New Show Season – Daunting!

April 14, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

I am beyond excited that the cat show gods (judges) were smiling favorably upon Cosmo at his last show of the season at Cats of Wisconsin in Waukesha, early this month. While he only placed once in the top 10 at this show, in several other rings he earned points for either “Best Premier” or “Second Best Premier,” all of which were really needed for him to achieve his title of Grand Premier. What’s even sweeter is that the grand points that he earned at COWS brought him to exactly 75 points! Suffice it to say that I was on pins and needles waiting for “Herman” to update, hoping that the unofficial count provided by Monte at the show was correct. It was!

The cat show season ends in April, and begins again in May. It took Cosmo four shows to grand. While he placed quite often as a kitten, he placed less often than I would have liked this season as a Premier. I am not sure whether that is largely because he had not granded yet, or just because he tends to be a little crab apple in the show ring. Regardless, his performance in the premiership division thus far leaves me questioning whether it is worth it to pursue a Regional Win in the new season. While he was very well behaved at the Cat’n on the Fox show in Wheaton last month, he was quite tense at COWS, and seemed a little spooked. One judge noticed him hunkered down in his judging cage and giving me the evil eye, so she made it a point to give him extra cuddles and to baby him a little. It was a little embarrassing, but a lot sweet. I wish that I could give him a little something to help relax him, but it is against show rules. To his credit, he did not hiss at one judge at either COWS or Wheaton. At his first show as a Premier in St. Louis, he hissed at Every. Single. Judge.

Because he granded at COWS, that was Cosmo’s last show of the season, despite there being three weekends left before the season’s end. Because he did not start showing as an adult until January, the only goal for showing this season was to earn his Grand Premier title. He started well after the middle of the show season, so unless he took first place in every ring at a major show, there really would not have been any hope for a regional win. I think the game plan for 2015-16, at least for the start of the season, is to see how well he does in the ring now that he is a grand. If he places (and maybe can beat a Persian or two – those cute little guys almost always win!), I will consider going for a RW. If not, I may switch over to ACFA and focus on attaining his high title there. I’ll probably show Cosmo in shows for both associations during May and June, as it does not seem that there is much overlap in shows in the Midwest. Regardless, this show break will be used for improving his condition – more exercise, better monitoring of his food intake, working on healing the minor chin acne, and researching what I can do to improve his grooming.

I have since updated Cosmo’s page with some gallery pics from the most recent shows. Check it out! Also, check the sidebar for an updated show schedule, which I tend to update closer to each show date.

Cosmo’s Titles (ACFA and CFA)

April 5, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

Cosmo has had a few shows that I haven’t posted about yet, and frankly, I’m not sure that I will get to other than perhaps updating his photo gallery page to include photos from those shows. Whether or not I get to post about these shows at a later date, I wanted to announce Cosmos’s new titles!

CFA: At the Cats of Wisconsin show (COWS) in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Cosmo earned the 24 points that he needed to become a Grand Premier. I was very pleased. Two judges who have never used him in finals at previous shows actually gave him ribbons at the COWS show, giving him some of his much-needed points. Paul Patton made Cosmo his Best Premier (AB) – not to be confused with the best *premiership* cat – resulting in 12 points. One judge placed him in the top 10 final, and three other judges made Cosmo their Second Best Shorthair Premier – again, not to be confused with the second best cat in his division – earning 3 points from each. I was so excited that he made Grand in just 4 shows. I’ve heard stories of 20-show grands!

ACFA: Cosmo has been to two ACFA shows this year: one in Rockford, IL (Rock Valley Cat Club), and the other in Crown Point, IN (Dunes Cat Fanciers). He did remarkably well at each show. In Rockford, he achieved his Double Champion status, and then in Crown Point, not only did he earn his Quadruple champion status, but also made it to Grand status.

For the 2015 – 2016 season, I’m going to initially focus on CFA, working toward a regional win if he can start placing more often now that he’s a Grand Premier. If he does not start placing better at the first couple of CFA shows of the season, then I expect that we’ll probably reduce showing in CFA significantly, and focus on ACFA rings. In the four CFA shows he attended from January through April of this year, Cosmo did not place nearly as often as he did when he was in the kitten class, and when he did place, it was in the bottom five (usually 9th or 10th, and usually only in specialty rings).

I’ll post photos when I have a chance.

Hugs,

Nichole

(this post revised for corrections)

Walking Dead with Cats (or, Norman Reedus and His Cat = Awww)

March 8, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

Tonight was Walking Dead night (the episode, “Forget”), and it was probably the first episode that I’ve watched as it aired. We binge-watched all previous seasons on Netflix in order to get caught up, and this entire season was recorded on our DVR so we could watch mid-week, or save up a couple to watch over the weekend.

I can’t decide which character is my favorite – Rick, Daryl, or Carol. They are each awesome. But this BuzzFeed post of Norman Reedus with his animal buddies, I have to admit, tilts the scales in his favor. In fact, if you follow his page on Facebook, you might notice that he often posts pics of his black cat, named “Eye in the Dark” (pictured above). I also have to admit that Daryl is probably my favorite character. I might come across as kind of prudish sometimes, but I love a good Bad-A**.

I kind of think that Carol’s new persona in Alexandria, Cardigan Carol (or, Scare-ol), needs to have a pet cat to make her seem even more harmless. I’m quite certain that cats are clever enough to survive a walker apocalypse.

Must Have Book: The Cat Breeders Handbook

March 4, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

O. M. G.

If you are at ALL interested in learning about cat breeding, or have already decided to do so and are trying to plan your future cattery, I think that The Cat Breeders Handbook is a book that you have to have. The Cat Breeders Handbook covers basic genetics, diseases, medications and homeopathy, raw meat diet, breeding and postpartum/newborn care, showing, and building a cattery. Particularly, the parts of this book that I really like are the tidbits and tips from experienced breeders that are scattered throughout the book.

This seems to be a self-published book with some minor typo errors, and it comes across as a magazine without the ads (there are some ads that appear to be from sponsored breeders, but there are not many and they do not at all interfere with the flow of the book). I really liked the format because it was really easy to read, yet it was so full of relevant information for the exhibitor and the breeder (and the wanna-be breeder, like me!).

Cosmo’s Show #6: Rock Valley C.C., Rockford IL (ACFA)

February 22, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

The Rock Valley Cat Club was Cosmo’s and my first show in an ACFA association show. Just a two-hour drive from home, this was a two day show and Cosmo did well, both in terms of points AND his behavior! This was a 2-day show with eight rings, and Cosmo placed in 5 of them (0, 10th, 5th, 0, 9th, 6th, 9th, 0), despite having a little chunk of fur pulled out of his backside by one of the big cats in a secret Kitty Fight Club (see below). If his color was solid, it might not have been as obvious, but his fur is ticked, meaning that each strand is light with a couple of dark bands, so the dark bands of the remaining fur made the gap quite visible. [See Cosmo’s page for his Rock Valley photo gallery]

The best part of the show was meeting such nice people. Rarely have I seen poor behavior by another exhibitor (but I have – it’s usually in the form of condescending behavior and words), but the people I was benched near were very helpful and it was a delight to spend two days with them.

NUMBERING: One thing that I really liked about ACFA over CFA is the way the cats are numbered (each cat in a show is assigned a number, and you have to listen for your number to be called to the judging rings). In CFA, they are all just numbered 1 – 225 (based on how many total cats are in the show), and while the number ranges are based on the four classes, #141 could be a cat in the Premier class, and #142 can be a Household Pet. In this ACFA show, cats numbered 0-99 are all kittens. 100’s are longhair adults (intact); 200’s are shorthair adults (intact); 300’s are Alters (spays and neuters); and 400’s are the Household Pets. So at this show, I could just glance at a judge’s ring and see which class is being judged based on the numbers posted on the cages. You can do that at a CFA show, but you have to know where each number range begins and ends for each class.

SCORING: I think I like the scoring system in ACFA better than CFA, but I don’t entirely understand either, so I won’t give a big explanation here. Suffice it to say that I need either a calculator or a points chart for CFA, and I need to know the entry counts for the show in order to figure his points. Points in ACFA is much simpler.

This ACFA show was a little smaller than the CFA shows that I’ve been to, but that made for judging that was a little quicker (and no overlapping of classes in the ring), and we were able to leave the showhall a little earlier than we can for CFA shows.

That said, there are aspects of CFA that I like better than ACFA. The shows are very similar, but each association has differences that make make them both good associations to be a part of. I’m glad to have discovered the ACFA shows within driving distance of my home!

Cosmo to be Shown in ACFA

January 22, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

I only recently discovered that there is an ACFA show in February, just 2 hours from my home, in the Rockford, IL area. My concern at the last show was that Cosmo had become more afraid, and was not used to being at shows after having a break of over 2 months since his last show. My goal is to get him into as many shows as I can reasonably attend given my full time job and duties as a mom. This meant that I have to register Cosmo with the ACFA. The procedure was easy enough… Fill out the application (which meant that I had to complete 3 generations of his pedigree), have his breeder sign it (I scanned and e-mailed to her, and she returned it to me within a few days), and submit it to ACFA along with the registration fee. Also, I submitted my own membership application as well as a cattery registration.

I was worried about the processing time for Cosmo’s cat registration, because the show is only 2-3 weeks away and a registration number is required by the day of the show for inclusion into the catalog. So, although I mailed his application to ACFA, I also scanned the documents and e-mailed them. I was delighted to get an e-mail this morning telling me his registered name and his registration number, so I can get him signed up for the Rockford show right away (actually, after payday tomorrow! 🙂 ). The ACFA person was also kind enough to tell me that my requested cattery name, Moscato, was approved. Cosmo’s ACFA is different from his CFA name, I am told because there is an ACFA cattery named Cosmo, so that name cannot be used as his first name. No problem, we just made him Junior Cosmo, instead (He is Cosmo JR with CFA).

I was quite impressed with the level of service provided by Cindy at ACFA, and I can’t wait to see how their shows work. The rules will be a little different than CFA, so I’ll have to do more reading about that. I am less impressed by their website, which seems a little slow and outdated, but it does contain most of the information I need, so it is, for the most part, functional.

Confused by Premiership Points (CFA)

January 20, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

The whole matter of the points system is now more complicated. As in the Kitten class, Cosmo will still earn Regional points for each ring in which he places in the top ten. That is simple enough.

Now that Cosmo is no longer a kitten, I now have to worry about his Premiership points, and frankly, I do not believe that the way CFA describes this point system is very clear.

Cosmo was registered at this show as an “Open,” which basically means that he has not yet met the qualifications of the “Premier” title. My first challenge was that I could not figure out for the life of me how he gets from “Open” to “Premier.” I read CFA’s “Scoring FAQs” page on its website, and I also had to open up CFA’s show rulebook, and it was still a mystery to me.

There are a few rules that allude to an Open becoming a Premier, but they are very vague. For instance,

“…all opens in any type of ring, e.g. Allbreed, Longhair/Shorthair or Breed specialty, can use the ring as a ‘Qualifying Ring’ so long as the judge does not disqualify or otherwise withhold awards (including wrong color) from the open…” (Rule 8.01)

and then 8.03 seems to be a little more definitive:

a. Six (6) Qualifying Rings earned under at least four (4) different judges are required for Championship or Premiership confirmation…
b. Winners Ribbons won prior to May 1, 2011, or as a Novice, satisfy the requirement for an equal number of Qualifying Rings in the corresponding color classes for Championship or Premiership confirmation. All requests for confirmation must satisfy show rule 8.05c.
c. An Open must compete all of the requirements for Championship or Premiership confirmation before competing as a Grand Champion or Grand Premier.

The problem that I had was that “Qualifying Rings” is not defined, except perhaps up in 8.01, but I knew I had to have six of them. Also, 8.03.b. mentions “Winners Ribbons,” but again, I did not see that was a defined term. The Championship/Premiership claim form also says that I must have six “Winners Ribbons.”

At the show, Juli (who owns Cosmo’s brother, Citron) tried to explain the points system to me, but it went over my head. She explained that Cosmo just had to be judged in 6 rings (different judge) and not get disqualified in order to move from “Open” to “Premier.” I also went to the master clerk’s desk and asked him if he could briefly explain to me, and he did. But again, it went over my head. However, when I asked him about the “Winner’s Ribbons,” he explained that it wasn’t very clear because a few years ago something changed, and it is just the 6 qualifying rings that are needed, no actual ribbons, so I filled out my Premiership claim form and left it with him to submit to CFA. Now I just had to calculate how many Premiership points Cosmo earned. I figured I would just wait until I got home, so I could sit down at my computer and figure the points out.

I decided to print out the page about Scoring from the CFA Newbee website, and go point-by-point on the list to see what applied to Cosmo for this show. I also went to Herman Online to view his points, which by now have been recorded. I saw that Cosmo now has 18 Premiership points, which was much more than what I originally thought.

1. Any Champion or Premier placing in the top ten Bests in Show will receive points toward Grand Championship or Grand Premiership. The highest placing Premier will receive one point for every participating or benched Premier defeated. The second highest placing Premier will receive 90% of the points… third highest, 80%, fourth highest, 70%, etc. That was pretty easy to determine for the two rings in which he received “Second Best Premier” ribbons.

However, the problem is that if your cat is not first or second, you are not necessarily going to know that he defeated other premiers, which was the case for me in Judge Patton’s ring. I thought that because he placed tenth best in this ring, he would only earn 1.60 points (I was using the Total SH Premiership number, not the SH Premiers). This calculation was incorrect.

Instead, Karen at the CFA Newbee Yahoo Group explained that in this ring, Cosmo probably was the Third Best SH Premier, for 5.60 points, which she thought was rounded up to 6.0. This is where the catalog becomes important. I always made it a point to record each cat that placed in each ring (for the class in which Cosmo is competing). I discovered that in Patton’s ring, the cats that placed first through seventh were already Grand Premiers. Numbers eight through ten (Cosmo) were either Opens or Premiers, which meant that Cosmo was indeed the third best premier (Grands are not counted) for this ring. Which made Karen’s assumption correct.

One thing that I didn’t catch was rounding. The rules say “In all case, fractional points .5 and greater will be rounded to the next higher number.” For the two rings where he received ribbons for Second Best Premier, each ribbon was worth 6.30 points. The rules do NOT say that fractional points less than .5 will be rounded to the next lower number, but I am told that is assumed. So each ribbon was actually worth 6.0 points.

These 12 points, plus the 6 points from Paul Patton’s ring, total 18 premiership points for Cosmo. He only has to earn 57 more points to earn his Grand Premiership. I’m hoping that next time he can earn even more points than he did at this show so we can knock the title off in only 2 more shows.

Cosmo’s Fifth Show: Lucky Tomcats in St. Louis

January 20, 2015 By: MoscatoMom

Last weekend was Cosmo’s first show competing in the Premiership class. For those who do not know what that means, in the CFA association, a cat is shown in the Kitten class from ages 4-8 months. At 8 months, the cat then graduates to the grown-up classes: Championship for intact cats, and Premiership for those that are spayed or neutered. There is also a class for Household Pets class (for cats with no pedigree, whether moggy or purebred).

Cosmo hadn’t been shown since October, when he behaved like a little gentleman. This time, he was quite pissy, and I am quite sure that he hissed at every single judge. One judge was a little nervous about that, so I actually had to retrieve Cosmo from his cage for the judge. Another judge joked about the cats all having eaten their “grumpy-o’s” for breakfast, as about 4 in a row were pretty crabby about being in the judging cages. And in case you were wondering, hissing is alright, as long is the cat is not acting aggressively, such as trying to bite or scratch a judge. although, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t wish that Cosmo behaved pleasantly and playfully like most of the Persians seem to do! I really need to get him out to shows, and generally out in public more often!

As far as Cosmo’s results for this show, heonly placed in one ring, and that was #10 for Judge Paul Patton in the Shorthair Specialty (pictured above), which earned him 8.8 regional points. In this ring, he was the #3 Premier (which means that he defeated 5 Shorthair Premiers), which earned him 6 Premiership Points. He also earned 6 Premiership points in each of two other rings for being the Second Best Premier (although he did not place in those rings), which means that he earned a total of 18 points toward his Grand Premier title (he needs 75 total). A big thank you to Kathy on the Yahoo Group for CFA Newbees for explaining the Premiership points to me.

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Lessons Learned from a Majorly Big Cat Show.

December 24, 2014 By: MoscatoMom

This post has been a long time coming, and as such, is quite long, I’m afriad. I’ve had a lot of time to mull over the Indy Show and below are my observations. I’ll post photos in another thread (and in a gallery on Cosmo’s page).

Cosmo’s last show of 2014 was in Indianapolis, and I was quite overwhelmed by that one. It was also his last show in the Kitten class. Apparently, the Indy show is a big show that *a lot* of the national campaigners attend. I, the little nobody newbee, was benched in a “Champion Row” because Jo Cornwall of TrueBrit Cattery, who I had met and chatted with at a previous show, generously listed me in her benching request (Jo and Colin show and breed stunning British Shorthair cats that just kill it on the show circuit). She was very kind – and tolerant – in answering my questions, but truthfully, I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t think of the questions I wanted to ask her, nor did I get to chat with her much. She was very busy with her gorgeous boy placing at the top of every single ring of this 2-day show and I didn’t want to distract her or waste her time. I was amazed by Jo, and also the Bombay breeder on my other side who also placed at the top of each ring.

So here’s how things went down for me and Cosmo:

To start with, we arrived RIGHT AT SHOWTIME! We live 3 hours away, so we woke up and left the house by 5am in order to arrive no later than 8am. We actually arrived at 9am, an hour later than planned.

Lesson 1: CHECK FOR TIME ZONE CHANGES! It turns out that we live in the Central Time Zone (I knew that), and Indianapolis is in the Eastern Time Zone (I didn’t even think about that). Fortunately, Cosmo’s class was not among the first to show, so we had some time to get settled in and somewhat relaxed.

Lesson 2: SOMETIMES YOU ALMOST HAVE TO GENUFLECT. Being in my very first show season with Cosmo, I learn a lot of lessons. My second lesson for *this* show was that there is a difference between the Master, Entry, and Ring Clerks. While most people are very nice and helpful, some people get crabby and even downright rude if you don’t refer to them by the correct title (I’m new to this – there is a lot to remember, and I forget some things!). That is all I will say about that. Lesson learned! I won’t forget next time.

Lesson 2.5 should probably be to just shut my trap about Lesson 2. However, lesson 2 also leads directly to the third lesson, which is a wonderful one:

Lesson 3: MAKE FRIENDS WITH OTHER EXHIBITORS. Strike up a conversation with someone you are benched near, or someone whose cat is always next to yours in the ring. Their insights are invaluable, particularly when you encounter someone with an ugly attitude. I’ve been fortunate to have been in a few shows with Juli Clark, who shows Cosmo’s older brother Citron (they share the same parents, but are not littermates – I can’t wait until she starts breeding!). I’ve also made friends with a woman named Cathy, who had been showing a beautiful Tonkinese kitten this past season. Really, almost everyone is very nice for the most part, but those who are not can sour your mood if you let them.

Lesson 4: STAY OUT OF THE WAY OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT TREAT THE “LITTLE PEOPLE” KINDLY. Luckily, I was not alone at this show. This time, my daughter came with so she could work as a steward in a judging ring (The stewards spray and wipe down the judging cages after a cat has been judged). Her experience was mixed. The first day, the judge told her right off the bat, “Just stay out of my way, and you’ll be fine.” This same judge never addressed her by name that entire day (but, after judging a round, made sure to say the obligatory “Thank you to the steward – I think it’s that girl standing over there… Yeah, that one holding the spray bottle.”), and did not acknowledge her at all later that evening when we all shared an elevator. The second day for my daughter was much more pleasant – she stewarded for a judge that was appreciative and made it a point to not only acknowledge her, but also joked and conversed with her in between judging, and best of all, remembered her name throughout the day!

Lesson 5: TO PADLOCK, OR NOT TO PADLOCK – THAT IS THE QUESTION. At a previous show, one person that I benched next to warned me about some incidents where show cats were stolen right from their benching cages. She had padlocks on her SturdiShelter, and told me it would be a good idea to do the same. She also warned me to put Cosmo’s dishes in back of the cage to avoid sabotage tactics that involve poisoning or otherwise tainting food and water. And also, sometimes unscrupulous competitors will sneak by and actually break a cat’s tail in order to disqualify it! My mouth was agape and I was shocked at the stories she told. SHOWS ARE FREAKING SCARY!

Well, perhaps not so much. At the Indy show, more than a couple of the national-winning breeders kind of teased me about the padlocks, or made comments like “How cute – padlocks!” Some of these same breeders had cats that they could actually just leave resting on the grooming table as they walked away (these cats were actually left outside of their cages. One woman kept her StudiShelter unzipped and left, and the cat cautiously tried to sneak out before another exhibitor zipped him back in)! I cannot even imagine Cosmo staying in one place for more than 3 seconds. I think that those Persian cats are some kind of miracle combination of cat relaxation, obedience, and playfulness.

That said, after seeing the creepy guy at the Springfield, IL, show who wore a wig that didn’t fit, kept fidgeting with his wig and smelling his fingers, and was obsessed with the cats and tried to touch them when their exhibitors were away from the area, I’ll keep my sturdy purple padlocks, thank you very much!

For this whole show, I was intimidated to say the least. Long-time breeders talked about advanced genetics, about how some judges are judging wrong, and how some other breeders are breeding wrong… it was very informative listening to conversations, to the extent that I understood what they were talking about. I felt like any of my questions about breeding would have been stupid, along the lines of, “So when a boy cat and a girl cat fall in love, they get married and have lots of pretty kittens that can win at shows, right?” Or some dumb comment like, “Unnhhh…. cats… are… soft…”

All in all, it was a great experience and I enjoyed the show, despite Cosmo not placing. There was a ton of excellent competition and he DID get an honorable mention or two! That’s something, right?

Post-Show Kitten

October 21, 2014 By: MoscatoMom

Just for fun, here are a couple of photos of Cosmo on the evening we returned home from the IFF Springfield Show (a two-day show) on 10/19/14:

Lauren was playing a game on the laptop, and Cosmo wanted to sit in her lap. So he sat there, and nodded off as he sat. After about five minutes, he finally curled up as much as he could and laid down:

Moscato Cats

Sweet and sparkly!