So, I am showing CFA only. I have decided it would be too expensive to show multiple registries when ALL shows are so spread out and far apart on my Coast. Since Safiya turned 8 months old, I have managed to find 2 shows within a 10 hour drive, before Christmas. Actually there were three, but I was away the weekend of the first show. So I have her and her sister entered in a Longview, Wa. show this upcoming weekend, and then in another one at the same venue, one month later.
Mapquest directions to Longview - Total Travel Estimates: 9 hours 24 minutes / 366.55 miles (includes a 2 hour ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver, BC)
My mentors warned me that I am going to find it really difficult to Grand cats in this situation and I am wondering if it is a combination of factors.
1. I can find about one show a month, while they are showing every weekend. They can easily find shows within 5 hour drives in the DC, Pennsylvania, Maryland area.
2. Is it not important for me to show against other Maus in order to become Grand Champion? I don't know if I have my registries mixed up but I read something about getting so many points for each cat of the same breed that yours beats... The three shows I have attended, 2 TICA and 1 ACFA, have had zero Maus other than mine. And the people I talked to there said that they never see Maus except from one cattery in Wa. and he rarely shows up. My mentors regularly show against 8 to 10 Maus in the various classes. I have yet to see one in my area.
Please don't see this as whining. I understood what I was getting into. In the Spring/Summer, there are two local CFA shows in my area (Vancouver/Victoria) and there will be a few shows in Seattle, which is about a 8 hour drive from my house. I can fly to shows in Portland and California as well, but I work full time and get a limited number of days off.
Also, I think that I will bring a Mau to the Global Egyptian Mau Society show in the Spring. I went last year to deliver my kitten back East and that is one show that would be worth the long flight.
I just didn't realize that I was going to have a lot of trouble Granding my cats. I guess I was naive in thinking that there were going to be enough Maus at shows to help me get my points. My mentor says that I should strive to have Grand 'quality' cats, but that I may need to accept that some of mine won't be able to reach that level officially.
Mapquest directions to Longview - Total Travel Estimates: 9 hours 24 minutes / 366.55 miles (includes a 2 hour ferry from Vancouver Island to Vancouver, BC)
My mentors warned me that I am going to find it really difficult to Grand cats in this situation and I am wondering if it is a combination of factors.
1. I can find about one show a month, while they are showing every weekend. They can easily find shows within 5 hour drives in the DC, Pennsylvania, Maryland area.
2. Is it not important for me to show against other Maus in order to become Grand Champion? I don't know if I have my registries mixed up but I read something about getting so many points for each cat of the same breed that yours beats... The three shows I have attended, 2 TICA and 1 ACFA, have had zero Maus other than mine. And the people I talked to there said that they never see Maus except from one cattery in Wa. and he rarely shows up. My mentors regularly show against 8 to 10 Maus in the various classes. I have yet to see one in my area.
Please don't see this as whining. I understood what I was getting into. In the Spring/Summer, there are two local CFA shows in my area (Vancouver/Victoria) and there will be a few shows in Seattle, which is about a 8 hour drive from my house. I can fly to shows in Portland and California as well, but I work full time and get a limited number of days off.
Also, I think that I will bring a Mau to the Global Egyptian Mau Society show in the Spring. I went last year to deliver my kitten back East and that is one show that would be worth the long flight.
I just didn't realize that I was going to have a lot of trouble Granding my cats. I guess I was naive in thinking that there were going to be enough Maus at shows to help me get my points. My mentor says that I should strive to have Grand 'quality' cats, but that I may need to accept that some of mine won't be able to reach that level officially.
