, cooed, "so cute!" and tried to stroke it because i wanted to catch it to give to liang tong, another colleague, who happens to be the president of cat welfare society (singapore) but i think it was startled and darted up past Candy towards our office in a flash! Candy let out a shriek and i exclaimed "gosh! it ran so fast! didn't manage to catch it" Candy stood there frozen and she cried, "ni wei shen me yao qu zhua ta?" and scooted down the stairs to the group and started sobbing, "her... her... her... her...." i was stunned *oh no, did i just make my colleague cry* "boo hoo hoo...." she burst into tears and i felt so bleddy bad... we tried to calm her down but she just kept sobbing... i hugged her... no use, stroked her arms.... no use, hugged her again.... still boo hoo.... then Pauline who saw the whole saga came over and said in her usual stern voice, "bring her back to the office." so the guilty me escorted Candy back to the office... Pauline followed, "get her some warm water?" er ok.... shoots, i have never made a colleague cry so i didn't know what to do but kept apologising... thank God Candy calmed down after a while but every time she wanted to step out to go to the toilet or something, she'd be v wary...

i texted chris
~ i made candy cry today...
" ? wat happened??"
~ there was a cat and she's afraid of cats. i tried to catch it and it ran past her so she cried
"... ..."

then at around 12 plus, we were walking along the corridor and saw ks peering through the space between the pigeonholes and the wall. i asked, "wat's up?"

ks: got cat!
ann: *peer through cavity* oh ya, the cat is here.... looks scared...
ks: i was tapping my card to go in then i saw a pair of eyes and thought, "wa, today last day of seventh month leh..."
ha ha ha...

the poor kitty was cowered there... candy ran into the office and kept reminding everyone to close the door. ks called liang tong on the phone and he came w a large box with holes so we tried to capture the kitten. Candy stayed in the office but watched through the window and i knew she was hoping that we'd catch it. LT tried to first lure it out but it didn't barge so he and ks moved the pigeonhole cabinet while i tried to catch the kitty but it darted past me (again) this time leaving a souvenir of 3 claw marks on my left foot. ouch! LT sped after it but who can outrun a cat?

so Candy made up her mind to go home ASAP but not before she made sure someone escorted her out of the building safely.

sigh, i wonder whether LT managed to find the kitty...