Tsekani's first show

He was soooooo good. Calm and relaxed, and each judge commented on his nice disposition.

There were 4 rings Saturday and he made the top 10 in each ring. He ended up with a championship, and a 7th, 4th, 3rd and a 1st (in the shorthair all-breed specialty) in the finals.

Tomorrow he has another 4 rings, so he will probably get his double championship, as he is the only Mau there. He was up against a number of Bengals, some British and American Shorthairs, A few Devon Rexes, and a few breeds I didn't get to see close up.

Oh, and I need to look this up, I was approached by a Savannah breeder to see if I would be interested in breeding one of his Savannah queens, as Maus are acceptable outcrosses. Will need to research the possibility.

Congratulations

I don't know how you all do 8 ring shows, often here cats are fed up after our 3 ring shows. Most of ours are only 2 rings.

Well done Tsekani! Were there any comments on his eye color?

Well congrats Shouldn't take him long to grand. IMO its a bit easier to grand in ACFA with a whole cat rather then the alter. You'll need 6 finals under 6 different judges and 2 in the top Allbreed (top 10). Were any of the finals in the Allbreed rings? Who gave him the 1st place (Best Cat)?


Amanda, the minimum rings in our shows are 4 rings a day - many of them have 5 or 6 (with 2 day total of 8-12 rings). Charlie does fine at 8 rings, 10 is a little too much at times and I would NOT do more then 10 rings with any of my cats. Spooky went to a 12 ring TICA show (and he was seasoned show cat) and was totally out of it by the end of the 2nd day - never again.


Up to you, but not sure if I'd stud him to a Savannah breeder.

I'm heading back to the show now. I left my catalogue there, so I don't have the judge names yet. I am confused over all-breed finals vs breed finals since there were not all that many cats there. Of whole cats, I believe I counted 20of both longhair and short hair varieties. There did seem to be many more alters at the show, and a whole lot of HHP.

I have a map to granding, and the top 10's and finals requirements are confusing me.

I would like to go meet the Savannah breeders as they offered advice, and they have servals on site (would love to meet a serval). They live about an hour from my place.

Final results:

Tsekani won 2nd Best of the Best - Adult Cat of the 2 days combined!!!!! I was so shocked I didn't know what to say.

Saturday

R1 Kay Hanvey 7th final
R2 Gwen Hornung 4th final
R3 Tim Murphy 3rd final
R4 Susan Sanderlin-Berry 1st final

Sunday

R1 Barb Belanger 5th final
R2 Joyce Irwin 4th final
R3 Wendy Miller 9th final
R4 Didn't final

The judges that talked about his eyes made allowances for his age, and the one judge I talked to afterward said that he's more than OK for breeding, just look for a strong eyed female.

2nd Best of the Best?? How fantastic that is for you! Congratulations!

Well, we did discuss the fact the he would need a female with better eyes anyway so you should be expecting that comment, but it's good that the judges didn't fault him for having not so great coloured eyes




(and oh, can we say that the insiduous claws of cat show addiction is taking hold? )

Aha yes, but it wouldn't have if he wasn't happy. He was alert and calm most of the time, and he loved his plush donut bed in his cage. I kept the curtains a bit down to shield him, but he did really well. He loved being in the hotel rooms with me, purring his head off and rolling all over the bed. One judge said that she liked to take extra time with cats on their first shows, so I told her it was Tsekani's first and she almost didn't believe me.

I think the Orientals would be a good complimentary breed for alter rings, they all seemed so happy to have attention poured on them.

Originally Posted by Sohni

Final results:

Tsekani won 2nd Best of the Best - Adult Cat of the 2 days combined!!!!! I was so shocked I didn't know what to say.

Saturday

R1 Kay Hanvey 7th final
R2 Gwen Hornung 4th final
R3 Tim Murphy 3rd final
R4 Susan Sanderlin-Berry 1st final

Sunday

R1 Barb Belanger 5th final
R2 Joyce Irwin 4th final
R3 Wendy Miller 9th final
R4 Didn't final

The judges that talked about his eyes made allowances for his age, and the one judge I talked to afterward said that he's more than OK for breeding, just look for a strong eyed female.

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OK first day (AB - allbreed - you pick from all the long and shorthair cats for your finals. SP - specialty - you only compete against your long OR shorthair cats (2 finals - one Longhair cats, one Shorthair cats).

So with the judges:

Saturday

R1 Kay Hanvey 7th final Allbreed
R2 Gwen Hornung 4th final Allbreed
R3 Tim Murphy 3rd finalAllbreed
R4 Susan Sanderlin-Berry 1st finalSpeciality - shorthair only

Sunday

R1 Barb Belanger 5th finalAllbreed
R2 Joyce Irwin 4th finalAllbreed
R3 Wendy Miller 9th finalAllbreed
R4 Didn't final Specialty

For Grand you need 6 finals under 6 different judges with 2 finals in the top 10 cats Allbreed - you have that . You also need 16 winners ribbons. You have 8 ribbons from the first 8 rings. You need to put him in another show as soon as you can to pick up another 8 winners ribbons. He will have to be listed in the next show as a Champion because he needs the other 8 winners ribbons.

Any shows after the next one he will be listed as a Grand Champion

Thanks a lot GK. I was going to post about the grand mapping path. At the show people were confused whether the "6 finals" had to be 1, 2 or 3rd place, or even if the top 10 all-breeds we got would count before he managed his 8 breed wins.

My main concern in showing Tsekani was to determine his breeding quality. I asked his first judge, Kay Hanvey, and ended up making a new friend. She gave me a lot of advice and told me that he'd likely grand in two weekends of showing. He stood out, which was in his favour, but the judges all said that he was well within the standard.

One judge said that she didn't like the trend in Maus to prefer the slighter ones, almost dainty. She said she liked Tsekani's depth of bone and would like to see more in his range. She suggested that the associations were possibly trying to find a niche for Maus that were distinct from the Bengals and Ocicats.

I like Kay, she's a very good genetics person if you have questions. She explained to me how I could have gotten a deaf gold-eye white rex since mom was Odd-eyed and no deaf cats in her lines and dad was a bicolor. Apparently, bicolors do carry a lot of "deaf" genes that show up more when bred to white cats.

Nice job, Tsekani! Glad to see he's got the show personality. Often that's the number one challenge with a Mau. Keep him out on the show scene and he will be rewarded

Originally Posted by Sohni

Oh, and I need to look this up, I was approached by a Savannah breeder to see if I would be interested in breeding one of his Savannah queens, as Maus are acceptable outcrosses. Will need to research the possibility.

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Sent you a PM on this.

Many Mau breeders are completely against the use of Egyptian Maus in hybrid programs. I'd personally be afraid of breeders refusing to work with me in the future. If you do decide to work with the Savannah or even want to breed them in the future, make sure your contract for Tsekani allows it.

Originally Posted by Sohni

One judge said that she didn't like the trend in Maus to prefer the slighter ones, almost dainty. She said she liked Tsekani's depth of bone and would like to see more in his range. She suggested that the associations were possibly trying to find a niche for Maus that were distinct from the Bengals and Ocicats.

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The Mau is a moderate cat, and there is a wide range that fits "moderate." The CFA Egyptian Mau standard reads much like the Aby's, so cats with boning like an Aby are going to be rewarded more than others. The standard is also written more for a female than a male, so smaller males are often rewarded more than larger males.
I'm not sure that CFA is trying to find a niche for Maus that is distinct from Bengals and Ocicats; I'd argue that the Mau type is nicely defined in CFA. Afterall, we've had our own share of National Winners over the years!! The words "Dainty" and "Refined" are nowhere in the standard, so while some cats might be more extreme than others, believe me when I say that these are not delicate cats

I understand what you are saying, and I am just repeating what the judge said (she used the word dainty). I did read in an article, that because of the standard, judges had to make allowances for the jowls in un-altered males. This suggests that there isn't a real distinction between male and female Maus? I know in some breed standards males are supposed to look 'male', and vice versa, ie. German Shepherd Dogs.

What I did find peculiar was the difference among judge decisions. Politics?

As Tsekani matures, he might develop thicker cheek pads. This can lend to "jowling" in his face. Not all boys develop it, but many do.

No, there is not much of a distinction between the males and females. Judges allow for jowling, but they still want the males to look somewhat feminine. Usually it is a female Mau that takes the top awards, but not always.

In fact, I think that with many breeds the standard either favors the boys or the girls. With my Vans, the standard is writtin to favor males, and allowances must be made for smaller size in females.

With rexes its written for the female. With Oci's its for the male.

I think the more refined breeds are written for the females and the medium to large ones - its the male

Congratulations! I thought they would take his age into account when looking at eye colour

Originally Posted by Sohni

I think the Orientals would be a good complimentary breed for alter rings, they all seemed so happy to have attention poured on them.

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When Orientals take to showing, they love it. If they are not so keen they can be very headstrong and loud about it, you would not want to be in a show with a displeased OSH! Everyone would know about it and being very vocal they also have more of a tendency than other cats to growl and screech - it is a sign of their vocalness, NOT aggression, but it really doesn't look good. But having been to shows with the breeder of my boys, I agree that in general their sociability makes them ideal for showing, you can practically see them puff out their chests and strut, they just love being the centre of attention!

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Apparently, bicolors do carry a lot of "deaf" genes that show up more when bred to white cats.

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This is the reason why the GCCF doesn't allow Foreign White x Bicolour OSH (including bicolour colourpoint) matings. Even though there is no deafness in UK lines for either, there is on the continent and they don't want to take the risk.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I think the more refined breeds are written for the females and the medium to large ones - its the male

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Definitely agree with that, OSH studs especially find the wider face they develop can put them at a disadvantage - whereas in a BSH it is just what the judges want to see.

Congrats! He is a beautiful boy, and I have been loving his pics on here since I joined. He is part of the reason I got a spotted cat (although I got an Ocicat instead) I hope he continues to be succesful