Indy had his first ever show on Saturday, the Yorkshire County Cat Club show held at Doncaster Dome
I warn you now, this will be a long post, with several pictures!Now this was mine and Indy's first ever show so things did not go to plan, first of all there were no trains Scunthorpe to Doncaster so I ended up waking my bro up after 2 hours sleep to get a lift (he works nights taxi driving)
Thanks to Witty I had a list of items needed and packed the night before, though getting the white foodbowl was a pain. I ended up with a soap dish from Tesco with the silver grill taken off (just clips on so easy) and bought a litter tray at the show.
Indy went through Vetting In a dream, the vet had gained a few scratches via anti-vet cats but Indy was a darling :D and purred for them. We then went to our pen and started setting up. We were right next to the Siamese pens and Indy was fascinated! The other Household Pets exhibitors were very helpful and helped me set up the pen etc and I took a tip from the Siamese pens opposite and rigged up a 'tent' in the corner for Indy. He was good as gold... no noise or crying and really curious, not all scared or cowering.
Setting in as good as gold
Though spending a lot at time at the back of the pen he was super calm, though he has such a solemn little face
I entered him for :
Open - Any Colour Kitten 6-9 months - Male (now, we are not sure but Indy may be 5.75 months -> 6.25 months so we went for the higher class)
Misc1 - Kitten Never Shown Before
Misc2 - Rescue Kitten
Misc3 - Kitten with the most Appealing Expression
For some reason the HP section was fairly small, only 11 cats total, not all kittens. There were 2 in Indy's open, 3 in Misc1, 2 in Misc2 and 4 in Misc3
This is Indy as I left him when we were chased out of the hall for the main Judging
I don't think he is bothered by the whole show thing...
I watched from the balcony for the judging and Indy seemed to like the judges ok. I distracted myself with buying knick-knacks off Cat's Protection until we could go back in.
Going back in I copied everyone else and gave food.... then found out 2 of his classes hadn't been judged... he'd eaten and gone to sleep! He woke up and had one more class judged and then, whilst waiting for the final judge a Steward walked along the back of the cages, smacking them hard (apparently they were out of line) and then used a parcel tape dispenser along the back!!! another class was being judged at the time and all the cats in the row (and several in the row opposite) freaked out, causing the judge to get badly scratched. Even when told to stop she carried on with the horrible tape thing! The judge for whatever class that was went for a cuppa and came back to re-judge 20 mins later to give a bit of calm down time. Indy got all scared and bitey (not hard but teeth getting in the way of trying to suck my finger
)
Chilling out in his pen
Aaaanyway, the final judge came and marked IndyAnd I got all his results.
Open - 2nd of two (he was a bit shy, the judge said that was the only reason he was second)
Misc1 - 1st of three (yay!)
Misc2 - 1st of two (more outgoing than the other one, wish he'd been that friendly with the other judge
)
Misc3 - 3rd of four (judge said she loved him but he just looked so solemn and pouted at her)
Here is Indy's pen afterwards
Oh yeah, and Indy spent the entire day flirting with a Siamese girl kitten opposite his pen... fluttering his eyelashes and posing for her, here she is...
started packing the bits and pieces away... now I didn't realise pack everything *except the cat* so then found out with Indy all packed up that we had to wait for permission to leave. Ah well, live and learn!
All in all we had a blast and looking forward to Sheffield! My Indy is such a schnookums
and will see if he still likes shows (booked 2 as obv the first would be fairly overwhelming and second will show what he really thinks of it)
