Saturday, September 27, 2008

Yet another show day is over

Always nice to be able to come home in reasonable time and after day spent with nice people, seeing lovely cats.

The day brought both joy and disappointment, as always.

Nessie got a very nice judgement, got her sixth CAGCIB (only one abroad, meaning she needs two more). BIV went to a great-looking male, but in the tough competition in nomination, she ended up the winner, thus got NOM. In the panel, she got one vote out of six.

Tigrinya was on her first show since she was ten months old and considering she is not used to other cats, she took the day ok. Hissing on other cats, but cuddled with all humans within cuddling distance. She also was NOM.

Shadowplay from the litter between Tigrinya and Jean-Paul was there on his first (and only?) show. Not the best timing being at show at age six months two days of age, but he was huge, with big paws and lovely type. During the day we realised that he indeed has turned out to be a silver cat, though... Even though the judge had not started judging group 8 (nor group 4 in which he was entered based on how unsure the silver looked at three months of age), there was unfortnately no possibility in changing group during the show. Well, the judge seemed to really like him and he was very charming as he sat there playing with a feather, pens and papers or just walking around on the table as it was all his, but since his coat was silvery at the bottom, thus entered in the wrong colour group, there was no way he could compete against the three other group 4 kittens in 6-10 months. Well, he got the feather as a consolation prize and a great written judgement accompanied it. No matter what, I'm quite pleased with his development and we hope he will behave perfectly in his home so he will be able to meet a girl or two.

The sad part today was that China was in a horrible mood... I do not want to blame that she strongly disliked Tigrinya in the cage next door nor any other reason I could come up. China is a hormonal lady and that is it. I should have let her stay in the cage, but she behaved ok on the judge's table a couple of weeks ago so I thought she would handle it. She hangs relaxed in my hands, but I could feel her vibrating so she seems pretty unsure of the situation and hisses. She strongly dislikes when someone touches her tail so I guess the reaction from China at the judge's table was due to this. She curled up, looked at the judge and hissed. Totally fine for me that she got the "Cannot be judged"-judgement. I took her without problem and she hung in my hands stretched out without a tense part in her body all the way to the cage. According to SVERAKs rules, the judge is supposed to give the cat a yellow card because of this, which she did. I have seen cats biting both judges and stewards so the blood was running without getting yellow cards, so I have always thought it's time to be a bit tougher in this area. Well. Ok.

China is a very happy and intense girl at home. Cuddly, happy and easy to handle, and always full of life. We are quite pleased with her offspring with two different fathers and she has never (what we know now at least) given bad temperaments to her offspring. Several of them have been on show and they have all behaved nicely so far. We hope and think it will last.

Anyway, China is a lovely girl with lots of great qualities. A weight between 5.5-6 kilos and a marvellous body. We are quite happy with that and attending shows will be handed over to her daughter Anansi who has stayed at home in favour of mummy this autumn. I prefer not to bring too many cats to each show... Anansi will first have a litter, though. Daddy will hopefully be a nice-looking brown agouti boy.

Have to also report that Firefox got Ex1 BIV 3-10 and Nightcrawler's daughter S*NC's Words Unspoken was BIS 6-10 months :)

Did I forget anything? Well, thanks everyone for a great day, especially to Shadowplay's owner who took her time to check out what cat shows was all about - hope you will try it again, entered in the correct colour group ;)