Another International Premier and Other Show News

At the Irish Supreme show, held for the first time in a wonderful new venue in Dublin's City West, on April 26th 2009, our Devon Rex cat Lorrentino Tiger-Lily (Squeek) attained her 3rd PC, making her a GCCFI Premier, and also an International Premier, as she had already attained her GCCF Premier title at the Northern Ireland Cat Club show, held in March 2009. 

Squeek has had an amazing show career to date, and has been awarded all her PCs at consecutive shows both here in Ireland and in the UK. Long may it continue :-)

I have been extremely busy for the last few months, and have been neglecting my cat show blog terribly! There have been some very enjoyable shows that I haven't had time to report on so I'm afraid readers will have to make do with a (relatively) short summary...

Northern Ireland Cat Club Show

First we had the Northern Ireland show on March 7th 2009, which was held in a new venue - a large church hall in Ballymena. Although I must say I did prefer the previous venue, the new show hall was spacious and couldn't be faulted. There were some minor issues with parking and the weather didn't help (as it rained heavily at both the start and the end of the day), but all in all I think it was a good choice. There was a large entry of 155 cats, and there was adequate space in the hall for them all along with their owners. The town of Ballymena was within walking distance which was a bonus, and it had plenty of shops and eateries to offer. The factory outlet centre, Junction One is also only a few miles away. 

Judging seemed to run smoothly, and most open class results went up very quickly. Judge Ms Molenaar-Elzinga did not seem to approve of the standard of Devons or Cornish on show and withheld a lot of them, including our fabulous Keisha, who had only a couple of weeks earlier been chosen as Best Foreign Exhibit in the Midlands show! She did however award Squeek a PC, which made her up to Premier :-)

Here are the Best in Show results:

Best Foreign: Ismisha Riff Raff (a well-deserved win for Singapura Moby who is owned by our friend Amy French and bred by Stephen Long of Ismisha).

Best Burmese: Ch Girona Keri

Best British: Pr Cassiobury Touchoftheblues

Best Semi-LH: Klassyklogs Katriona (Birman)

Best Persian: Sheerbliss Dream Cometrue

Best Oriental: Chezs Eragon of Wiccanways

Best Siamese: Pr Siawye Cookiecat

Best HHP: Lilac owned by a Mrs C Copes

Overall Best in Show: the Oriental Chezs Eragon of Wiccanways

Irish Supreme Show

Next was the prestigious Irish Supreme show, held on 26th April 2009. The show was held for the first time in a new venue in City West, the Roadstone Group Sports Club. In comparison to the RDS, where the show was held for several previous years, this venue was a huge improvement in my opinion (and that of many other exhibitors we spoke to on the day). I have since heard that some of the trade stand holders did not have a good day, but I really think that may have been due to the current economic climate and the fact that it was the show's first year at this venue, rather than there being an issue with the venue itself. 

The venue had everything an exhibitor could ever want anyway - a large show hall, a bar and restaurant on site, and free parking. It was easy to find and very convenient for those of us travelling from outside of Dublin in that we didn't have to travel into the city centre. An added bonus was that one of the very few pet friendly hotels in Dublin is situated only a few miles from the venue (Ibis Dublin West).

We were delighted and honoured to have Keisha and Squeek's breeder Sally Goulty and her husband Stuart come over from the UK to visit the show, and by all accounts they were not disappointed!

The show was also featured on RTE's programme Capital D! Click here to watch (the cat show segment starts at approx 17 minutes).

It was a wonderful day out in a wonderful new venue, with the icing on the cake being that Squeek got made up to International Premier and Keisha also got her first ever Tara Grand Premier Certificate! Judge Mrs Wilding also gave them both glowing critiques, which we are very proud of!

Here are the results:

Supreme Adult: Int Gr Ch Vita-Nova's Dreamer (Exotic)

Supreme Kitten: Ladydoll Boadicea (Ragdoll)

Supreme Neuter: Ishcus Marvin (Maine Coon)

Supreme Exhibit: Ladydoll Boadicea

TICA Shows

We also attended the first TICA show of the 09/10 season, held on 16th and 17th May 2009. From this season forward England has lost its isolated status and has also become part of a new TICA region Europe West, which also includes Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Iceland.

The show was held in Stantonbury, Milton Keynes and it was an all Specialty (SP) ring show, which meant that all finals were either for short-haired or long-haired cats, i.e., there were no All Breed finals. We only brought Keisha to the show, as we are hoping to campaign her for a Regional title this year, and had we brought Squeek they would have been competing against each other. She achieved 3 finals on the first day (two 4ths and a 2nd) and 1 final on the second day (a 4th). It was a very enjoyable show, as the TICA shows always are! Unsurprisingly (!) there were no other Devon Rex entered, but we did get to see some cute Pixie-bobs and some outstanding Bengals, along with a whole host of other breeds.

Here's our updated "standings":

Keisha (Lorrentino Lilyofthevalley):

• International Premier
• Grand Premier under GCCFI
• 2 GPCs under GCCF (needs 1 more to make International Grand Premier)
• 1 Tara GPC under GCCFI (needs 1 more to make Tara Grand Premier)
• TICA Supreme Grand Champion Alter (SGCA)
• TICA Best Devon Rex Alter in Europe North 2008/2009 (unconfirmed)

Squeek (Lorrentino Tiger-Lily): 

• 3 out of 3 1st Opens as a kitten
• International Premier

 

Show Report - Midland Cat Club 2009

The Midland Cat Club show was held on Sunday 22nd February in the Kilmurry Lodge Hotel in Limerick. We had a very early start, leaving our house in Cavan at 5am! Weather and road conditions were quite good though so we made good time and arrived at the show just after 8.30 am. We were met by quite a long vetting-in queue, with one vet in particular giving each cat a particularly thorough (and in my opinion a somewhat rough) examination, but it was moving along rather quickly so we were soon inside the show hall. We had entered both Keisha and Squeek in the show and they were both penned just inside the hall entrance door. Initially we thought they wouldn't be too happy with this positioning, but as they day wore on we realised that we were luckier than most as there was quite a good gap between the entrance and the row of pens, whereas the space between some rows was very tight. There was a very good entry for the show - 120 cats in total - and the show hall was filled to capacity.

We got to meet quite a few new cats - some lovely Abyssinians bred by Stephen of Ismisha, and (to our delight) a new Devon Rex - a very handsome lilac male owned by Emma McLoughlin. There were a large number of British Shorthairs entered, which is unusual, and also some fabulous Ragdolls. There were also a good selection of household pets (non-pedigree) entered, with some interesting names - in particular a large cuddly boy called Bailey Monster B Boy Bedazzle!!!

Show Manager Carmel Byrne gave everyone a nice welcome at 10am and asked us to clear the hall for the judging. We immediately went to the hotel's restaurant for a full breakfast, which was enjoyable, if a little overpriced. The results board was in a corridor off the main show hall, which meant that we could check our results throughout the morning. With the show being held in a hotel it was great that we were able to sit in the bar or in the reception area and relax over a coffee and a newspaper.

The show hall was reopened fairly on schedule, just a few minutes after 12.30. We returned to Keisha and Squeek to discover that they had made quite a mess of their once neatly laid-out pens, the blankets were all in a heap and Squeek in particular had managed to get cat litter everywhere :-) Other than that they were quite happy so we tidied them up and gave them a bite to eat and then went in search of our results. We were chuffed to discover that Keisha had got her Grand PC from Val Kilby (her 3rd in Ireland, so making her up to Grand Premier!) and Squeek had got her PC from Maria Chapman too. Keisha was also awarded Best of Breed! For some reason, the Open result for the other Devon Rex, Danger, was not up yet, but we were keeping our fingers crossed that he would also get his PC, especially as it was his owners first show. Later on in the day he did indeed get his PC, and we were very impressed with how he took to his first show, remaining very relaxed in his pen throughout the day.

The afternoon dragged a little, despite their being a small number of trade stands, a book stall, and a tombola to keep us all amused. It was good to have the time to catch up with several of our fellow exhibitors though, many of whom we hadn't seen since last October. We were very happy to hear that there were also some brand new exhibitors at the show, which, combined with the higher than usual entry, gives one a good feeling about the future of the fancy in Ireland. We had entered quite a few side classes and were delighted when Keisha came 1st in one, and 2nd in another (out of five). Squeek also placed 1st in one of her side classes but was unplaced in the other. But the best was yet to come...

We were standing chatting with some other exhibitors when we noticed someone hanging a Best Foreign Neuter rosette on Keisha's pen :-) This meant she would be in with a chance of getting Best Foreign and did indeed make the rest of the day more interesting for us! She was up against a beautiful Abyssinian kitten and a Singapura adult which we believe had travelled over from the UK. It was to our huge shock and delight when a couple of stewards came down and brought our Keisha up to the Best Foreign in Show pen!!!! A bit nerve-racking too, as this meant she would be taken out and examined by the judges in front of everyone for the Best in Show judging. We were sure to get ringside space for watching the judging, and in the end she did OK- she did panic a little bit as she got about halfway down the judges table, but the judges did a really good job of calming her. We were so proud, especially as Keisha is usually very nervous of strangers!! There was some stiff competition for Best in Show, including:

Best Persian: Johnnycake Maverick

Best Semi-Longhair: Ladydoll Boadicia

Best British: Cassiobury Touch Ofclass (Ch)

Best Foreign: Int Pr Lorrentino Lilyofthevalley (our Keisha!)

Best Burmese: Katcenne Speranza Wilde

Best Oriental: - (no entries)

Best Siamese: Int Ch Calvos Mystic Belle

The Persian, Johnnycake Maverick, took the ultimate honour in the end - Best In Show 2009!

After all the excitement, the show was finally closed and we collected Keisha from her fancy pen. We also received a Royal Canin umbrella and food voucher (first time we have ever won anything other than rosettes at a cat show!). We were staying in the hotel on the Sunday night, which I highly recommend, as it was great to be able to just go upstairs after the show, and relax with the cats and celebrate their success. Later on we had dinner and a few drinks in the hotel bar, but after such an early start we weren't able to stay up too late and went to bed shortly after 10pm!

The show was very well organised and as far as I could see everything ran very smoothly on the day. I heard there were some hiccups in the weeks before the show (judge cancellations and an astonishing change of policy by the hotel on cats staying in rooms - later reversed!) but this was all sorted out by the inimitable Show Manager Carmel Byrne and her team. Many thanks to them all for a very enjoyable show!

Here's our updated "standings":

Keisha (Lorrentino Lilyofthevalley): 

• International Premier
  
• Grand Premier under GCCFI
  
• 2 GPCs under GCCF (needs 1 more to make International Grand Premier)
  
• TICA Supreme Grand Champion Alter (SGCA)
  
• TICA Best Devon Rex Alter in Europe North 2007/2008
  

Squeek (Lorrentino Tiger-Lily): 

• 3 out of 3 1st Opens as a kitten
  
• 2 PCs under GCCF
  
• 2 PCs under GCCFI

Keisha Best Foreign at MCC Show 2009

Our white Devon Rex cat Lorrentino Lilyofthevalley was awarded Best Foreign Neuter and Best Foreign overall at the Midland Cat Club Show held on Sunday 22nd February 2009 in Limerick. 

She also gained her 3rd Grand PC, making her up to Grand Premier under GCCFI. 

It was a very proud moment for us, and Keisha's first time to be in the running for Best In Show (BIS). Thanks to everyone who supported and congratulated her and us, and thanks also to her judges who chose her as Best Foreign over strong competition from the Best Foreign Kitten, a gorgeous Abyssinian Ismisha Surfer Rosa, and the Best Foreign Adult, a Singapura Ch Shadanza Tanzanite. 

A full report of the show including the rest of the BIS results will be published shortly.