| Prairie
State Cat Club’s Ninth Fall Harvest Cat Show in Franklin
Park, IL
by
Rosie Alger-Street
| 0n
2nd October 2004, Barrie and I went over to Chicago to
attend the Prairie State Cat Club’s Ninth Fall Harvest
Cat Show in Franklin Park, IL. A long way to go for a
Cat Show, I must admit, but this wasn’t just any
ordinary cat show. The show extended over three days and
on the first day it was the Eighth On Safari Bengal Congress,
a Show especially for Bengals where the cream of North
America’s cats were competing against each other
in three rings. This is actually open to Bengals worldwide,
though they don’t often have entries from outside
N.A. |
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It
had been ten years since we went to the first ever Bengal
Congress in West Springfield, New England, (taking over
two of our own cats and amazingly winning it!), so we
felt it was time we went back to see how the breed has
moved on, and also to catch up on old friendships. The
Congress was brilliant and there were some amazing Bengals
there and well worth the journey. |
| However
that was only a third of the treat. On the following two
days there were two separate all breed shows in the same
venue with five TICA judges in five rings catering for
a large number of different breeds. This is effectively
having five open classes all on the same day, so with
their points system it is possible that good cats can
be made up to Quadruple Grand Champions over a weekend.
This is particularly advantageous in the USA where exhibitors
have flown their cats from all over the country and even
Canada, and it is very expensive to attend a cat show. |
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Here
I must take a breath, because apart from our Supreme
Cat Show at the NEC where they have ring judging, there
was no similarly with the GCCF system and after years
of strict training, the lack of formality was hard to
grasp! People arrived with their cats and were handed
a catalogue labelled with their name at the door. No
one checked the cats or even looked to see if they had
the right cats. No vaccination cards were checked and
there was no vetting in. As far as I am aware there
wasn’t even an official vet present. |
This
was a point I checked with the Show Manager and apparently
while TICA does not have a vet on hand, the show rules allow
for the show committee to have removed from the hall any cats
showing signs of illness. At this show she was asked by an
exhibitor to look at a nearby Persian that had been sneezing
– she talked to the owner and it was agreed that the
cat had been sneezing from the dusty cat litter. However,
she did have removed from the show hall an underage kitten
and when one cat swallowed a feather from a toy, she arranged
with the hall manager to send her to a local vet to be treated.
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The
hall had rows of benches and basic wire pens provided
by the club which the exhibitors liberally decorated,
and some pens that people had brought themselves. And
what a lovely array and variety of pens were there. Mesh
fronted collapsible ones, Perspex fronted ones, large
igloos covered in, all decorated with multi-coloured drapes,
ornaments on top and frills and bows and fancy material
everywhere. It was a delightful hotchpotch of informal
colour. |
| Cats
seemed to spend more time out of their pens than in them
and lots of people had a bench for the cats to sit on
outside the pen. What I did find confusing was that the
pens were not numbered at this particular show and until
the cats actually went up for ring judging and then had
a number on top of their pen, you didn’t know which
cat was which. No cat is in a basket after they have arrived
at the Show Hall. The ring steward calls the various numbers
and it is up to the owners to carry them up to the ring,
sometimes even handing them directly to the Judge. When
the Judge has finished with them, the ring steward removes
the number and the owner then takes the cat back again. |
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I
was pleased to see that the Judges were very strict
about disinfecting and all the ring pens were thoroughly
cleaned between cats. However I would have loved to
have seen the _expression on a Show Manager’s
face in England if they had seen a Savannah (A cross
between a Serval and a domestic Shorthair) being walked
around the hall on a lead, or a very large Main Coon
casually strolling around on its own, or four young
Persian brothers all doing “kissy kissy”
together as they hadn’t seen each other for months!
What
was interesting was that in the whole three days I did
not see a single bad-tempered cat or one that could
not be handled. Nor did I see any signs of illness.
The owners were all so friendly and laid-back and the
show was so delightfully informal, I think this must
rub off on the cats. There were so many aspects I could
write on about this marvellous experience, but probably
the main memory I am left with was the lovely warm informal
atmosphere of a lot of like minded people really enjoying
their cats. |
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