Clearly Mz Undrstod Callie

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again

Peace Train, Falcor, and Isitt Rose…what could they possibly have in common?

It all begins at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. You see Mum and I were heading off to a cat show with Callie, Emma, Isitt, and Bernstein. It was very dark when we headed south. Mum had been on a Cat Stevens or Yusuf Islam kick. After many hours of research and listening to his music she ready to educate me for most of the ride to the show. I vaguely remember hearing the song Peace Train when I was younger but knew nothing about it or the song writer. It’s all very interesting and catchy. Since about 6am on Saturday morning I’ve been hearing the song on repeat in my head. I’m not tired of it yet, although The Boyfriend wont let me play it on repeat anymore.

This was the best Cat Show we’ve ever had. We showed everyone on Saturday. Callie made three finals and Bernstein made two. At the end of the day Curlfect had it’s first Grand Champion. To those not in the cat world, that is the lightest level of achievement. Once attained the Grand Champions compete to become regional and national winners, accumulating a point or percent of a point for each Champion they compete against along the way. While we enjoy showing cats, we will not be ‘running’ Callie to gain a regional win. We’re pleased that she has achieved this status.

By Sunday Isitt had attained her Champion status and sat out, leaving Callie and Emma to duke it out with another Devon named Disco Lemonade. Isitt is a bit spoiled, but hey I’m not the first person to ‘ruin’ my Loganderry Devon. One of friends frequently throws her hands in the air and says ‘mistakes were made’. And it’s true, I too made mistakes and now have the most perfect and affectionate cat on the planet who is uncomfortable around strangers and not the best show cat. So while the others were working, Isitt tired out the harness and relaxed. By the end of the day she was rolling around on the floor and had become friends with all our neighbors. Perhaps she could still have a show career.

Once Callie became a Grand Champion it was like they pulled out all the stops. She made four more finals. One judge made her BEST CAT, which is essentially 1^st place. The best specimen of all of the cats against each of their individual standard when compared to all the other cats. It was truly wonderful.

Nearly every judge commented on Callie’s ‘tortitude’ or her split personality or her red head expressing itself. Technically Callie is a Silver Patched Tabby and White, which is another name for Tortie or Calico. This means she carries the dominate red gene and the dominate black gene as well as the white spotting gene. This is good for Curlfect because it means she can have kittens that are every color except solid white, she doesn’t carry that color trait but if the father did she could have solid white kittens. How did I get on this genetics tangent? What I was trying to say was that it’s a common theory that red females are more feisty than any other color of cat. It was nice of the judges to see beyond her attitude since like Isitt, Callie isn’t a fan of showing and tends to get huffy but to her credit she is more easily distracted from her huff.

When I returned home I found that The Boyfriend had made apple crisp with some of the mazillion apples he picked. He’s gone three times this year. Seriously, if it weren’t the end of the season I’d be worried about him, why all the apples? Isitt was happy to be home and immediate curled up and exhibited her full fluffy coat which reminds some people of a lamb. It might have been that she was a white lump of curls sleeping on my lap as I was knitting, but I can’t say for sure. The Boyfriend recently discovered a resemblance between Isitt and Falcor from The Never Ending Story. And for those of you who don’t love show cats this may have felt like an unending story but what can I say? The coolaid has been drunk, the gauntlet has been thrown down, and the challenge accepted. I’m one of those Devon Ladies!