Pet Festival

By Abdullah Zia

Is dog your most dependable comrade? Or maybe your fondness is reserved for
our feline friends? Perhaps, you prefer something more exotic like snakes.
Whatever the case is, F-9 Park was the place to be this Saturday.

The Annual Islamabad Pet Festival, organized by Pakistan Animal Welfare Society
(PAWS) is held every year to raise funds for the often over-looked work that is not
done by various animal shelters across the country.

The Festival is aimed to attract animal fanatics and those rather uncomfortable
around animals alike. With talent shows showcasing mainly dogs doing the most
unimaginable stunts on a mere whistle of the owner, the festival remained the
highlight of the weekend.

Those of us with friendly dogs, or cats at home were chosen by our Principal to
participate in the festival by setting up our own stall. Even those who usually
showed apathy towards these creatures had their hearts melted on their lovable
antics

Many cats and dogs were brought in whether they be mere stray or expensive
breeds. Thankfully all had a home to go to at the end of the day!

Taking part in this festival was not only tones of fun, it also awared us of the
perturbing plight of stray animals which are denied proper food, proper care and
proper dwelling.

The initial objective of participating in this event could have been to miss that
lengthy geography test, we genuinely enjoyed representing our class as one that
cares about every living specie sharing our environment.

So start grooming your pets right away if you wish to enjoy the festival next year,
in which, according to the organizers, there would be proper stunt show of pets
along with a cash prize that would take you and your pet places!
Chemistry

By Areeb Zahid

They say teamwork is everything when it comes to football, which, in all honesty
is nothing short of the complete truth. However, a lot more than just teamwork
went into our victory in the Islamabad under 16’s cup.

You see, our school’s football team was never the greatest when it first came into
being; our training ground was mediocre, all the interested students adopted for
the striking role and no one bothered with the defense, giving the “it’s too
boring” excuse every time. With a change of both our captain and coach however,
our situation began to see the improvement we’d been looking for.

Within a matter of months, team discipline had become the highest priority. All of
our strategies and formations were switched up, and we practiced until each style
of play became muscle memory.

It was finally the time of the cup. The time to put our training to the test. Almost
immediately, we saw the fruit of our hard work from the first two games, winning
by large goal differences. Every single player found his specific role to play, and
neither did anyone think to hold back.

Towards the final we went, with adrenaline in our veins and determination in our
eyes. Coincidentally, we went against the team that knocked us out last time.

An opportunity to redeem ourselves? One hundred percent.

Like most of our other matches, we managed a landslide of a victory, mainly

because all of us wanted to get back at them for knocking us out last time.

Winning the Islamabad cup meant both the team and each individual player
became recognized in the community. The school itself gained the recognition of
having such talent in their sports field. Our standards shot through the charts and
many other schools and many other schools began challenging us to friendlies
with the passage of time.