Soupie
05-05-2008, 10:41 PM
This weekend I made my first venture into the world of TICA (The International Cat Association) and shows run under its rules and I have to say I was a little bit daunted. My friend and I spent the weekend in the city centre Hilton in Newbury which was really nice and took Quando, Mister F and my friend's lovely dilute tortie Selkirk kitten.
I did really enjoy myself once we had got over the vetting in issues - pink skinned cat plus awful lighting = vetted out for red eyes which were fine outside in daylight! I was a little put out at the way this was handled (not by the vet). What a shame they don't have a daylight lamp when the lighting is so poor - thankfully the vet had said he would have another look in an hour and when it came to it he revetted outside as he said he had had a number of cats appear to have very red eyes due to the lighting ;)
To be honest I was already for packing it in there and then as I felt like dog poo but we carried on and good job too!
The show itself was really busy and quite tiring but I found it interesting and the finals judging style is really entertaining as well as informative. One judge put his top hat and fancy dress coat on to present the finals which I thought was a lovely touch and made it feel special? :cool:
Mister F took to the TICA ring judging style like a duck to water and had a great day on the Saturday finalling in 4 out of the 6 rings and ending the day as a Grand Champion Alter just needing some points to make him a Double Grand Champion Alter. Unfortunately on Sunday he was shattered bless him after his and Quando's friday night of partying in the hotel and being so busy with the rings the first day. He still managed to final in both the Speciality Longhair rings on Sunday taking a 2nd and a 3rd which I was over the moon with! He ended the weekend as a Double Grand Champion Alter just missing out on being a Triple Grand Champion Alter by 100 points. I am so so pleased with my little man as I had not really expected to come away with any finals/titles let alone do so well and will definitely take him to another in the future at some point :-D I do feel the judging style allowed my little man to show off his appeal and potential as well as his cute nature!
Quando didn't final the first day and in fact didn't seem to enjoy the ring judging so the plan was to try him in the first ring on Sunday and then withdraw him if necessary and let him sleep the day away in the pen. However he was much livelier and really showed himself off, placing in both of the Shorthaired Speciality ring finals and becoming a Grand Champion Alter in the process. Again am very happy with how he has done particularly as he will probably be retiring from competitive showing this summer ;)
So all in all great fun but extremely tiring. Cats tired too so whilst I would do it again I will only do my very local ones as it is expensive etc with a hotel on top and I couldn't have done it without staying over? :?
Some things I found odd - as you know you handle your own cat and pop it in the pen. I found it strange that the show managers are allowed to show their cats in a show they are organising where they know judges and the judges clearly knew which cats were theirs but that is permitted in TICA :?
All in all a great experience though :D
I did really enjoy myself once we had got over the vetting in issues - pink skinned cat plus awful lighting = vetted out for red eyes which were fine outside in daylight! I was a little put out at the way this was handled (not by the vet). What a shame they don't have a daylight lamp when the lighting is so poor - thankfully the vet had said he would have another look in an hour and when it came to it he revetted outside as he said he had had a number of cats appear to have very red eyes due to the lighting ;)
To be honest I was already for packing it in there and then as I felt like dog poo but we carried on and good job too!
The show itself was really busy and quite tiring but I found it interesting and the finals judging style is really entertaining as well as informative. One judge put his top hat and fancy dress coat on to present the finals which I thought was a lovely touch and made it feel special? :cool:
Mister F took to the TICA ring judging style like a duck to water and had a great day on the Saturday finalling in 4 out of the 6 rings and ending the day as a Grand Champion Alter just needing some points to make him a Double Grand Champion Alter. Unfortunately on Sunday he was shattered bless him after his and Quando's friday night of partying in the hotel and being so busy with the rings the first day. He still managed to final in both the Speciality Longhair rings on Sunday taking a 2nd and a 3rd which I was over the moon with! He ended the weekend as a Double Grand Champion Alter just missing out on being a Triple Grand Champion Alter by 100 points. I am so so pleased with my little man as I had not really expected to come away with any finals/titles let alone do so well and will definitely take him to another in the future at some point :-D I do feel the judging style allowed my little man to show off his appeal and potential as well as his cute nature!
Quando didn't final the first day and in fact didn't seem to enjoy the ring judging so the plan was to try him in the first ring on Sunday and then withdraw him if necessary and let him sleep the day away in the pen. However he was much livelier and really showed himself off, placing in both of the Shorthaired Speciality ring finals and becoming a Grand Champion Alter in the process. Again am very happy with how he has done particularly as he will probably be retiring from competitive showing this summer ;)
So all in all great fun but extremely tiring. Cats tired too so whilst I would do it again I will only do my very local ones as it is expensive etc with a hotel on top and I couldn't have done it without staying over? :?
Some things I found odd - as you know you handle your own cat and pop it in the pen. I found it strange that the show managers are allowed to show their cats in a show they are organising where they know judges and the judges clearly knew which cats were theirs but that is permitted in TICA :?
All in all a great experience though :D