What is "campaigning?"

I've heard the term a few times now, here and elsewhere. I have a general idea of what it means (has to do with showing your cats diligently and consistently, I gather?), but what do you guys mean when you say you say "mid-campaign" or that someone is "campaigning their cat?"

Also, about year-end awards... like Goldenkitty, I can only show Tobie in basically local shows, and they will be in different organizations, so he won't get a whole lot of points in any one cat organization. I guess this means he won't get many year-end award, correct? I assume most people can't make ALL the shows... and it seems kind of unfair that only those with the time and money to travel all the time get the year-end awards, not necessarily the best cats, you know what I mean? One more show and he should have more than enough points to Royal with ACFA.

Thanks!

Campaigning means you are out there consistantly running your cat for top awards. While campaigners do have to have more money to attend shows (a little advantage), most associations count a certain number of "best" rings - I think CFA counts the best 40 rings for regional (not sure of how many for national). So if you have a cat that does very well (top 5 consistently) and you put in about 40-50 rings (each show is 6-8 rings) for the season, then you could make a decent showing rather then to attend a LOT of shows to get the points.

It kinda evens out for those that can't go to shows every week. When I was campaigning Spooky in ACFA, he went to about 1 show a month - a few twice a month - and I had enough close by shows between PA, NJ, MD, VA so that I didn't have to travel very far.

Out here, its 4-5 hrs or more to a show. Charlie only got 2 out of 6 rings (first show). If he had gotten 4 or more out of 6, it might be worth considering to show and travel. But Charlie really doesn't like the car riding - no problem at the shows - he loves that. Its me and DH that could not put up with 4-5 hrs of Charlie crying

I think in ACFA you need a minimum of 8 rings for a Regional Award and 16 or 20 for the National. You take the Best # of rings. The lower finals would not count after you got the best ones. For example, you count all 8 rings you finalled in. Say you went to another show (4 more rings) and finalled in all 4 - you go back and drop your lowest finals (like 6-10th best) and sub the better rings (top 5). ACFA gives you certain points per placement - 50 pts for Best, 48, for 2nd, etc. So if you run your cat in enough rings where you end up with your best rings all as BEST CAT - you would get a perfect score of 50

Campaigning - In CFA speak, chasing for divisional/regional/national awards in the one show season - in other words to be the best cat. Granding is not enough. And it's not cheap, nor is it easy! Cats can stop mid campaign due to loss of condition or both the cat and the owner can't handle the stress.

It's counted like this - For championship and premiership - best 100 rings, for kitten - best 40 rings (kittens are 4 - 8 months). Only 25 cats in each class get the much wanted title of RW (Regional Winner) or DW (Division Winner) and only the top 25 of that, RW or DW can get the title NW (National Winner). For example, the current season's ('06-'07) Region 1 kitten is a cat called Instincts Daniel and he's looking unbeatable. But he is only ranked 8th Nationally. The season has 3 months to go. Daniel is now an adult and is doing quite well in Championship.

Another example, one of Nancy's (Dotdotdot) cat last year was best kitten nationally and 2nd best cat Nationally!!! Not an easy feat and Nancy is one of the few that managed to go all the way like that!

Why do we do it? Belief in the fact that we have bred the ultimate example of the breed!