Hello my friends, Spot here!

 

Are you having a nice weekend, my friends? We had a fantastic one! Or at least Annie and Spike did! I think it was one of our most successful show days ever 😆

 

So, here’s a bit of background before I get into the detail as it’s all a little confusing for a cat like me 😉 So this is what my mummy told me…

 

Yesterday, there were 4 smaller shows all taking place at the same time in the same location.  Within the cat shows we go to (GCCF), you get “All Breed Shows” where, as the name implies, all breeds recognised by the GCCF are eligible to take part; and you get “breed shows” where there are only either one or a few breeds of cat eligible.

 

One of the advantages of being a Pedigree Household Pet like Annie is that you can go to all of these shows, as they always have a HHP section 🙂

 

So yesterday we had the Tabby Cat Club, which Spike was entered into, he couldn’t enter any of the others. Then we had the Burmese show, the Colourpointed British Shorthair Show, and the Egyptian Mau show. Annie was entered in the Egyptian Mau show (Title Class, Best of Colour Class, and Side classes) AND the Colourpointed show (Title and BOC only), as HHPs could enter a max of two shows if desired. See! I told you it was confusing!

 

It was a pretty routine, if foggy, drive to the show – another early start but they all arrived safe and sound and went through all the usual stuff for a show 😉 Then before you knew it, it was time for morning judging to start 🙂 Being 4 smaller shows meant that the results were quite quick at being displayed, and Annie’s were first so let’s see how she did…

 

In the Colourpointed show, she was awarded her Imperial and Best in Colour too!

 

Then for the Mau show – she again got her Imperial and Best in Colour! For her side classes, she came 1st in the class “The Cat the Judge would most like to take home” so she was unbeaten with one result to come, Prettiest Female, and then it was there! Daddy went to look and saw that she came….second! 😯 Ah well …. you can’t win ’em all.

 

Still… Annie had lots of pretty rosettes on her pen 🙂

 

 

 

But the best was yet to come! My mummy’s friend came over and said to my mummy she was very lucky to have a bottle of Prosecco on Annie’s pen! Mummy hadn’t realised, so she rushed over there straight away (amazing what a nice bottle of fizz can achieve 😯 )

 

 

But better than the fizz, was the reason it was there! Annie had won Best in Show Pedigree Pet! 🙂 Yay!

She was beaten, however, by the non-Pedigree Pet for Overall Best in Show Household Pet, so because it’s a smaller show, they only had the Overall BiS in the posh BiS pens, so that’s why Annie didn’t make it over there this time 🙂

Here’s a pic of that beautiful rosette (and fizz), taken at home:

 

 

And here’s her other rosettes, taken at home today 🙂

 

 

Phew! So Annie now has 4 Imperial Grand Master Cat certificates, and needs just one more to be awarded the title “Imperial Grand Master Cat”. But the next show she is entered into is the Supreme Cat Show – the biggest and the best in the country! There’ll be tough competition there for sure!

 

Now onto our Spikey boy….

 

He was quite chilled at the show, as ever, and started off the day alert and ready to go! 🙂

 

 

Unlike Annie, he had not been awarded an Imperial certificate before (to be fair, he’d only been in one Imperial class before 😉 ) and he was up against 3 other handsome boys, including our friends’ Egyptian Mau, so it was a tough class and no chickens were being counted 😆

His results took a bit longer than Annie’s but they were worth waiting for as, not only did he win the Imperial class, he also won Best of Breed too! Clever boy!

 

Then for his side classes (which have pretty boring titles compared to the HHP ones 🙂 ) – he was in the Junior Neuter class which he came 1st in and then in another tough class of 4, he also came first in the Visitor class! Wow! This meant that Spike had had a “Red Card” day, which basically means that he won every class he was entered into!

 

So, remember I told you that my mummy went rushing to Annie’s pen to make sure no-one nicked have a look at the bottle of Prosecco and her rosette? Well, when she was there, she also visited Spike (they were very close to each other at this show) and would you believe it? There on his pen was a “Best of Variety Neuter” Rosette! This means out of all the neuters in the “Foreign” section, Spike was judged to be the best!

 

Well, as you can imagine, my mummy nearly jumped around the hall in glee! 🙂 🙂 But instead she went rushing round telling everyone she knew and insisted that they all came to look at his pen … “sigh” …. I’m just glad I wasn’t there as I would have had to disown her, I’m afraid 😆

 

So after all the excitement, mummy went back to her stall and actually managed to serve some customers 🙂 And a little while later, they called out on the tannoy the cats that were being put forward to the Overall Best in Show Pens. So, this is where, for each category (Foreign, British, Oriental etc) you get Best Adult (entire cats), Best Kitten, and Best Neuter – these are Best of Variety. The judges then choose which is the best on the day of out those three, and they are the ones that go in the Best in Show posh pens! And from there, all of the different winners from each category are judged against each other for Overall Best in Show!

 

Well… my mummy had just finished serving a customer when they called out the cats to go to the posh pens. And wouldn’t you know it? Spike’s pen number was called!! 😆 People say they have never seen someone rush around the floor in such excitement before! And the best thing was, my daddy and our breeder, Sue, were stood near Spike’s pen, but had not heard the announcement so were completely unaware! Not for long though, as I’m sure you can imagine by now 😉

So off Spikey went to the posh pens and soon made himself at home!

 

 

 

Then it was time for the overall judging. The judge came and looked at every cat and cast her expert eye over them 🙂 Spike was a very good boy and let her take as long as she needed 🙂

 

 

 

And then it was time to make up her mind! And she chose…. the British!! Oh well, like we said for Annie, you can’t win ’em all, and everyone was as pleased as punch (or even prosecco) that Spike had got as far as he did as it was a fantastic achievement! (btw – amongst all his prizes was a nice bottle of pink fizz for my mummy to guzzle share too! 🙂

 

Here’s Spike’s collection of rosettes 🙂

 

 

So there we have it! A fantastic day, that will remain a fond memory for many moons to come.

 

Take care my friends!
Love from

Spot

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