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Our fifth cat show of 2001 was attended by Chinook in the Kitten Class and Fireon trying out the full show experience for the first time in the new Assessment Class. Joining us was Liscoonvarna Lunar Flame , a cameo classic tabby and white boy out of Dharma and Fireon, who owns Anne-Marie Land-Salinas of Denver, CO, and his littermate sisterLiscoonvarna's Pterodactyl a red classic tabby polydactyl girl who owns Anne-Marie's sister, Greta Fulsom. Flame competed in the Championship Adult Class, and Pteri joined Fireon in the Assessment Class. Liscoonvarna's "Baby" Cozumel, a brown mackerel tabby girl out of Kithri and Trevalen, accompanied by her loving caretaker Angelle Bigelow, was competing in the premiership class. Fireon and Pteri were well received by the majority of the judges, with only two who were incapable of keeping an open mind and showed an openly hostile attitude toward the polydactyl trait. The professionals among the panel of 12 judges (six rings per day) offered comments on the evaluation forms such as "polydactyl (extra toes) did not appear to affect the leg structure of this cat", "great feel to body, great muscle tone", "good body", "great body", "polydactyly - walked normally, good strength in feet", "nice ears and muzzle". The only thing everyone agreed upon unanimously was that the Assessment Class evaluation forms need to be completely redone! My biggest laugh came from the section that states "List any particular strengths or weaknesses:" after which one of our more vocal opponents wrote "both testicles descended"... Well since they very obviously ARE, I decided this was just another way of saying "Nice balls!" *VBG* I also had to smile at his "Any further comments:", where he wrote "Common sense should guide our programs" Well I totally agree! ;-) Fireon took all of this handling by strangers in fairly good humor, especially considering he was participating in his first actual show at the ripe old age of two years old. Chinook continues to adore the attention and completely enjoy himself during the whole show process, though he didn't have much chance against his significantly more mature and flashy competition. Flame had the same trouble in the adult class, having just barely turned 8 months old, and Baby was once again unable to compete with the large regional winner boys also attending the alter class. The word of the weekend was Bengal, and there were 40 Bengal kittens in the kitten class alone! There was a Blue Bengal in the Assessment Class with Fireon and Pteri, along with a Black Russian Blue and a couple of Munchkins. Our most exciting moment was managing to pull off a group shot with Fireon, Pteri and Flame all together on the show photographer's platform. Each cat had a few individual shots taken first, then after a few failed attempts at getting all three cats to stay put AND look at the camera, Jim Brown managed to grab that split second where it all came together. No chance for a second try, these cats live in different homes now and are NOT at all interested in getting reacquainted! Scans of this photo shoot will be posted as soon as they arrive from the photographer. Below are pictures of the show.
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