Category Archives: Cat Shows

We’re back! And with some fabulous news to share! :)

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

Oh my days, it’s been a long time since I wrote that, hasn’t it?

I’m sorry I’ve not written my blog in such a long time… obviously at the end of last year, it was a very difficult time for us all to lose our beloved (and still loved) Harry and then Friday within 2 weeks of each other, it was so heartbreaking and we are still very sad now πŸ™

And then all of a sudden it was Christmas time and my mummy was so busy with the store that she didn’t have time to help me write my blog. I told her she was a naughty mummy but she didn’t seem to take much notice πŸ˜†

But we’re back now and hopefully will be able to write regularly again πŸ™‚ We’ll try and catch up with all the comments, questions and messages as soon as we can too.

But all of that is not the fabulous news I want to share πŸ˜‰ No, I’m going to let you know all about the cat show yesterday! πŸ™‚

So this was a large double show, and also our local show as it was the Shropshire (where we live) and Gwynedd (which is a county in Wales) shows.

Spike was entered into both shows and Annie only in one (the Shropshire) because that’s just how things work out sometimes πŸ™‚

Even though it’s one of our closest shows, it was still much too early in the morning for me when the hoomins got up, so I let them get on with it and carried on with my important cat nap. My motto in life is that you can’t have too many important cat naps πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€

Anyways, they were soon out of the house, making their way to the show so peace descended πŸ™‚

At the show, they passed vetting in and went to settle in their pens.

Annie had a lot to say about that, she likes to announce her arrival to anyone who will listen (which isn’t that many people or cats, to be honest πŸ˜† )

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Chatty Annie

 

Spike soon settled into his double pen and watched the to-ings and fro-ings around him πŸ™‚

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Spike chillin’

 

Meanwhile, mummy was putting the finishing touches to the stall, it had been mainly set up the day before πŸ™‚

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Mummy’s Trade Stand

 

There was a bit of a delay to the show starting as there were some traffic delays for some people, so Spike and Annie waited patiently in their pens…

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Spike waiting patiently

 

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Annie waiting patiently (sort of)

 

…. but after a while the hall was quite full and the morning judging began. Mummy was busy serving customers on the stand but also kept an eye on the results as much as she could.

Annie’s results came out quite quickly: she still needs one more Olympian certificate to earn the title of Olympian Silver. There were 5 gorgeous girls in her class, and unfortunately she was not the winner πŸ™ Though the judge told my mummy afterwards that it was a very difficult decision and any one of the 5 could have won as they were all of such a high standard πŸ™‚

The same judge was judging Annie’s ‘Best of Colour’ class: Annie was the only girl in the class, but she was competing against 5 boys 😯

So my mummy was extremely pleased when she saw the results and saw that Annie won the class! Yay! So it was a wonderful result in this class πŸ™‚

She was in only one side class and was unplaced out of 6. Perhaps not her best day ever, but you can’t win em all! πŸ™‚

So now we move on to Spike….

His results seemed to take a long time to come out, it was a large show and the judges were very busy so this is understandable.

Spike is still aiming to achieve his Imperial title and he needs 2 more Imperial certificates to get it.

The first result that came out showed that he wasn’t going to achieve that as he got Reserve Imperial, i.e. second place.

Then there was a l-o-n-g wait for the other results….

… But they were worth waiting for!!

He won the Imperial class in the other show; he won Best of Breed in both shows and then he won one side class and came second in the other! Yay! My mummy was very pleased! πŸ™‚

BUT! There was still more excitement to come!

He then won “Best Foreign Neuter’ for the Gwynedd show! This was fabulous as there were a lot of gorgeous cats in the Foreign Neuter section (e.g Russian Blue, La Perm, Tonkinese, other Bengals, Devon Rex etc etc).

But then! More fabulous news! He only went and won Best Foreign Neuter for the Shropshire show as well! πŸ™‚ : ) πŸ™‚ Β My mummy and daddy were so pleased! Here’s some pics πŸ™‚

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Spikey and his rosettes

 

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More of Spikey’s rosettes

 

Phew! My mummy then went to the coffee shop to get a couple of celebratory lattes (the hoomins were driving so Champagne was out of the question πŸ˜† ) …. and whilst she was there, she heard a message over the loud speaker asking for the cat in pen 271 to be taken to the Best in Show pens!!

Oh my days! That was our Spike! He had beaten the Best Foreign Adult (non-neutered cat) and Best Foreign Kitten to win Overall Best in Show Foreign! Yay! πŸ™‚

My mummy rushed to the pen, got him out and rushed him to the BiS pens and meanwhile daddy grabbed the camera to take some pics πŸ™‚

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Spike in Best in Show pen

 

So now he competed against all the other cats who had won their Best in Show section – e.g. British, Semi Longhair, Persian etc – there are 9 in total πŸ™‚

The judge took each cat out of the BiS pens in turn to have a look at them and Spike was a very good boy indeed πŸ™‚

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Being judged for Overall Best in Show

 

What a spotty tummy he has πŸ™‚

So then the judge had the difficult task of choosing just one to win the overall Best in Show …. and she chose the semi-longhair winner, a wonderful Maine Coon boy who is absolutely gorgeous but that was fine as the hoomins were so pleased that Spike had got as far as he did as it is such an achievement, particularly at a large show like that one πŸ™‚

Phew! How exciting!

But after all that excitement, the show soon closed and the hoomins had to pack up the stall and make their way home and feed us all and make us nice and comfy for some more important cat naps πŸ™‚

Before I go, here’s a couple more pics of Spike’s rosettes and medal πŸ™‚

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Spike’s rosettes

 

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Spike’s medal

 

So there we have it! A wonderful day all round!

Take care my friends!

Love from

Spot

xxxxx

Spike and Annie’s latest day out!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend πŸ™‚ I’m here as your show reporter for yesterday’s outing! I think some of you might like to know how the Peskies got on, so being as my mummy bribed very kindly gave me some of my favourite chicken treats, I thought I’d oblige πŸ™‚

So the day started off as usual quite early, and most of us carried on sleeping whilst all the kerfuffle was going on πŸ™‚ The hoomins and Peskies soon left and made their way to Sue ourΒ breeder’s house to give her a lift as she was Duty Vet at the show.

As per the last show, there was some drama on the way – yet another fire! 😯 This time it was in a factory, and the hoomins and Peskies got stopped by a nice policeman who told them the road was closed, so they had to divert around some country lanes which was a bit of a problem being as they didn’t really know where they were going 😯

This made them a little late arriving at Sue’s house, but she was ready and waiting and they were soon on their way a little bit up north to Wigan πŸ™‚

On arrival, they settled into their pens, Spike had a good look around and soon settled in πŸ™‚

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Settled Spike

 

Annie on the other hand likes to have a good look in and around her pen and check that all is in order before she settles down πŸ™‚

 

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Checking out the pen

 

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It all seems ok πŸ™‚

 

She was so busy checking out her pen that she tipped all her water over and mummy had to dry it out πŸ™‚ Silly girl πŸ™‚

After a while, the hall began to fill up with all the other cats and their hoomins, there was about 225 cats in this show in total of all breeds including Pedigree Pets (like Annie) and non-pedigree pets too πŸ™‚

Then the morning judging began and the hoomins bit their fingernails whilst waiting for the results, silly things πŸ˜†

Annie is in the Olympian Class, and only needs one more certificate to reach Olympian Silver level. There were only two in the class yesterday, so unless the Judge withheld one or both of them, one would get the coveted Olympian and one would get Olympian Reserve.

Usually, with the Olympian being the top class, this is done first, but my mummy saw that all the other classes were gradually getting the results published, including Olympian male, but not Olympian Female!

So she went to ask what was happening and was told that the judge was very torn! She could not decide between Annie and the other girl, so was judging her other classes to try and help her make her mind up!

So it was a bit of a wait…. but the results eventually came out and…. Annie was awarded reserve πŸ™ The other girl pipped her at the post! So she has to wait a bit longer to get to the elusive Olympian Silver level!

She did, however, beat another Bengal to win Best of Colour so that was a nice consolation.

In her side classes, it wasn’t as good a day as she’s had previously, she came 2nd out of 4 in the class “Any Pedigree Pet” and 3rd out of 4 for “Prettiest Female”.

So it just wasn’t her day, but you can’t win every time! πŸ™‚

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Annie’s rosettes

So how did Spike do?

He’s aiming for his Imperial title, he has 2 Imperial certificates and needs another 3 to achieve the title. There were 5Β other boys in his class yesterday, so it was tough.

A little too tough as he wasn’t awarded it, it went to another Bengal boy, and the Reserve went to an Asian Smoke.

My mummy didn’t hold out much hope then for Best of Breed… there Β were 4 brown spotty Bengals in total who were competing for it, including the one who had won the Imperial, plus it was a judge who had not seemed to rate Spike in other shows….

So she was VERY surprised – and happy – when he won it! Yay! What a clever boy! But it didn’t stop there….

In his side classes, he came 1st out of 3 for ‘Foreign Visitor Neuter’ (again beating the boy who had won the Imperial) and 1st out of 4 in the special class judged on Temperament and Condition, beating two other Bengals and a Russian Blue!

So out of theΒ fourΒ classes he was entered into, he came 1st in three of them! πŸ˜€

Overall, then, it was a bit of a mixed day, but the hoomins seemed happy and when they came home we all had some yummy food and some more of my favourite chicken treats (I’m beginning to think that perhaps the hoomins should buy shares in that company πŸ˜† )

The next show that one of the Peskies – Annie – will be going to is…. The Supreme! This is the pinnacle of our show calendar and it takes place in just under 4 short weeks! Β How will she do? Who knows? But we’ll be sure to let you know here πŸ™‚ (as long as those lovely chicken treats keep coming πŸ˜† )

Take care my friends!

Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

 

 

Show Day – with a Difference!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

I’m here to tell you all about the show day yesterday, but it was different to normal in so many ways!

It started off all quite normally, mummy and daddy were going with Spike and Annie and the stall. This show was one of the closest ones to where we live, so the hoominsΒ were able to go the venue on Friday afternoon and start setting up the stall πŸ™‚

The stall has so many lovely things and is growing all the time, so it’s much better to be ableΒ to set up as much as they can the day before, they were there for about 3 hours in total, and were in fact very late in serving my dinner that evening which I wasn’t very impressed about and told them so in no uncertain terms!

But apart from that, all was well. Then yesterday (Caturday) morning, it was an earlyish start, though not as early as some. Mummy, daddy and the Peskies all got themselves looking presentable (sort of πŸ˜† ) and then drove off in the van to go and pick up Sue, our breeder and the Duty Vet at the show, so nothing different there.

Not far from Sue’s house, though, they saw lots of smoke in the air and a couple of fire engines and lots of firemen! 😯 someone had set fire to a hay field and they were desperately trying to get it under control.

Photo: @SFRS_JT
Photo: @SFRS_JT

Luckily, the fire was too far away from Sue’s house to cause any damage to that, or indeed any other properties, so after carefully driving by, the hoomins continued and within a few minutes were at Sue’s at the agreed time.

But…. there were no lights on at Sue’s! She wasn’t anywhere to be seen! My mummy rang the doorbell and knocked on the door but nothing! She was very worried, so she called Sue’s phone but there was no reply 😯

She then called the house phone and after a few rings, a groggy Sue replied… she was a bit confused as she was still asleep! For the first time ever in all the many years she had been going to cat shows, Sue had slept through her alarm!

My mummy was very relieved that it wasn’t anything more serious, but then there was then a slight panic as time was ticking on! Mummy checked all the Bengals and Toygers in Sue’s cattery and made sure they all had food and water whilst Sue got ready.

After a little while, they were good to go, so they set off and arrived at the show a bit later than planned but nothing that couldn’t be overcome πŸ™‚

On arrival, daddy took the Peskies through vetting in and got them settled in their pens, whilst mummy carried on setting up the stall which took another couple of hours.

Annie and Spike are very relaxed at shows and generally enjoy lots of nice catnaps and yesterday was just the sameΒ – daddy took a couple of pics before judging started πŸ™‚

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Spike telling daddyΒ what a good boy he is πŸ™‚

 

Annie meanwhile was as curious as ever!

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Annie

 

Then it was time for the judging to start; and for the morning at least, it was just like a normal show with all the judges doing their thing and the owners hoping that their cats would be on their best behaviour πŸ˜†

At the cat shows we go to (GCCF), the owners have to leave the cats during morning judging and are allowed back to see them usually around 12:30 or so. There are further classes that are judged in the afternoon, but the important Title classes and Best of Breed are judged in the morning.

The owners are allowed to walk around the stalls in the show hall, but a lot of them go and have breakfast or do a bit of shopping if the venue is near some shops.

So the stall is generally a bit quiet in the morning but peak trading happens in the early afternoon when all the owners come back and the general public are allowed in.

Yesterday, however, was a bit different.

At around 12:00 or 12;15, the hoomins were chatting to another stall holder, when out of the corner of their eye, they could see something moving on the floor! 😯

It soon became apparent that a cat had escaped and was running away from the judges and stewards that were trying to catch him!

He then decided that my mummy’s stall looked very nice so darted underneath it, in between all the boxes… but he didn’t stay there! Immediately behind the stall was some racking where they keep seating – they pull it out from the wall when needed and it turns into rows of seats, here is an example :

Seating

So imagine that with my mummy’s stall in front that took up almost a quarter of that space…

So, you guessed it, the naughty little cat decided that would be a good place to hang out, so he ran in between the racks and went and hid where no-one could reach him.

Oh dear! Lots of hoomins were then frantically trying to (a) get him out and (b) locate his owners who could have been anywhere!

Basically, the show stopped for a long while whilst lots of people tried lots of things to coax him out. Β Everyone except the stall holders and a few judges/stewards/show management team was told to leave.

After a while, owners and the public were queuing up at the door to come into the hall as it was gone 12:30 but they were not allowed in. Meanwhile, the kitty cat stood (or rather sat) firm and wouldn’t budge!

The sports hall people said it was too dangerous to move the racking, so that was out of the question, and the space was too small for even little hoomins to get into so it was a stale-mate!

The owners were found and tried to get him out and he did come enticingly close once or twice, but then went back to being out of reach 😯

After 30 or 40 minutes, it was decided that he wasn’t coming out any time soon and the show was re-started and the owners and public were allowed in, whilst the owners of the runaway stayed at the end of the racking, next to mummy’s stall, keeping an eye on him and waiting for him to change his mind and come out.

Then… there was a new development! The show management was told that the sports hall people had allowed them to move the racking after all!

But of course…. there was mummy’s stand in the way, and a nice man called Barry’s stand which was next door too.

OMC! 😯 After 5 hours of setting up, and trading that hadΒ already been disrupted at the peak time, it was decided that some strong men and women would be able to simply move the tables away. Which they did. Except… a couple of tables were moved a few metres to the side, and the other three were moved a few metres in front, so basically the previously-neat stall was literally strewn across part of the show hall… Mummy wasn’t entirely pleased, though she did feel extremely sorry for the nice lady and man who’s cat it was. After all, they were worried sick and it wasn’t their fault their cat was sitting in the middle of some dark racking instead of being cuddled in his pen!

So then there were lots of hoomins umming and aaahhing, gathered around the space where mummy’s stall had been. Β But nothing else seemed to be happening…..

Then it came to light that the Sports Hall manager had not in fact given permission for the racking to be moved, saying it was too dangerous and could hurt the cat or any hoomins nearby….

So that was that. Mummy tried to carry on trading as best she could for the rest of the afternoon, rather embarrassed by the state that her stall was in whilst the little cat stayed right where he was πŸ˜†

And in amongst all of this, of course, Spike and Annie were hoping to get somewhere with their classes! So I guess I’d better let you know how they did, though it wasn’t the best day they’d ever had πŸ™‚

Spike was in a class of 4 for his Imperial, Β and wasn’t awarded it. He did win Best of Breed and had a 1st and two 2nds in his side classes.

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Spike

Annie needs that elusive last certificate for her Olympian Silver, but unfortunately was not awarded it, though she too won Best of Colour and she came 1st out of 4 for ‘Prettiest Female’, 1st out of 3 in the ‘Senior’ class (a cat is classed as ‘senior’ when they are 2 years+) and 3rd out of 6 for ‘Any Pedigree Pet’.

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Annie and her rosettes

 

So that was that.

 

After a strange day, it was then finally time to pack up and go home πŸ™‚ Β It’s much quicker for the hoomins to pack up the stall than set it up, even if it was all over the place and they made good progress as the hall gradually emptied of all the other exhibitors and their precious cats.

But I guess you all want to know what happened to the boy who was hiding?

A short while after the show ended, and the hall had started to empty, he came out into the arms of his daddy and safely into his carrier (after lots of cuddles of course).

The owners were soon on their way after that, with mummy and daddy and Sue and the Peskies not too far behind them.

So that is the end of that. Let’s hope that isn’t repeated anytime soon πŸ™‚

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Show Day for the Brown Spotty Boys!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

So I thought I’d let you know all about my big day out yesterday. Oh, and Spike’s too I guess πŸ˜†

I knew something was a-happening on Friday evening as my mummy first of all trimmed my claws, then cleaned my face and ears – I don’t mind the ears, it’s when she does my eyes and nose that I complain about the indignity of it all – then she spruced up my coat! As if it needed sprucing!

Then she did the same to Spike but not Annie so I guessed it was to be a boys’ day out πŸ™‚ I heard mummy say something to daddy about Annie having a little summer holiday from shows, so it was up to us to fly the Bengal Cat World flag! πŸ˜€

And I was right! At some unearthly hour in the middle of the night yesterday, the hoomins awoke from their slumber and put every single light on in the house they could find (or at least it seemed like that, they should learn to have better night vision, it would be so beneficial for them πŸ˜† ) – then once they had finished preening themselves, they hoisted me and Spike into our carrier and off we went to a show many miles away….

We were there very early, as usual, so there were no actual vets even there yet for vetting in, so daddy stayed with us whilst mummy started to set up her stall.

After a while,Β daddy took us to vetting in but it wasn’t our breeder, Sue, like it usually is (she was at a different show). It was a man vet! 😯 Spike decided he didn’t like him very much and actually hissed at him! Can you believe it? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him hiss before, so he was showing a bit of a new side πŸ˜†

But as soon as we were into the show hall, he was his old self again and daddy set about cleaning and preparing our pens. We soon settled in though I think I might need a bigger bed πŸ˜†

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Chillin in the bed

Spike was back to his usual laid back self, and was in the pen right next door to me. He decided he preferred not being in the bed at all! πŸ™‚

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Spike doesn’t need a bed

 

After a while, it was time for us to be nice to all the judges who came along to see us πŸ™‚ We are both at the same level, so we were both competing to get the Imperial certificate with whoever else was in the class, and of course we are both the same breed so we were both competing for Best of Breed with any other brown spotties who were there πŸ™‚

Luckily, my mummy wasn’t in the dark as she had the show catalogue, so she could see that there were 7 cats in total going for the Imperial – alongside myself and Spike there were some Cornish Rexes and some Asian tabbies too and some others that I can’t remember.

But only one would get the desired Imperial certificate, and one would get Reserve and the others would get nothing…

For Best of Breed, myself and Spike were up against a girl Bengal who herself was very lovely so that would be tough as only one of us would win!

We had a long long wait for the results to come out…. Best of breed was first and the winner was ……. Spike! Yay! ( <—- my mummy made me say that πŸ˜† )

Then there was a long gap to wait for the Imperial which was a good job as my mummy’s stall was absolutely hectic with lots of people buying lots of lovely kitty things fromΒ there πŸ˜‰

But then the result was finally up though we weren’t expecting to win….. so we were really pleasantly surprised when we found out that the winner was Spike! Yay again! πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Here’s his lovely rosette πŸ™‚

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Spike’s rosette

 

After all that excitement, we then had another lovely treat in that our good page friend, Izzy, and her friend, Janina, came to visit me! (and Spike, but I am her favourite πŸ˜€ ) It was so lovely to see you Izzy at last, you have been a very loyal friend of the page pretty much as soon as it began, so thank you! And Janina was a lovely smiley lady too! πŸ™‚

The only thing left to wait for now was the side class results.

I came 2nd out of 4 in one of mine, and was unplaced in the other.

Spike came 1st out of 2 in one of his and 2nd out of 6 in the other, so yet more great results for the golden boy! πŸ™‚

Then it was time to pack up and drive home. I did supervise my daddy quite closely on the drive back to make sure his driving was up to my strict standards πŸ˜†

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Supervising daddy

 

And in between times, I had a snooze in the carrier which I kind of let Spikey share but he was only allowed to have a little bit πŸ™‚ Β Though I did allow him toΒ use me as a pillow (I am nice like that)

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Snoozing on the way home

 

Then we got home and little Annie in particular was so pleased to see us! She had missed her favourite boy (me) and her brother and the hoomins! She was very clingy for the rest of the evening and today as well! (note to self: “don’t go out again without the little pesky”)

But I don’t think I will be going to any more shows anyways, my friends, as my mummy said she will probably retire me and let the two youngsters represent us which they do so well. I must admit, I do get much better catnaps when I’m at home, so that’s fine by me πŸ˜†

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Little Annie’s Big Day Out!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

So I’m going to tell you all about Annie’s latest jaunt to the cat show πŸ™‚

The show she went to yesterday was held at the Wood Green Animal Shelter in Cambridgeshire (UK) so it was quite a trek πŸ™‚ It was a very early start as the hoomins were giving Sue, our breeder and Duty Vet at the show, a ride there.

So with the dawn just peeking out over the horizon, they set off and I went and found my nice pink cushion and had some lovely sleeps on there on my own. In fact the only disturbance was a bit of snoring from Friday, but I managed to get some good naps in despite that πŸ˜†

I digress… they arrived at the show nice and early and Sue was able to vet Annie in without any issues, so it was time to go and get settled in her pen πŸ™‚

 

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Annie settling in

 

Annie likes to have a good look around her and see who her neighbours are (she’s a bit nosey if I’m honest) though not everyone was there at that time of the morning.

It didn’t take long for the show hall to fill up, though, and soon it was time for morning judging to start πŸ™‚ This was a double show – the Kensington show and the Eastern Counties show, so there were a lot of classes to be judged!

Annie of course is going for her Olympian Silver title which is the most important class out of them all. She currently has three Olympian Silver certificates and needs another two to earnΒ the title. But these are the very top classes, so the competition is very strong!

In Annie’s Olympian class there were 7 beautiful girls entered, though one was absent… this still meant she had to beat 5 others to be awarded the coveted certificate.

The results were a little slow to come in, but they were worth waiting for!

Annie didn’t the Olympian for the Kensington show πŸ™ But she did get it for the Eastern Counties show – Yay! πŸ™‚ This means she now only needs one more certificate to be an Olympian Silver and then she will go on to compete for more Olympians certificates to reach Gold!

She also won Best in Colour for the Eastern Counties show and for the Kensington show too! πŸ™‚

In the side classes (which aren’t as important), she didn’t do so well πŸ™
In the Eastern Counties show, she came 3rd out of 5 for “Prettiest female” and 3rd out of 5 for “Any Variety Female”.

In the Kensington side classes, she came 2nd out of 5 for “Prettiest female” and 1st out of 2 for “Best Presentation Short Hair”.

My mummy always likes her to win “Prettiest” so these are not good results πŸ˜†

But of course, the main thing was she got another precious Olympian, and sheΒ also met lots of lovely friends who came to the show especially and Annie drew lots of admirers from the general public when she was out of her pen, having a cuddle with mummy or daddy πŸ™‚

Here’s some more pics πŸ™‚

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Annie thinking about eating her rosette πŸ™‚

 

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Hmmm.. this rosette is not very tasty πŸ™‚

 

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“I wonder what next door’s up to?”

 

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Having a rest under the cooling fan πŸ™‚

 

In two week’s time, Annie is going to another double show where she’ll have the chance to compete for the Olympian, but we’re not counting any chickens πŸ™‚ They always say the last one is the hardest one to get πŸ™‚

And I heard a little mumble that I’m also entered into one of the shows! How about that my friends? I get to catnap inside a nice pen all day instead of at home πŸ˜†

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Annie’s Triumph at the Cat Show

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

Oh my days! I am just a tiny bit proud of my little sister, Annie, but don’t tell her I said so, will you?

She is quite a little star at home, but also when she goes gallivanting around the country to cat shows! And yesterday was no exception.

It was the Maine Coon cat show yesterday. Now, we all know that Annie is about as far removed away from a Maine Coon as you can get – she’s little and has a sleek short coat rather than being large with a fluffy coat – but being as she’s in the household pet section, she can go to these kinds of shows, even though she isn’t that breed πŸ™‚

The show was not too far away, so although it was the usual early start, it was a bit more reasonable than others can be πŸ™‚ And as usual, once Annie and the hoomins had left, we all had some lovely catnaps and watched the birdies out of the windows once it was properly light πŸ™‚

Annie as normal sailed through vetting in and was soon settling into her pen and checking out the surroundings πŸ™‚

 

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Annie checking out her surroundings

 

She told daddy she felt it was ok πŸ™‚

 

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Annie giving the paws up

 

Being a breed show, this was a bit smaller than some others, so there were only about 100 cats there in total – around 75 Maine Coons and 25 Household Pets πŸ™‚

As you know, Annie is now in the top classes – the Olympians, and already has her Bronze so is going for Silver. She needs 5 silvers from 5 different judges, and only one of the 5 can be from a smaller breed show, the other 4 must come from All Breed shows.

There were four girls in total in Annie’s class, all wanting to win the coveted Olympian certificate, and all very pretty ladies.

Luckily, the results were out extremely quickly, so we didn’t need to wait long to hear the wonderful news that Annie had won! Yay! πŸ™‚

Here’s her certificate, signed by the judge:

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Annie’s Olympian certificate

 

And this is the reverse side with the judge’s comments! (some do this, not all)

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The reverse

 

So the judge said she was ‘bowled over’ by her – how lovely! πŸ™‚

Then it was a different judge doing Annie’s Best of Colour judging, which is the next most important class to win… but Annie beat the boy to win this too! πŸ™‚

Then it was the time for side classes, the results of these are more for fun as they don’t ‘count’ towards anything. Which is a good job as Annie didn’t do so well in these πŸ™

She was unplaced out of 6 for ‘Prettiest Female’

She came third out of 5 for ‘Any Cat Under 3’

But she did win the class – ‘Best Groomed Shorthair’ out of 6.

So mixed results there, but she’s still our little star, and here she is with her rosettes to prove it πŸ˜‰

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Annie having a chat

 

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Annie having a snooze

 

They all got home safely and Annie had a nice tea and a long sleep before starting out on a new day today where she sat on top of the cat house watching the birdies! πŸ™‚

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Annie doing some birdie watching

 

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

The first show of the year!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

 

So there I was, in the fading light in the cat garden, chasing a springy toad with Lula when all of a sudden my mummy came along and told us off for chasing things smaller than ourselves and made me come into her office aka Bengal Cat World International Headquarters aka The Boudoir, to write my blog for this week!

Phew! That was a long sentence but I guess what it all means is, I’m here my friends! (albeit a little unwillingly as I bet Mr. Toad will be long gone by now *sigh* πŸ˜† )

So I thought I’d give you an update about the first show of the year! Hello? First show? But it’s June and we’ve been to quite a few already this year?

Ha! Well, just to confuse you all, the show calendar under GCCF runs from June – May so we have now officially started the new season πŸ™‚ So I haven’t gone mad on toad odour in case you were wondering Β πŸ˜†

Anyway, back in time to yesterday… it was as usual an early start, though not as early as some have been, because this was the Merseyside show which isn’t too far away from us.

Annie and Spike had been through their little prep session the night before, so I knew it was the two peskies that were going. Which in turn meant of course I could have lovely catnaps by myself without having to share my bed with one little wriggly spotty pesky aka Annie πŸ˜€

They were soon ready and left the house on time where they drove to the show with no issues, they flew through vetting in and then it was time to settle in the pens πŸ™‚

This was a relatively small show for an all-breed one as there was a double showΒ on in the south of the country at the same time, so there was only about 180 cats of all breeds, and including of course Household Pets.

So the peskies had to wait a little longer whilst their pens were prepared, but they were soon able to get in them and settle.

Annie had a good look around to make sure she was happy with her surroundings πŸ™‚

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Having a good look around

 

Whilst Spike is so laid back, he just made himself at home in his double pen and made sure his bed was nice and comfy πŸ˜‰

 

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Checking out his bed πŸ™‚

 

Then it was time for the judging to start! Mummy looked in her catalogue and could see that, although it was a relatively small show, both the peskies had a fair amount of competition!

Spike was aiming for an Imperial certificate,Β and there were 4 cats in the class, with just two of them being awarded – one for the Imperial and one for the Reserve.

Unfortunately, Spike didn’t get placed on this occasion, but another stunning Bengal boy won instead so that was nice πŸ™‚ The other two cats weren’t Bengals πŸ™‚

Then the next most important class is Best of Breed. Again, there were 4 in the class though of course all Bengals this time and it was awarded to a girl! So the boy who won the Imperial, and Spike, and another girl weren’t successful on this occasion. Oh well πŸ™‚

Spike only had one more class to go which was ‘Any Variety Foreign Neuter’. He was only against one other cat, a Devon Rex, but he actually won it! Yay! So at least he came home with something from the day πŸ™‚ Plus, he had very many admirers from the public! Whenever the hoomins were at his pen, all the passers by would remark on how wonderful they thought he was πŸ™‚

Here he is with his little consolation prize πŸ™‚

 

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Spike and his consolation prize

 

So over to Annie who is quite a little star when it comes to showing.

She of course is more advanced than Spike in the titles she’s earned, being an Olympian Bronze already. So she was trying to get another Olympian award to go towards her Olympian Silver title. She needs 5 in total and already has one, so she’s on her way.

The judge was not one that mummy had come across before, so nothing was certain, though there were only 2 in the class, so it was likely that one would win and one would be the reserve. Β This is not always a foregone conclusion, as any judge always has the right to withhold giving the title or the reserve to any cat, so you can’t count any chickens πŸ˜†

My mummy knowsΒ the very nice lady, Carol, who was in charge of collating all the results and did slightly pester her at times to find out the results first πŸ˜† There was a bit of a wait but it was worth it! Yes! Annie was awarded the Olympian, meaning she now has 2 towards her silver! πŸ™‚

The Best of Colour was the next class to wait for where Annie was competing against 3 boys, including a gorgeous marbled brown Bengal who is already an Olympian Gold!

Yet again she was successful and my mummy did a little happy dance to celebrate (I think Carol thought she was a bit strange at this point, but my mummy was clearly oblivious 😯 )

So then it was on to the side classes – Annie was entered into 2 and both of them had 6 cats in the class in total.

The first one mummy looked at was “Cat with the Sleekest Coat” which Annie has won several times previously at other shows, though today was not to be her day on this one as she came 3rd out of the 6.

But then, she looked at “Any Colour Household Pet” which had some really strong competition, and the little pickle only went and won it! Yay!

So it was another superb day for the little one πŸ™‚

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Annie and her rosettes

 

The only thing left to report is Best in Show… Now, our little pesky didn’t win it, but our very good friend Debbie and her adorable baby boy, Ragnar, did! Yay and double yay! Rags is only 4 months old and this was his very first show so what a clever boy he was! He’s a Bengal x Maine Coon and it’s no wonder he won everyone’s hearts being as cute as a button as you can see below πŸ™‚

 

Debbie Rawlinson's Ragnar
Debbie Rawlinson’s Ragnar

(Photo published with the kind permission of Carol Walker)

So what a great end to a great day!

It was then of course time to hit the heat outside of the air conditioned hall and make the trek back home where we all played in our Bengal spa which is still a work in progress, but getting there πŸ™‚

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

Another Show Day!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend? Ours of course included another show, the last for a little while as there are no shows close enough to us in May πŸ™‚ So we’re all going to be having a little rest from them πŸ™‚

But yesterday, Spike and Annie were strutting their stuff at a double show – the Cambridgeshire and the Bedford shows. Annie was entered into both, but Spike was just entered into one as my mummy can be quite fussy like that πŸ™‚

It was one of the furthest shows from us, so it was another early start for the hoomins and the Peskies. I was disturbed from my catnap for an hour or so but then went back to sleep on the warm spot Annie left behind on top of the kitchen cabinets πŸ™‚ It was very pleasant and I dreamed of chicken treats and tuna, two of my most favourite things, as you may well have gathered if you’re a regular follower πŸ™‚

Back to the topic… they picked up Sue the vet and our breeder on the way. She was taking two cats: Lucy and Harley. Lucy is half sister to Lula and myself (we share the same mother) and Harley is father to all 4 of the Bengal Cat World Bengals πŸ™‚

There was a bit of a delay getting to the venue as unfortunately there had been a serious accident on the motorway, but luckily they weren’t too late.

Annie settled into her pen in the Household Pet section…

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Annie tellling daddy about her pen

 

… Whilst Spike was next to Harley in the Pedigree section (pic taken a little later in the day).

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Spike and Harley

Spike is of course competing for his Imperial Grand Premier title, whereas Harley is actually a level below, he’s competing for Grand Premier. This is because Harley has only recently been neutered πŸ™‚ When they aren’t neutered, catsΒ compete for ‘Champion’ rather than ‘Premier’ titles, and Harley had reached Grand Champion (which isn’t bad going as he didn’t go to that many shows).

Once they’re neutered, they have to start again in the Neuter section, though they keep the title they’d earned in the Adult (non-neuter) section! A bit confusing I know… So Harley’s title is Grand Champion and Premier at the moment πŸ™‚

It was quite a busy show, being as it was a double one, with lots of cats and people in the show hallΒ but the morning judging soon started and the exhibitors had to let the judges get on with their work πŸ™‚

The results were in reasonably quickly and here’s howΒ our two little peskies did πŸ™‚

In the Bedford show, Annie was up against 7 other lovely girlsΒ in the Olympian class and unfortunately didn’t win it πŸ™ She did win Best in Colour, though, beating a sweet boy πŸ™‚ In her side classes she was unplaced out of 8 in one, and 2nd out of 2 in the other, so not the best of results….

However, in the Cambridgeshire show, she was up against the same 7 girls for Olympian and won! So she now has her first Olympian Silver certificate (4 more to get to earn the title). She also beat the same boy to win Best in Colour and was 2nd out of 3 and 1st out of one (lol) in her side classes – so quite a bit better πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Spike was up against 6 other boys for his Imperial certificate but didn’t get it, it was awarded to a stunning Russian Blue. He was up against 5 others (including Harley) for Best of Breed but it was awarded to Β a little girl.

In his side classes, he was very consistent, coming 2nd out of 3 in both of them πŸ™‚

Harley got Best of Breed in the other show (that Spike wasn’t entered in) and he also wonΒ 2 Grand Premier certificates which was excellent. Lucy also did well, though my mummy said she can’t remember all her results now πŸ˜† (I blame her age 😯 )

Here’s some more pics πŸ™‚

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Annie telling daddy about her Olympian rosette

 

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Spike chilled out

 

Before they knew it, it was time to pack up and travel safely home. Luckily the issues on the motorway had been sorted out and they all arrived safely, so we had some nice chicken treats and I had some tuna and they had whatever they like, and then it was time for a little run around the cat garden before settling down for a well-earned rest. And so did the peskies πŸ˜†

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Boys’ Day Out!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

It’s a little bit odd, I know, me writing my blog on a Monday, and I’ll be out with my days all week! πŸ˜† It’s all because the cat show this week was on Sunday rather than Saturday πŸ™‚ Β My mummyΒ was much too tired to help me write my blog yesterday to tell you all about the show, so that’s whyΒ we’re writing it now πŸ™‚

 

So we were up bright and early yesterday. Well, it was early at least, perhaps not so bright, seeing as it was in the middle of the night … 😯 Perhaps not quite the middle of the night but it was very early for me to have my sleep disturbed 😯

 

Mummy had decided to give Annie a little break from shows as she’s been to a few this year, so it was up to us boys – me and Spike – to go and show off our spots πŸ™‚

 

So, Annie and the rest of them carried on snoozing whilst Spike and I got in the large carrier and were whisked away to the show.
We both had double pens and I settled in very quickly into my donut bed as I could tell I’d be able to have lots of nice catnaps in it πŸ˜‰

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Comfy!

 

Spike, on the other paw, liked to have a good look round his pen and make sure it was up to his standards!

 

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Spike checking out his pen

 

So mummy had to fuss around him quite a lot – he’s very loud and insistent when he wants to be!

 

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Mummy looking after Spike and me snoozing

 

After a while, as it always does, the rest of the world caught up with us and others started to arrive and the hall soon filled up with cats of all breeds and colours.

And then the morning judging started where we’d be assessed for our Title and Best of Breed classes. This was a joint show so, although we’re both at the same level, we weren’t competing against each other as Spike was in one show and I was in a different one.

We were both going for our Imperial certificate, as we both still need 4 to achieve the title (we both have one each – we like to be consistent! πŸ˜† )

The title class results took a little while to come out, but in the meantime the Best of Breed results were published! And what great news! I won Best of Breed in my show, though to be fair there was only one other boy up against me.

Spike was up against 3 other cats for his BoB, including my Aunt Fanny (Sue’s cat. He’s related to me on my mother’s side, and not related to Spike). Sue knew that the judge liked Fanny very much and Fanny is much more titled than either of us two so it would be a tough class….

But Spike won it! Yay! What a clever chap he is πŸ™‚

Then we waited for our Imperial class results: Spike was up against 4 other cats in his, and I was up against 7 other cats in mine!

Again, a tough couple of classes, which sadly neither of us won. πŸ™ Oh well. If it was any consolation, the boy who won Spike’s class also eventually won the Best in Show Foreign category, so it was no shame to be beaten by him.

Then we waited for the side classes…. mine weren’t all that great, to be honest πŸ™‚ I was unplaced out of 5 in one, and 2nd out of 2 in the other. But at least I had lots of nice catnaps πŸ™‚

Spike did a little better! He won one of his side classes (though he was the only one in it πŸ˜† πŸ˜† ) and came 2nd out of 5 in the other, with the same boy beating him to 1st place.

Then, it was time to pack up so daddy put us both in the same pen whilst he tidied things up and mummy got on with packing up the stall.

The first thing Spike did was steal my nice bed!

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Naughty Spike!

 

I wasn’t impressed by this πŸ™‚

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Not impressed

 

So I made him get up and look at my nice pink rosette (though he seemed much more interested in something else Β πŸ™‚ Β )

 

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Spike getting up

 

And finally, we got home and had some nice dinner and some of my favourite chicken treats before getting into bed for a well-deserved snooze. In fact, I have no idea why my mummy was so tired after all; I had a very relaxing day! πŸ˜†

The next show is in a few weeks, which will be attended byΒ Spike and Annie πŸ™‚

Take care my friends!

Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

Annie’s Latest Triumph!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

I just want to start off by admitting something…. but don’t let anyone else know, OK?

I’m just a little, teeny-tiny bit proud of the littlest Pesky; Annie! πŸ™‚ The girl has done good! She had such a great day yesterday at the cat show, so now I’m going to tell you all about it πŸ˜‰

It was the usual early start. Well, early = middle of the night. So I carried on sleeping on top of the kitchen cabinets (was having a change of scenery) whilst the hoomins did their thing and rushed around and finally left with the little one in tow so I could get back to some un-interrupted sleep πŸ™‚

They drove to Sue’s house (our breeder) and then made their way up north for about 100 miles until they reached the show.

The doors were meant to open at 7am, but they were locked and didn’t get opened until at least 15 or 20 minutes later! My mummy wasn’t pleased as she had to set up her trade stand (it takes her forever to do this 😯 ) and 20 minutes was a big loss of time!

But they eventually got in; Annie passed vetting in with no problems and they were in the show hall.

Mummy set up her trade stand which looked like this when she was finished πŸ™‚

 

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Mummy’s trade stand

 

Whilst she was doing that, Daddy cleaned Annie’s pen and prepared it and settled her in πŸ™‚

 

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Annie settling in

 

And then it was time for the morning judging to start!

Annie’s main class was the Olympian and she only needed one more Olympian certificate to earn the title “Olympian Bronze”.

When mummy looked in the catalogue, though, she could see that it would be tough as she was up against three other gorgeous girls, two of whom were already Olympian Silvers, so much more qualified than our Annie.

They were on tenterhooks for a while, but (after about the 10th time of mummy looking), the results were published and our little Annie won the class! Yay! This means that the title is now hers! So in future shows she’ll be competing for certificates to earn the title “Olympian Silver” πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

Then, the next most important class is Best of Colour (known as Best of Breed in the ‘normal’ pedigree section that Spike and I compete in). Again, Annie’s competition was strong as she was up against 3 boys, two of whom were Olympian Gold! (one earned the title that day).

After another little wait, and a slight little hiccup where it looked like one of the boys might have got it, the final result was published and Annie had won that too! What a clever poppet!

So then it was just the side classes that were awaited: these are nice to win, but don’t really count towards anything so are not as important as the other two classes.

But having said that, my mummy always likes Annie to win the “Prettiest Female” class! Annie yet again had tough competition as 8 lovely females were in this class!

So my mummy was very pleased when she saw Annie had won this too!

Then it was the “Glossiest Coat” class. Again there were 8 lovely cats in the class and yet again, would you believe it, it was yet another class where the PeskyΒ came 1st! Amazing!

The final side class result was not so good. In the Club Class she came 3rd out of 5. Oh well. πŸ˜€

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Annie with some of her awards

 

So our little Annie is not yet 2 years old and already has the title *takes a deep breath* …

Olympian Bronze Imperial Grand Master Cat!

To put this in perspective, our Lula who had a great show career before she retired, earned her Imperial title just before her 2nd birthday and never progressed beyond that, and I had only reached the Grand level by my second birthday πŸ™‚ These are the more normal achievements for many cats πŸ™‚Β And of course, the Olympian is the hardest level to achieve no matter which section you’re in πŸ™‚

Here’s Annie in herΒ pen with all her rosettes and certificates πŸ™‚

(except the third place one πŸ˜† )

 

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Annie’s pen

 

And here’s Annie’s Olympian certificate from yesterday close up πŸ™‚

 

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Olympian Certificate

 

And finally, here’s all 5 of the rosettes she won to gain the title Olympian Bronze!

 

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Olympian Rosettes

 

So to earn the title Olympian Silver, she now needs 5 more Olympian certificates. As with all the Olympian titles, they need to be from 5 different judges and 4 of them must come from All Breed Cat Shows (i.e. the large shows where all breeds can be entered). Only one can be from a smaller show where there are only one or a few breeds.

I hope you liked my little ‘tail’ my friends!

Take care!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx