Category Archives: Spike

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 🙁

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 😆

But we’re back now and hopefully will be able to write regularly again 🙂 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 😉 No, I’m going to let you know all about the cat show yesterday! 🙂

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 🙂

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 😀 😀

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

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 😆 )

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Chatty Annie

 

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

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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 🙂

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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 🙁 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 🙂

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 🙂

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! 🙂

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! 🙂

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! 🙂 : ) 🙂  My mummy and daddy were so pleased! Here’s some pics 🙂

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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 😆 ) …. 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! 🙂

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 🙂

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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 🙂

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 🙂

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Being judged for Overall Best in Show

 

What a spotty tummy he has 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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

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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 🙂 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 🙂

So the day started off as usual quite early, and most of us carried on sleeping whilst all the kerfuffle was going on 🙂 The hoomins and Peskies soon left and made their way to Sue our 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 🙂

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

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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 🙂

 

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Checking out the pen

 

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It all seems ok 🙂

 

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

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 🙂

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

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 🙁 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! 🙂

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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 5 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  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 the four classes he was entered into, he came 1st in three of them! 😀

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 😆 )

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!  How will she do? Who knows? But we’ll be sure to let you know here 🙂 (as long as those lovely chicken treats keep coming 😆 )

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 hoomins were able to go the venue on Friday afternoon and start setting up the stall 🙂

The stall has so many lovely things and is growing all the time, so it’s much better to be able 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 😆 ) 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 🙂

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 same – daddy took a couple of pics before judging started 🙂

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Spike telling daddy what a good boy he is 🙂

 

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 😆

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.  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 had 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.  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 😆

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 🙂

Spike was in a class of 4 for his Imperial,  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 🙂  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 🙂

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 😆

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 🙂 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! 😀

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 😆 ) – 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, 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 😆

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 😆

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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! 🙂

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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 🙂 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 🙂

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 😆 )

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 from there 😉

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! 🙂 🙂 🙂

Here’s his lovely rosette 🙂

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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 😀 ) 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! 🙂

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! 🙂

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 😆

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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 🙂  Though I did allow him to 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 😆

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Our World this week :)

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

Can you believe it’s Sunday already? It’s amazing how quickly a week passes, isn’t it? We’ve had some nice things happen this week and of course some not so nice things…

You may recall at the start of the week, our Spike decided to worry the entire household by staying out overnight when he shouldn’t 😯 Luckily, he came home the next day, but he would still like to escape given the chance. Here he is plotting his next move, naughty big pesky 😆

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Spike plotting

 

I had a much nicer week though 🙂 As you probably know by now, I do like a little catnap now and again and I do like my comfort. All for research purposes, you understand 🙂

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Having a nap in Mummy’s office

 

Quite often, though, I have a little person helping me with my “research”…

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Little Annie helping me

 

This week, I was able to put my research powers to good use – see! I knew there was a reason for me purrfecting my snoozing skills all these years!

My mummy’s nice friends at Tigga Towers gave her one of their new memory foam cat pillows, and asked if she could see what us cats thought of it!

Well! Of course, I’m always happy to oblige if it means helping others, so I waited patiently for mummy to fluff it up and position it, and there I was – straight on the case to see what it was like! 😆

Mind you, it didn’t take long for the little pesky to join me – it’s a good job there’s room for two!

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Testing out the pillow

 

So I asked Annie what she thought and she said it was very comfortable indeed, and for a change I actually agreed with her! I can see us me having lots and lots of nice snoozes on it – its so lovely and soft yet supportive at the same time! And just the purrfect size for us 🙂

Then we asked our mummy what she thought…

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What do you think mummy?

 

She said that the main thing is that we like it which we clearly do. Lots of people buy beds that their cats hardly ever use, but this wasn’t the case here.

She then got all sensible about it, saying how practical it is as the outer cover is easily removed and washed, and there is wipe clean surface covering the inside pillow in case of little accidents. Not that I would have any ‘little accidents’ of course 😯

She knows how well the Tigga Towers covers wash from looking after the coverings on the towers we have 🙂 So compared to some other cat beds, it’s very easy to take care of.

I must admit, I did start to drift off a little here as I think practical is a bit boring if I’m honest 🙂 All I know is that it’s comfy and snuggly and is now my favourite bed if I’m in that part of my World 🙂

In the meantime, Lula was outside enjoying a cat nap in her hammock for a change as Spike wasn’t occupying it 🙂

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Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…

 

And then Annie decided it was time for some fresh air, so she went to catch some rays

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Little Annie

 

This week has also seen our Friday cat going somewhere we don’t like going – to the Cat Doctor! She had a poorly mouth with sore teeth and gums. Well, she is 18½ so she’s had those teeth for a long time 🙂

Luckily, the Cat Doctor was able to give her some meds which have helped a lot, so hopefully we can avoid her needing to have surgery which is a bit of a risk at her age.

When she came back from that place, I was nice and let her sit on my new bed and Lula kept her company 🙂

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Having a chat

 

In fact, I have been very nice and let Lula and Harry use my pillow. And both of them have had the little Annie pesky join them on it too! There’s no escaping her 🙂

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Harry

So the only cat in our World who I’ve not seen on my new bed is Robbie.

Robbie likes the simple things in life and often sleeps in a cardboard box which has a pillow in for him, though I think I need to educate him on trying something new 🙂

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Robbie outside, blending in

 

Meanwhile, I settled down for a nice snooze. Accompanied by you-know-who 😆

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Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…

 

So that’s a week in our World, my friends! I hope you enjoyed catching up with all seven of us 🙂

Take care!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

Naughty Spike’s Latest Big Adventure!

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

This is unusual, isn’t it? I’m writing my blog on a Monday instead of a Sunday! 😯 Did I hear you ask why? Well, the reason is that our naughtiest cat ever in the world, Spike, went off on a Big Adventure yesterday, and my mummy and daddy were so concerned about him that mummy said she didn’t feel in the mood to help me write my blog 🙁

So what did he do?

He might try and look all innocent, our Spike, and sometimes he even manages to pull it off such as here…

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Spike doing the innocent look

 

But really, when you look closely, he often has just a hint of a naughty glint in his eye!

 

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Spike’s naughty glint…

 

And you often wonder what he’s plotting! More often than not, he’s trying to figure out a way of escaping from our lovely cat garden!

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“How can I get out of here?”

 

How terrible is that when our daddy has spent hours making things for us and planting interesting plants for us to play in and watch all the bugs?

But still! Spike had to go ahead and try and outdo the hoomins! What a naughty young man!

First of all, he used the tree that Lula used to like sitting under – the big fir tree. He would climb up between all the prickles and jump from there on to the top of the wire, then on the fence and out!

So the tree had to go!

So with that option no longer available, Spike turned his attentions to the apple tree which Annie loved to climb in to get closer to the birdies!

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Annie watching the birdies

 

Again, Spike climbed up the tree and jumped quite some distance to the top of the wire and over the fence!

So daddy tried chopping a few branches off the tree and he put spike strips on the remaining ones to stop Spike from using it as a platform! But it was no good as Spike just walked over the spikes and propelled himself onto the wire and over the fence 🙁

So most of the apple tree has now joined the fir tree and is no more 🙁

I must stress, however, that even though Spike was having fun trying everyone’s patience, he was never gone for long when he did escape, and always came back for his dinner at tea time. He likes his food does our Spike 🙂

Chopping down most of the apple tree seemed to do the trick and Spike didn’t seem able to escape from the garden any longer, and peace returned to our World…. Though he still looked for an escape route and he still had that naughty glint in his eye 😯

Then yesterday dawned… Spike was playing in the garden with Annie and they were enjoying a bit of quality time by the Bengal Spa with Lula…

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Lula at the Spa

 

…. and all seemed quiet.

A bit too quiet perhaps?

My mummy came out of her office and found Spot and Annie by the Spa; Lula had gone inside for a catnap; and Spike was… Nowhere to be seen! 😯 😯 So he must have found yet another way out, because mummy’s office is in the garden and she hadn’t heard him get on to the wire and over the fence!

So then of course, we all waited. We thought that after a few hours he would come back for his food. But no. No sign. Lots more waiting and worrying. Then it got dark. We all went inside for cat naps. No sign of Spike. 🙁

The hoomins were very worried but there was nothing that could be done, so they went to bed thinking he’d be back in the morning. But he wasn’t! What a naughty boy!

Daddy went out and did lots more searching (as mummy has a poorly leg on top of all of this) and mummy posted his pic on our village Facebook group, asking people to check their garages and sheds etc.

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Spike’s pic that mummy posted

Still no sign…..

Then, at about 2:30pm, well over 24 hours since he went missing, there was the unmistakeable sound of Spike’s very loud MIAOW!!

He had come home – Yay! 🙂

He seemed very thirsty, hungry and tired, so we think he had been stuck inside somewhere. But at least he was home now! 😆

He went straight indoors where I acted kind of cool and pretended I hadn’t even noticed he was gone 😆 Annie in the meantime gave him lots of licks and cuddles, but then she is a girl 🙂 🙂

Since then, he has’t been allowed outside, though the hoomins think they know how he escaped – they think he jumped on top of the hose reel that was attached to a wall, and on to the garage roof from there, before going off on his Big Adventure. This would take quite some power to be able to jump that high, but Spike is a very athletic cat!

All I know is that I’m secretly pleased he’s home safe and sound with no ill effects.

Let’s hope that this is one episode not to be repeated!

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* 😆 )

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 🙂 So I haven’t gone mad on toad odour in case you were wondering  😆

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 😀

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 🙂

This was a relatively small show for an all-breed one as there was a double show 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 🙂

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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 😉

 

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Checking out his bed 🙂

 

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, 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 🙂 The other two cats weren’t Bengals 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂 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 🙂

Here he is with his little consolation prize 🙂

 

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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.  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 😆

My mummy knows 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 😆 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! 🙂

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 🙂

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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 🙂

 

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 🙂

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

 

Funtime in our Garden :)

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

What a wonderful few days we’ve had in our World recently 🙂 We’ve  certainly made the most of it by spending lots of quality time outdoors and even I enjoyed a nice bit of fresh air and had at least an hour’s less catnapping time compared to normal 🙂

We’ve been making the most of our wonderful garden and I’ve been taking time out to appreciate all the lovely things the hoomins provide for us in there 😉

We have lots of platforms where we can chill out and watch the world go by…

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Chillin’

 

And we can sometimes get a little carried away and go even higher by climbing on the roof!

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Lula on the roof

 

Though of course Lula usually prefers to have a little snooze inside the house rather than on top of it 🙂

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Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…

 

There’s things to keep us in tip top condition, like lots of scratchers

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Lula having a pawdicure

 

And we never go hungry as we can eat al fresco!

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Yummy!

 

There’s lots of grasses for us to hide and play in

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Spike in the grass

 

And Lula in particular adores the patches of catmint that are dotted around

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Lula in the catmint

 

Annie likes to be helpful on laundry day by making sure there’s nothing left behind in the wash basket when the hoomins are hanging out the washing

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Helpful Annie

 

We haven’t had any snow for a long time, so the hoomins put this on one of our perches to make it look like there was some!

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‘Snow’ on our perch

 

…. though they said it was to make it more comfy for us 😆

 

If we ever want to be extra comfy, we can of course keep an eye on our cat garden from inside mummy’s office 🙂

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Lula keeping an eye on the cat garden

 

And we’re so excited about our new addition, which is still to be finished – our new waterfall!

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Annie and Spike testing out the waterfall

 

But after all the hard work of enjoying the garden, the best thing to really do is chill out and maybe have a nice catnap or two 😉

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Me chillin’ (again)

 

I’m just hoping the weather stays nice for a few days so daddy can finish the waterfall and we can inspect his work and make sure it meets our standards 😆

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx

Lazy Sunday! :)

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Hello my friends, Spot here!

I’m back after a little break – my mummy and daddy went off to some place called ‘Portugal’ so I wasn’t able to write my blog last week as the house sitter lady doesn’t know how to help me 🙁

I’m sure you didn’t miss us too much 🙂 though we’ve not really done a lot to report on since mummy and daddy returned, we’ve just been chillin’ out now the weather’s getting warmer and spending lots of time outdoors in our cat garden 🙂

I love to have a sleep in Lula’s new favourite place, the cat house 🙂 But I keep a close ear out for her….

 

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Listening out for Lula

 

… and when I know she’s coming, I make a quick exit ….

 

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Making a quick exit

 

… and she’s none the wiser! 😆

 

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Settling down for a nice nap

 

Meanwhile, Spike was chillin’ out on the old cat house that daddy was doing some maintenance on, or trying to at least 😯

 

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Spike: Chillin’

 

And Friday was having a nice sleep in mummy’s office 🙂

 

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Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…

 

Annie also wanted to have a snooze in there, her favourite place at the moment seems to be Geoff the catnip Giraffe cushion 🙂

 

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Let me in! 🙂

 

So Spike took advantage and decided to check out Annie’s favourite mouse in a ball toy 🙂

 

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What’s all this about then?

 

But soon decided that he preferred the grass instead 🙂

 

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Yummy grass

 

Meanwhile, Lula had wandered off back indoors, so I took full advantage of that and settled down for a nice snooze of my own 🙂

 

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Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…

 

So that was our day today 🙂

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 🙂 So we’re all going to be having a little rest from them 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂 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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂 When they aren’t neutered, cats 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 🙂

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

The results were in reasonably quickly and here’s how our two little peskies did 🙂

In the Bedford show, Annie was up against 7 other lovely girls in the Olympian class and unfortunately didn’t win it 🙁 She did win Best in Colour, though, beating a sweet boy 🙂 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 🙂 🙂

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  a little girl.

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

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

Here’s some more pics 🙂

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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 😆

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

xxxxxxx