Show Day – with a Difference!

© www.bengalcatworld.com

 

 

 

 

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!

© www.bengalcatworld.com
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’.

© www.bengalcatworld.com
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

10 thoughts on “Show Day – with a Difference!”

  1. Oh my goodness, what a chaotic day ! First Sue sleeping in and then an escaped kitty and poor Mummy so worried at the goodies being damaged when moving them. Much stress all round ! That poor “Houdini” kitty must have been so frightened at all the hullabaloo, so I can understand him sitting tight in his hidey hole for so long. After all that, I do hope Mum did good trade ? As for the two peskies, though they didn’t achieve the top wins they were hoping for, they still did very well, so warm Congratulations for them both are definitely in order.
    What an exciting day – great Blog as usual Spot.

    1. Thank you very much, Mavis 🙂 Yes, mummy had reasonable sales despite all of the hullabaloo (great word 🙂 ) and the little lad was fine 🙂 So no harm done 🙂

  2. My word Spot what a day that was! I am glad that the little cat came out of hiding safe and sound, and that your mummy had some reasonable sales after all that. Congratulations to little Annie and Spike as well even if they didn’t do quite as well as hoped. I bet after all that had happened you were glad to be safely at home catching up on catnaps.

  3. Hi Spot & gang, hope your all okay. That fire looked awful!.. Well done Spike and Annie, you both look amazing in your photos. Hope mummy & daddy both okay. I will check out the shop online because I read all the blogs now & I bet you have a lot of online goodies Spot :-)..Take care , lots of love & hugs, Zoe xxxx

    1. Hi Zoe! Yes, we have lots of nice things in our store 🙂 We are all well thank you and hope you are too <3 <3 xxxx

  4. The Peskies… LMAO
    I wonder if they tried a feather. My daughter’s godfather does professional photography and used to do commercials (the camera work for them) of cats and cat food. He said this one cat sat on the path she was supposed to walk down, curled her tail around her and started busily cleaning herself. They couldn’t get her to move at all, he said. He had to get out a feather on a string to interest her in coming out. They usually can’t resist the hunt. They’ve also used food but that only works if they’re hungry.

    1. Hi Vicki! They tried everything, including a food and yes a feather toy. But none of it was much help until he decided he was ready to come out 🙂

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