“Runner,” as he is more informally known, rested regally in the arms of his owner, Teresa Keiger, meowing to CFA president Pam Dunbar as she presented his orange and purple ribbon to Keiger and her husband, Rob Miller.
“We’re very surprised to have won, but we knew Runner was special ever since he was a kitten,” said Keiger, who has experience as a cat show judge and has bred Russian Blues for over 15 years. Runner lives with Keiger and Miller in Greensboro, NC, along with two other Russian Blues and has a Persian show cat for a roommate.
In addition to this year’s historic win, there was some unexpected excitement on the first day of competition when Rona, a 1-year-old red Abyssinian female cat owned by Ronald Carthen, somehow got loose in the exhibition hall.
Doors were sealed as loudspeaker announcements about the lost cat were made, and her owners were frantic with cause: at the 2005 championship, a cat who became uncharacteristically upset accidentally escaped a judge’s hands during the Best of the Best competition and was lost inside Madison Square Garden for 2 days, eventually found hiding in a maintenance closet. But Rona’s disappearance was considerably shorter—she was found within a few moments, seemingly nonplussed by her brief adventure, and returned to her upset but relieved owners.
At six separate judging rings over the weekend, cat lovers watched their favorite breeds strut their stuff in pursuit of ribbons and ranking. When it was their turn to be judged, the cats turned up the charm.
While a few cats exhibited diva-like behavior, mewing indignantly at the judges who were doing their best to appraise the furious felines’ finer points, most of the cats hammed it up for the cameras and the crowd, scratching the sisal-and-satin wrapped judging platforms and excitedly leaping at proffered feathers and cat toys to the delight and choruses of oohs and ahhs of adoring onlookers.
Cats at the Championship spend much of their time outside the ring in the benching areas resting or being groomed and brushed for their moments in the spotlight. But one competitor who needed no show preparation was Good Golly Miss Molly, a petite but energetic 8-month-old Sphynx.
Sphynx cats are the only hairless breed of cat (the result of a natural mutation in a litter of cats born in Canada approximately 40 years ago), Molly is low-maintenance and so she spent much of her time between competitions snuggling into the neck of her adoring owner, David White of NJ, who sports a shaved head in solidarity with his hairless kitty.
Molly, with her soft, warm, suedelike wrinkled skin and light orange/black coloring was the number one kitten in the country this season, and continued her tradition by winning the adult Sphynx Best in Breed title over several more experienced competitors and went on to compete in the Best of the Best contest.
The total number of entrants this year was down from 325 in 2007 to 248 this year, a drop that was partially blamed on the nationwide economic slowdown and higher energy costs that made it harder for owners who do this for the love of cats rather than fame or fortune to travel to New York. But Tiger Boy, an Exotic Shorthair tabby and this year’s second runner-up, came all the way from Hong Kong to participate.
Last year’s winner, a Mi-Ke Japanese Bobtail named Wyndchimes Tess, had an entirely different reason for not attending the show this year as reigning champion: her owner, Jill Archibald, reports that Tess has retired and became a first-time mother to 3 adorable kittens last Friday.
For more information on cat breeds, judging criteria, cat information and tips, go to the Cat Fanciers’ Association website at www.cfa.org.
