House Hold Pet class

Oh yeah... finals. Good luck!
I probably won't be going that soon either, come to think of it.

I was wondering about grooming long haired cats. I went through the judge routine with Tobie a few times tonight and he was fine. I had a friend do it and he was fine with her too. He's a floppy kitten, lets you move him any direction. But his fur... how am I going to manage that? It's so fine and fluffy in most spots.... how do I get it fluffy all over and manage to make it stay that way??

After you give him a bath and rinse, rinse, rinse (use shampoo and conditioner), you'll have to blow dry him and comb at same time.

Get a fine and medium toothed comb. At the show, bring some cornstarch baby powder and sprinkle some in the coat - not too much. Then take the fine toothed comb and go over his entire body kinda backwards to fluff up and then lightly comb down the back/sides.

You want to fluff the ruff - like a lion - so comb in the opposite direction up and around his face/neck.

Tail can be combed down, then take and lightly shake it out like a bottle brush. Be sure and check belly and under the arms for any tangles.


BTW before you wet him down for the bath be sure you comb EVERY tangle/knot out of his coat - otherwise you will never get them out after wetting.

Thanks. I'm finding some good articles online... but man, the things some people do to prepare their longhaired cats! Makes me want to take Ziggy or Godiva instead.

At one show, I was watching a lady prepare her Burmese (looked very much like Godiva) and she even put brown eyeshadow on the bare spots above the eyes. Craziness! I could totally become obsessed with this though, I'm going to have to be careful and not take it too seriously.

yeah right! When he starts bringing home lots of ribbons, then tell me you won't be serious

Why do you think I showed the "wash and wear" rexes My grooming was done in 2 mins at the shows - and that was for the entire day (most times) I had a turkish angora - way too much work....I'll stick to the shorthairs.

Originally Posted by tiffanyjbt

What do you think were his best qualities that made him so successful in the ring?

Click to expand...

He was a beautiful tabby cat!. One of the judges told me he had excellent muscle structure.He wasn't out going with the judges, he was a really mellow guy. I took him to several shows and he recieved lots of ribbons. He scored the best in Loveland which made him win his little division.

Does a little extra weight count against them a lot in the household pet class?
I've wanted to show my cat in it, she's lost several pounds since I adopted her but she's still got some extra weight (and extra skin since she's older so it didn't un-stretch totally when she lost the weight...)
Also do they have to show interested in the toy? My cat ignores toys in general...
There is a show coming up in a few months here I'd love to enter her in but mainly the weight this is making me hesitate... She is 13 1/2 lbs now, down from 16 but the vet said her *ideal* weight would be 12 lbs.

I actually showed a kitten once a long time ago in a household pet show, I think it was CFA. At the time I was totally clueless about shows though (I was 10-11 yrs old or so I think) but my kitten won 1st place in the kitten class!

I little overweight is not held against - if its more muscle then fat, its ok. I'm sure you'd be fine. I've seen them put up some cats that I felt were too heavy, but that's my opinion - the fun of showing is you have more then one opinion.

Even in pedigrees one judge will put up your cat, the next won't - they have their favs too If they are persian breeders, they might tend to put up persians in higher spots over some of the shorthairs.

If they don't want toys, some will go for feathers. My Mitten had a "Morris" attitude - he knew he was a handsome guy and it was beneath him to even look at toys - his attitude got him some finals

"Morris"???

Maybe you are too young to know who Morris the cat is from the 9-Lives cat food commercials

He was this big red tabby/white that had "attitude" he was better then everyone and was "finiky" in what he ate.

Mitten looked a lot like him (blue tabby/white) and had that same attitude he was better.........except he was not finiky.

When we were showing HHP's in early 80's they had the famous "Morris Trophy" that went to the highest scoring HHP in the show - its was a very pretigious award and highly valued - was made by the company that makes the Oscar trophy for Hollywood. It was a heavy wooden base with a statue of Morris in gold and a placque you could have engraved with your kitty's name on it.

Mitten won one - best HHP out of 55 cats! My other cat (the odd-eye black/white) got about 6 of them in her career - I kept the first one, let my friend who showed and eventually owned her, have the rest.

BTW at one of our big cat shows we had the pleasure of having Morris visit and you got to take pictures with him - was cool - my son got his picture taken with him.

Here's some bio on him.

http://www.tvacres.com/adanimals_morris9lives.htm

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/Morris.htm

They still use a morris cat for their campain don't they? (Different one of course) I think I had seen one recently, he was walking around and had shades on. Mabey not though, LOL!

Doh! Now I remember! (guess I'm not that young )

Thats awesome that your cats won those awards. It must be a very rewarding experience.

I'm going to my first cat show (ever) next weekend in Crown Point, IN. I'm excited about it, even though I'm not showing. I'm a litte concerned about my allergies though. I'm terribly allergic to most cats (I posted my experience in an allergy thread on this forum). Duke I have no allergies to at all, and I'm hoping the same will be true for Ares (I hear bengals have a similar coat structure as siamese). That will be the second biggest deciding factor for me on whether or not I show my babies (the first of course being whether THEY are up to it or not). Time will tell. I'll be sure to post pics when I get back!

I have a ragdoll named Ares! I name all my kittens, some keep the names others don't, my Ares is getting older, so when I do find the right place for him, they may want to keep it the same, since he is used to it, but he isn't registered yet, so it could be changed. I just saw the name and thought it was cool!

My breeder named him, but I LOVE the name. I've always loved greek mythology and I've even had an affinity towards the War God Ares (I'm pretty darn harmless, mind you, but I guess its kinda freudian )

I was going to ask if you named him or his breeder, I figured you may have though, some breeders don't name them (too many of them after a while ) I do though, I love naming them. I think more people rename them then keep it the same.

love mythology too... A few of the names I'm considering for my new kitten are from greek/other mythology but I still haven't picked a name... Some of the ones I was considering were Loki, Grendel, Orion, Apollo, Anubis, Odin...

I used to love Morris! That's really neat about the statue. I think I had a book about Morris once actually...like an "auto" biography.

I vote for Loki!!! The trickster (though misunderstood). Purrfect name for a cat!!!

I like odin, my ares' grandfathers name
(Dante's father, it's spelled wrong in the siggy, but she was so nice to make me one, and tried a couple times to fix the spellings, I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was still wrong, LOL!)

I didn't show Duke this time, but I think I'll show him at the next show in January. It was really nice, and all the people were very informative. The cats were AMAZING!!! Unfortunately, I didn't pack an extra set of batteries and my camara died out!

I did get a few pics though (which didn't come out too well):

This was the sweetest cat I've ever met. He rolled over in his owners arms and purred. He's a big boy too!


Here were some gorgeous snowshoe kittens:

And their papa:


And these Balinese were SOOO elegant! They were pretty active too, so thats why these pics are so blurry



These were the only pics I got. There were also some gorgeous Main Coons (HUGE!) these amazingly tiny yet SOOOO cute Oriental Shorthair kittens. We saw some Bengals too, but the owner wasn't around so we couldn't ask too many questions. They were stunning though. Pictures really don't do these cats justice!

The judges were really entertaining and did a good job explaining why they liked each cat they placed.

I can't wait until January's show!!!

Oh my, that is a beautiful big kitty! Is it a purebred or a mix?

He's a mix IMO - cream point or something. Nice pictures. I'm assuming it was a TICA show since you mentioned bengals being there