No, not a cat show at my house. Though, if you ask nicely enough Chester might show you where she sleeps most of the day. Or Bob might show you his favorite places to run.
There was a cat show here in town and I decided that I wanted to attend it. I’ve never been to one and I really had the urge to go Oooo and Awwww over cats without the temptation of taking them home. As I explained to Jay, even if they had kittens there for sale (which more than likely wouldn’t be the case) they would be purebreds and WAY beyond my price point. These cats would also not be neglected and in need of a good home. After these points were made Jay decided that it was safe to let me attend the show unsupervised.
This show was not held in a very upscale place. It was in one of the older-looking ice rinks in town and the place definitely did not get all dressed up for the occasion.
I had never even seen a cat show on TV so I had no idea what to expect. I’ve seen the dog shows, but this was COMPLETELY different. Which makes sense if you own a cat and understand their behaviors. A cat, for the most part, is NOT going to act on command and stand at attention while a judge looks them over.
The cats weren’t even pretending to be involved in the proceedings! I had to take a picture of this Persian because he was so adorable. He just decided to sprawl out and enjoy himself while he waited for his turn in this ring.
Every time I look at these pictures I have to say, “AWWW!!!!!”
I watched this judge from afar because I was trying to determine what she was doing. I couldn’t get close enough to hear, but I loved how she handled the cats. You can tell that she absolutely loves them and enjoys her job.
I’m not sure what she was judging, but in order to keep the cat from trying to escape she had to play with them. The sisal-covered pole helped, too. I saw many cats, especially the Siamese, instantly stretch up and start scratching.
Speaking of Siamese, they were the noisiest of the bunch. Which isn’t surprising since they are naturally one of the most vocal breed of cats. They also were not fond of the activity. I noticed that the Siamese and the other exotic breeds seemed to be the most nervous in the surroundings.
The Persians were the most laid-back. Again, not surprising. They all laid in the cages as if to say, “I can sleep anywhere. Just leave me alone!”
My sister has a Himalayan (which is part Persian) and as she puts it, “He’s for decoration only.”
As I was walking by another judging ring I noticed that all of the cats being judged were of the long hair variety. This intrigued me (as they’ve always been my favorite) and so I stopped to watch. This judge was also very good with the cats and really enjoyed working with them. She was also very informative and funny! As she judged each cat she would talk about what she was looking for, particular aspects of the breed that she was judging, and any other interesting tidbit about the breed or color of the cat.
As you can tell, she didn’t need to entertain this cat to keep her still. The cat kept trying to get away, but not quickly. lol
I believe that this one won the highest award in its category from this judge.
Then there was this little guy. According to the judge he was five months old, and thus still very much a kitten. As she was trying to judge him he was wanting to play with EVERYTHING. She said, “Apparently this guy doesn’t realize that he’s supposed to be subdued and laid back!”
After she walked away and was judging the next cat he was still messing with the ribbons on his cage. The other Persians would just sit there, or sprawl out, when placed back in their cages, but not this guy.
At this point I had to keep myself from going over there and rubbing my face in his fur and giving him kissies. He was THAT adorable!
And he’s still at it… even after the judge was finished with the next one. She was taking her time with them, too. This one she explained to us the difference between the calico and tortoise-shell colored cats… she judged the features of this Persian against her criteria… and she took her time really looking at this cat…
While Mr. Busybody was playing with everything and anything!
They were so sweet, though. If it wasn’t for the high maintenance that they require, I would possibly be interested in getting a Persian as my next cat.
But the fur would drive me insane. I already know that.
I returned home, without a cat, and proceeded to show Jay the pictures that I had taken. He indulged me, though he did shake his head at me. I can’t help it. How could you NOT want to rub your face in the fur of one of these puffy beauties??
It was definitely an enjoyable day.
So I know that it’s not May 9th, but since that’s when I took the last picture of my progress than that’s the date for this post.
When I last posted, at the end of April, this was the state of my progress. I was working on grapes. Summer grapes? I won’t get into that again…
And here it is as of the 9th. The grapes really stand out next to those green leaves. There was a bit of a decision for me to make because I wanted to work on this one in the same way that I worked on the Winter Cross. I am going to stitch the left arm and then work my way clockwise around the cross. The problem was that the daisy to the right of the grapes overlap onto the right hand side of the cross. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but if you’re weird like me then you know that this could be a struggle. Actually, the biggest pain for me was the fact that the daisy overlapped two of my working pages. So I had to constantly flip between the two pages and hope that I wasn’t miscounting. Once I am done with the daisy I will return to the left-hand side of the cross and continue working my way around in that manner.
Kerry'd Away 