You may have noticed that there’s a small thing called “Christmas” just around the corner, and I’ve been chatting to all the other kitties in our World to work out a plan…
You see, we think sometimes people might think we may be a bit naughty now and again – which of course is never true – but we need to make sure a certain visitor who has a red suit and white beard doesn’t get the wrong impression.
So we decided to put together this little compendium of a few pics from this year that show how good we’ve all been! Good thinking, eh? And what better way than to show how well we’ve all accepted those two new peskies this year….
When the peskies first arrived, I showed Annie how to play with Dave the Dragonfly
This is how you do it!
Friday has also been patient with the pair of them
Friday with friends
Harry makes sure they’re ok when they go in the big garden
Harry keeping watch
And Lula often teaches Spike the ways of the world
Words of wisdom
Robbie has been a good boy by finally accepting them (It took a while…!)
Robbie on his best behaviour 🙂
Meanwhile, the peskies have been good this year too, and settled in very quickly!
Spike “helps” daddy out when he’s taking photos for our store!
Spike is a good little helper
Annie is good when just being cute!
Annie being cute
They were both well behaved when trying out their harness jackets for the first time!
Spike and Annie wondering what’s in the field
But, like Robbie, I suppose they’re on their best behaviour when they’re doing this….
Zzzz… Zzzz… Zzzz…
So do you think we’ve done enough to encourage the big man to visit in a few days my friends? I hope so!
I’m sorry I’m a little late writing my blog today – I have to dictate to my mummy who types for me (my paws are rather large for the keyboard) and she was very rude and decided to go out to the movies earlier this evening with her friend! 😯 So that left me kind of in the lurch! My daddy was here and I managed to get quite a few of my favourite chicken treats from him, but he said he was too busy to help me write my blog, so I’ve had to wait for my mummy to come home.
But she’s here now, so we’ll get on with sharing all the news from the cat show yesterday!
So, just to explain a little fact – some UK GCCF shows are double or even triple shows. This is where they have more than one show happening at the same time, in the same hall. If your cat is eligible, you’re allowed to enter 2 shows if you wish (you have to pay twice of course 😉 ).
Yesterday it was a triple show – the National Cat Club Show, and two smaller ones. Spike wasn’t eligible to enter the smaller ones, but as a household pet, Annie is able to enter almost any show, so this is what she did yesterday! She was in the Sphynx Cat Club show and the National too 🙂
It was a very early start to the day as the show was taking place quite a long way from home, and Sue the breeder was also going – she showed Spike and Annie’s mum, Flirtini 🙂 So they all went together – my daddy drove them all there and my mummy drove home 🙂
They got there nice and early and passed through vetting in with flying colours, then it was over to clean the pens and put inside clean blankets, litter trays, water and food. All that was left then was for Spike and Annie to settle in and have a few final checks to make sure they were still clean and tidy.
Spike waiting patiently at the start of the show
It was then a waiting game for the judges to make their decisions! It seemed to take forever, but eventually all the results came in.
Annie had a good day, though not as good as in some other shows 😆 In the Sphynx show, she came 1st in her main class and also beat the boys to be Best of Breed; she then came 2nd and 3rd in her side classes. In the National show, she came first but a Bengal boy beat her to Best of Breed, and she came first and second in her side classes. So she had lots of rosettes to show off!
Annie and some of her rosettes
Spike’s judge was very very torn between him and another boy to award 1st place in his main class. He took ages to make his mind up …. but eventually he awarded 1st place to the other boy and 2nd place to Spike. He wrote on the results sheet that it was ‘very close’ which is quite unusual. Spike’s side classes were quite big – he came 3rd out of 6 in one, and was unplaced out of 7 in his other one! This means that this was the least good that Spike has done so far in his show career, but we don’t mind and Spike was quite chilled out about it all…
Spike relaxing
Annie was also quite chilled out and was thinking about having a look around the hall!
Annie thinking about having look around
As the show started to draw towards a close, all of Annie’s rosettes had been handed out and put on her pen, and Spike was able to leave his pen and join her. Not that you can see them very well!
Spike and Annie together again
Soon after that, it was time to pack up for the long journey home. We had all been good kitties back at the ranch, so we had some yummy food and treats and a bit of a play before a nice catnap 🙂
I hope that explains things for you all, but if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the section below this post! 🙂
I hope you’ve all had a nice weekend? We’ve been very good kitties this weekend (or at least that’s what we want Santa to think, so I’m not saying otherwise 😆 ) – we’ve even been helping daddy do the gardening! 🙂
Daddy decided that all those autumn leaves need sweeping up and all the other jobs that he’s been putting off, just couldn’t be put off any longer! So he got out the rake and the wheelie bin (trash can on wheels) and was trying to put all the leaves into the bin, but each time he did there were two little spotty Bengals inside! Annie and Spike said they had to inspect he was doing the job correctly! 🙂 So of course they were being helpful, though I heard daddy mumbling something about it “being worse than having kids” under his breath, whatever that means? 😯
Then, the next job was to move a smallish tree. Now that mummy has her new office built, it was in the wrong place, so it needed to be moved. Daddy also thought it would go nicely in our cat garden as it will provide shade for us in the summer. So he dug a hole for the tree and then dug it up from its old place, but when he came to put the tree in its new home, he found he couldn’t! Yup! Those two peskies were checking out his work again! 🙂
Oooh look! An Annie-sized hole!
Spike wants a look too!
Spike decides it’s his hole now! 🙂
In the meantime, Lula and I were keeping a close eye on them because we didn’t want them to jeopardise our chances of a visit from Santa!
Keeping an eye on those peskies
Lula is also keeping watch
But after a while, they got bored of the hole and decided the weather was much too chilly, so it was time to go inside in the warm to have a nice catnap 🙂
Time for a catnap!
So that meant it was left to Lula and me to help daddy in the garden instead! Typical kittens – they just can’t commit to doing anything properly! 🙂
Phew! What a day yesterday was! I had so much peace and quiet, it was great! Harry and Robbie had a little play fight now and again which woke me up, but Friday was a good girl, she had lots of catnaps on the cat beds in the bathroom! We love the bathroom as it has a nice heated floor – just purrfect for a snooze 😉
I even let little Annie share my bed in the bathroom sometimes (when she’s not off gallivanting 😉 )
Annie is such a silly girl!
But what’s that you say? You’re not interested in all that? Hurrumph 😯 Well, I suppose I’d better let you all know about a little cat show the peskies and Lula went to, yes?
So, despite the fact the me and the moggies weren’t going, we were ALL woken up at some unreasonable time of the morning whilst the hoomins got ready. My mummy is still not very well, so my daddy was making most of the noise, naughty man 🙁 He would tell me off if I made all that noise and woke him up like that! 😯
Eventually daddy drove everyone off, and we were left in peace again whilst they made their way down to the exhibition halls in Birmingham. They got there very early and were at the front of the queue which was great as it meant there was only a few minutes to wait for the halls to open. Every cat has to be vetted in before a show, and although there are a lot of vets there, there are also a lot of cats (over 800 were there yesterday) so if you get there at peak times, you might have to queue for anything up to an hour!
But vetting in was passed with flying colours and they made their way to their pens. Unlike normal GCCF shows, everyone decorates their pens at the Supreme and we are very lucky as our friend Alex goes to the halls the afternoon before and sets up all our pens for us, so all my daddy had to do was find the pen numbers and settle everyone in! He made sure the litter trays had lots of nice clean litter (Lula loves to sleep in her litter tray at shows) and also that they had lots of fresh water and yummy food. So they could all then relax and wait for everyone else to turn up and the show to start!
Spike was the first to be judged in his breed class, but we weren’t confident at all! There were 7 stunning male kittens in the class, including the one who had won Best Kitten at the Bengal Cat Club show a couple of weeks earlier. The judge was very meticulous and examined each cat very carefully, he said how difficult it was, and how wonderful they all were…. but eventually after careful consideration, he made his decision and Spike was the winner!!! What a wonderful surprise!
Then it was the turn for the girl brown spotty Bengal kittens to be judged, so all the boys went back to their pens with the exception of Spike! He stayed in the judging ring pen as there was still the matter of Best of Breed to decide. There were 5 wonderful girls, the winner was chosen so it was then up to the judge to decide between the female and Spike for Best of Breed! And Spike won! Yay! 🙂
Best of breed! 🙂
There was a bit of time then to take Spike back to his own pen and give him lots of cuddles before it was Annie’s turn! Her class was much smaller as there was another female pedigree pet kitten who was absent, so she was awarded 1st place in her class. But then she had to face the winner of the male class to decide best of breed! The winner from the male pedigree kitten was also a gorgeous Bengal and again the judge was very thorough in his considerations before finally choosing Annie as the winner! What another great result!
Annie’s judge seemed to like her!
After lots more cuddles with Annie, Spike and of course Lula who was on exhibition for the Bengal Cat Club, there was then more time to relax before the special kitten class. This is a fun class just for kittens – Lula entered it when she was a kitten and she came 3rd which was an excellent result so Spike and Annie had a lot to aim for! 🙂 When Lula was in it, back in 2011, there were over 80 kittens entered, yesterday there was a little over 60. But that’s still quite a lot, so it was split into 4 sub classes 🙂 Spike unfortunately wasn’t placed, but Annie won her class! What a clever girl! 🙂
Then we were back to the more serious classes – the Best of Variety (BOV)! This is where all the winners from each group are judged against each other for Best in Show! So Spike was up against 20+ other winning kittens from the ‘foreign’ category which is what Bengals are classed as. He was up against Egyptian Maus, Russian Blues; Marbled and Snow Bengals; etc etc….. But unfortunately his luck had run out and he wasn’t chosen as the winner. A lovely silver Egyptian Mau won. So that was the end of the excitement for Spike, he could just chill in his pen for the remainder of the afternoon.
For household pets, the process is a bit different. Spike was judged just by one judge for his BOV, but there was a panel of 3 to judge who should be put forward for best household pet adult pedigree, adult non pedigree and kitten. Unfortunately again, this is where Annie’s luck ran out too and they chose a gorgeous Siberian boy called Tommy as the winner! We didn’t mind so much as we know Susie, who is Tommy’s breeder, so we were very happy for them 🙂
Here’s Annie’s BOV judging 🙂
Annie’s BOV judge #1
Annie’s BOV judge #2
Annie’s BOV judge #3
So that was that for another year. Fairly soon, it was time for my daddy to pack everything up and to drive them all home again where we all had lots of treats and a nice dinner 🙂
I know – that is a shocking title! 😯 Our mummy has been quite poorly this week so that means we’ve tried to be good kitties and not be naughty at all! I think we managed it – we spent time burning off energy in our cat garden whenever we could and when we were indoors we snuggled up to mummy and purred in her ear!
So there’s not much to report really on this week’s blog – though do tune in next week my friends, as we should have all the news from the biggest cat show of the year! Yes, it’s the Supreme Cat Show on Caturday 22nd November, and of course Bengal Cat World will be there! Spike and Annie are competing in their kitten classes, whilst Lula is on exhibition for the Bengal Cat Club! 🙂 I’m going to stay at home and look after Friday, Harry and Robbie (and maybe have a nice little catnap now and again) 🙂
If you’re in the UK, the show is taking place at the NEC, Birmingham! Why not pop along if you’re not busy? We’d love to see you there!
But in the meantime, my daddy did take a few pics of us this week, being good in our cat garden 🙂
Spike is pondering who to pounce on!
Lula is pondering who to pounce on!
Annie praying 🙂
I’m sticking my tongue out at Annie! 🙂
Annie is looking ready to make a run for it!
We hope to bring you lots of good news next week my friends, and who knows? We might even try and not be naughty this week too! 🙂
We’re very excited in our World! Things have been a-changing and our cat garden, which we always loved, has now been made even bigger! You may remember me telling you about the mysterious building my daddy was making – us kitties were all wondering what was going on 😯
Well, it’s now all become clear! That building is for my mummy, it’s her new garden office, or as she calls it – Bengal Cat World International Headquarters 😆 It’s very nice inside, I must admit, and so cosy too! She even put a new couch in there just for us kitties to have cat naps on 😀 Or at least, that’s what we think anyway, though I’m not sure she quite agrees 🙂 Here’s a photo of the inside …
Here’s where all the work happens! 🙂
But of course, we’re more interested in the garden and it’s now about twice as big as before! Plus, the gate has been moved and is Annie-proofed, so she can no longer squeeze out from where the gate meets the wall 🙂 She’s not so pleased about that.
But overall, it’s a winner and we all love it! Here’s some more pics! 🙂
Lula in the sunlight
Spike wonders where did those fences go? 🙂
Annie has so many more grasses to play in!
Thoughtful Spike
Checking out the decking!
So that’s why we’re so happy – my mummy loves her office and can now spend hours watching us playing instead of doing any work! She says she’s just keeping an eye on us to make sure we’re ok but it means we can’t be as naughty as we normally are, so maybe we should suggest she gets some nice window blinds or something…. 😀
You may have seen from our Facebook page that Spike and Annie went to one of our favourite shows yesterday – the Bengal Cat Club show! And what a great day it was – here’s all the news you need to know 😆
It was a very early start as the show is many miles away from us – this is the furthest Annie and Spike have ever travelled but they were absolutely fine in their new large carrier that our mummy and daddy bought for them! They cuddled up together on their comfy blanket and had a nice catnap for most of the journey 🙂
Eventually they arrived at the show and passed vetting in with no problems. Daddy settled them in their pens and looked after them whilst mummy set up the stall. At 10.30, the kitty mums and dads all had to leave the show hall whilst morning judging takes place, but at 10.29 Spike decided that he would knock his water all over himself and all over his pen! What a silly boy! Luckily, a friend of my mummy’s saw this and came and told her, so it was a bit of a rush to get Spike dried out and the spare bedding put into the pen – always best to be prepared my friends! With that little drama over, all that the hoomins could do was sit and wait and hope for the best…
And it was definitely worth the wait!
Annie came first in her breed class, then got ‘Best in Class’ (which is the same as Best of Breed)
Then she came first in one of her side classes and second in the other two.
Spike had much larger classes than Annie.
He came first in his breed class, though was beaten to best of breed by a very lovely female Bengal kitten.
In his side classes, he came first in two side classes (a class of 4 and a class of 6) and 2nd in another side class of 6.
But the best was yet to come! Towards the end of the show, the Best in Show judging takes place and for the second show in a row, little Annie’s pen number was called as she had won ‘Best in Show Pedigree Pet’! So she was swept off to the special Best in Show pens where she was up against a very experienced and well-titled non-pedigree boy to compete for Overall Best in Show Household Pet!
It was very tense as the judge got them out of their pens in turn whilst she made up her mind… she said they were both super cats and it was very hard to make up her mind… but then she decided and went over to Annie’s pen and announced her as the winner of Overall Best Household Pet! Yay! How exciting! This is now two shows in a row where she has achieved this 🙂
We are all so very proud of both of them – here’s some pics from the show so you can hopefully get some idea of this 🙂
Spike looking chilled
Annie in her pen
Best in Show Judging – very tense!
Will Annie be chosen as the overall winner?
Decision made – the winner is Annie!
Spike still looking chilled in his pen
So after all the excitement it was time for the long journey home… I was so pleased to see the babies when they got in! I ran around after them and had a bit of a sniff and a play and a cuddle! Of course we all had a special tea and then it was time for bed, a well earned rest for our two show stars 🙂
The next show – in 3 weeks time – is also one of our favourites, my friends! It’s the biggest one in the show calendar – the Supreme! Let’s hope we all enjoy that day as much as this one 🙂
I’ve always wanted to use the word “kerfuffle” in a blog post and I managed to do so in the title today – what a great little word, don’t you think? Anyway, you might be wondering what’s going on? Well, it’s been a strange day today…. first of all the hoomins fiddled with the clocks last night but of course didn’t tell our tummies what they were doing, so our food times were all over the place! We were not impressed by that! As cats, we love routine and don’t welcome changes, so I hope they don’t do that again!
Secondly, we had a very strange man come to our house! You may remember when Lula and I went up the chimney when we were younger? We got told off for doing that and were made to have not one, but TWO baths! 😯 Each! 😯 Whilst we love playing in water normally, we didn’t appreciate that and were not happy bunnies at all!
hurrumph!
Hurrumph too!
Anyway, I digress – this man came along today, a complete stranger and went to our chimney and pushed up lots of brushes and things and didn’t get told off by the hoomins 😯 Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, my mummy gave him some money and then he got back in his van and drove away! He wasn’t even made to have a bath even though his hands were quite dirty! I really don’t think that’s fair at all.
So we decided to hang out in the cat garden but it’s been so windy today! I decided to keep my eye on everyone to make sure they were ok
Keeping watch
Lula found lots of fallen leaves to chase
Lovely leaves!
Spike decided to hang out in his hammock. He’s decided that it’s his hammock now; Lula can visit when he allows her to 😉
Chillin’ in the hammock
Annie just ran around being silly (like normal)
These grasses are such fun!
So that was that….a strange day when all was said and done, but at least I still managed to have lots of my favourite chicken treats this evening. I think my mummy was feeling guilty about not making that man take a bath! 😆
I’m going to tell you a little story…. Exactly six months ago, on April 19th 2014 (Easter Caturday) three little kittens came into this world – one brown spotty girl who was later known as “Annie”, one snow spotty girl (“Mia”) and one brown spotty boy (“Vladimir”). Their breeder was very happy as all three kittens looked healthy and their cat mother, Flirtini, was a natural and looked after them all very well right from the start.
But then! 😯 Around 10 hours later, something strange happened! Flirtie started having contractions again and out came a very large spotty boy! He was very light, almost like a Blue Bengal, though this shouldn’t have been genetically possible as neither parent carried blue, but he was adorable all the same and he later became known as “Spike”!
So today, my friends, is a very special day as it is our very own Spike and Annie’s half birthday – Yay! 😆
Here’s all the babies, when they were around a couple of weeks old, Annie at the top of the pic and Spike towards the bottom (begin squashed by Vladimir)
Little babies
Very soon afterwards, my mummy and daddy came to visit and fell in love with all four, but especially Annie as they had been waiting to welcome a brown spotty girl to our family for a little while
Annie at about a month old
All four kittens were so cheeky! Just look at their faces! (Spike is far right, and Annie is next to him)
Butter wouldn’t melt?
There was a little hiccup along the way of our tale…. there was a time when it was decided that mummy and daddy would have Spike instead of Annie, but then a while later, it was decided that they would have both! And what a lovely pair of babies they are!
Snuggly Spike and Annie
At 13 weeks of age, they were ready to come home and soon settled in! They had their own room for the first couple of weeks whilst gradual introductions were done with the rest of us kitties. Spike sussed out the toys….
Checking out the toys
Whilst Annie made sure the sleeping arrangements were up to scratch!
Hmmm… this’ll do! 🙂
After a few more days, they were introduced to the cat garden, and I wasted no time in showing them the ropes 🙂
Showing Annie the ropes
Showing Spike the ropes
Pretty soon, they worked out what a great toy Dave the Dragonfly is!
Playing with Dave the Dragonfly toy
But of course, after all that play, nothing beats a nice catnap! 🙂
Zzzz … Zzzz … Zzzz …
Finally, all that’s left to say is: Happy Half Birthday to Annie and Spike!
We had a foggy start to our day today, but the sun eventually decided to come out, so my mummy said we had to make the most of it! Well, as you may guess, I was a little reluctant at first as I think this ‘fresh air’ malarkey is a little overrated….
I’m not too sure about all this fresh air…
But after a while I thought it was actually quite fun! Lula and I decided to show those pesky kittens who’s boss of the cat garden and decided to play a game of staring!
Hmmm…. we’ll show them who’s boss!
Spike and Annie seemed to be quite good at staring back though!
Annie pondering how long she needs to stare for …
Spike pondering how long he needs to stare for…
But then Spike decided to make a move, though Lula was right there to assert her dominance!
Gotcha! 🙂
After a while, I got a bit bored of the staring at Spike and Annie game, so I decided to stare at daddy instead – he was on the other side of the fence working on that building! I tried to get Annie to stare too, but she wasn’t in the mood by then…
Hey Annie! Come and look what daddy’s doing!
Here’s another peek of the mysterious building!
The mysterious building
Hmmm… I wonder whatever can it be?
While I was pondering that, little Spikey (who really isn’t all that little any more) was doing some plotting!
Planning something, Spike?
The next thing we knew, after my mummy had left the cat garden, he had managed to somehow leap over the fence and into next door’s garden! No-one really knows how he did it, apart from Annie, and she is feigning ignorance! 😯
Annie practising the innocent look…
Our Spike is becoming quite the Houdini as earlier on, he also managed to take advantage of the back door being opened for just a second longer than necessary and ran into the big garden and up my favourite big oak tree! I can see the hoomins are going to be needing to keep a firm eye on him! 🙂 Is he trying to be the naughtiest Bengal in the house? Hmmm… there’s a challenge! 😆 I will have to put my thinking cap on to out-naughty him! 🙂
