tuftsntrills

Thanksgiving  found us in balmy Corpus Christi, Texas for The International Feline Showcase show held November 28-29-30.  This moved our Lord Baxter into his first Adult class and competition was fierce for a 8 month old showing against one and half year olds.  He had 2 finals there and received his first title of Champion.  He was fortunate enough to be on the local news as they were covering the Cat show event. What a brave young man he was with the camera right in his face.

On to December and Waxahachie, Texas and the Turkish Van Connection show.   Here he had 3 finals and more points toward the next title!  As always, our Baxter was a real trooper showing very well.

October 3-4 found us in Temple, Texas at the Austin Cat Fanciers show where he placed 4th Best kitten of the show of all breeds  and 7 finals and placed best kitten 3 times!  Our appreciation to Sharon Kalani, Steven Corneille and Theresa Kempton for that honor in their rings!

October 17 and 18 found us at the Red River Rascals show in Oklahoma City.  Competition was extremely tough.  Lord Baxter was finaled 6 times.  Our appreciation goes out to all the judges for selecting our boy for those finals

October 30-31 & Nov 1 found us in Denver, Colorado.  What a great show.  It was RoMo Cat Club’s premier show and excellently executed.  Lord Baxter was 3rd Best Kitten of the Show all breed and had 11 finals!    Of those he had a 2nd place and 4  3rd places.

September 12-13 found our Lord Baxter Rumbelow in Wichita Kansas at Kansas Katz show.  It was his first show and he was magnificent.  He was calm cool and collected and showed very well.  He was the 5th Best Kitten of the Show and made 8 finals. I was very proud of him! Much gratitude goes to Susan Milburn of Cascade Mountain for this kitten! He was the very first of my breeders to our cattery  “TuftsNTrills” Maine Coons!

Long story short, I ended up flying to Portland Oregon to pick up this beautiful boy. He stole my heart the very moment I held him in my arms. Susan Milburn Cascade Mountain Maine Coons met us at the airport to unveil this gorgeous Boy! I owe a great deal to Susan for allowing me the privilege of owning this wonderful you stud. This lil guy is so amazing. He flew with hardly a peep and was a real trooper during our three hour layover in Salt Lake City. Once on the ground in Oklahoma, he was such a purr bucket he stole my heart immediately.

All set up and ready for the show!  Ciaran was so good his first ring!  We did it!  He even placed 3rd Best of Breed.  Oh the Joy!  Second Ring a small amount of hissing nothing major we can do this!  Third ring he says wait a minute I don’t’ like showing!  So, we can’t get him into the cage.  Back to his little safe haven of a show cage where he hides under the pad and pretends he is a turtle and not a cat at all. Oh my.  Each ring became ever more difficult at one point my mentor had to assist in even getting him out of the cage to the judges table.  My heart was breaking my beautiful Silver boy hated showing and was never going to like it.  Leaving the 5th ring of the first day he was trying to scratch anyone who stops within striking distance of us.  At this point we made the decision to absent him for the rest of the day and the next day.
After a long conversation with my mentor, it was decided he was never going to like showing and that I should retire him from the ring and start my search for another show cat if I was sure that I wanted to continue.  Well of course I want to continue!  I want to show and eventually breed to improve this wonderful breed of cats.
Christie beat the bushes and I searched every cattery I could find.  Nothing, wrong time of the season.  It looked very much like I would miss the rest of the show season.  Next spring before kittens would come along.
Lo and behold August I receive a call from Christie a good friend of hers has a show quality kitten, alas not a silver one.  But on the other hand a judge could bring the cat from the West coast to Texas for me to pick up.   I took one look at the pictures of the soon to be Lord Baxter Rumbelow and I knew I wanted him.

April of 2015 here we go. ThunderKatz, Oklahoma City
I never knew it required so much “stuff” to show a cat! Then after getting there I learn I really didn’t bring everything I needed. Learning curve!
It took one ring to learn that not all cats are meant to be in the show ring. The poor dear was so frightened. The noise and the smells totally overwhelmed him. Each ring became more of a trial. Each ring he became more insistent that he wasn’t going to show. He hissed, he scratched and by the second day he was biting us the closer we approached the rings. Needless to say he never completed his second day of showing.
This show is where I met the most wonderful Mentor a new exhibitor/ breeder could possible have. She encouraged me to expose Ciaran to new sights and sounds. Take him everywhere with you she said. So off we to garage sales where he was forced to meet new people, we went to Atwoods, Sears, Ace Hardware, Tractor Supply and even more garage sales. PetsMart! He was doing great! We are ready for our next show!