By Karla Gomez
Cat lovers alike gathered to show off their four legged friends at the Raleigh cat show last weekend. From kittens to adult cats, home cats to specialty breed categories, various kinds of cats were showcased at the event for their perspective judging. Each feline participant received a ribbon with information about their perspective breed ranked judging.
TICA, The International Cat Association, was the organizer of this year’s cat show that was held at one of the state fairgrounds’ buildings. The entrance to the cat show was open to the public at an $8 fee per adult.
The judging happened throughout the course of two days and there were different categories to the judging. Lynn Search, a cat breed expert, talks about her past experience judging the cat show and gives an insight to what the weekend’s event was all about.
A TICA banner showing some of the rules that the public must follow when coming into the show.
“There are a total of 14 rings in this event, which means that in each ring there will be judges that will judge different types of cats. A lot of the public bring the category called Household Pets which can be mixed breed cats or they can be cats that have an alternative feature look about them,” said Search.
“Each breed has its own standard and the breeders of that breed decided what they wanted the cat to look like, an example of this are the tonkinese cat breed,” said Search. “This event definitely teaches kids and we have youth education programs and encourage the kids to learn about different breeds or to even learn how to put on cat shows. When judging you can definitely start very young and be still doing it at my age which is a little over 40.”
Apart from her previous experience judging, she talked about one of her favorite cat breeds that she’s homed for more than 30 years.
“The breed that I have myself are the Japanese bobtails which originated in Japan, they have short kinky tails that ideally have a puff appearance like a bunny rabbit,” said Search. “They’re small cats, they’re fun, loving, love to play and I absolutely love them.”
Richard Hoskinson, a judge at the event, talked about what he looks for in a winning breed cat and as well as his own pets.
“I like to handle the different breeds, every breed has a standard of perfection that I’m always comparing each example of that breed to and I try to base all of my wins on the cats that come the closest to their breed standard,” said Hoskinson. “For over 25 years I’ve bred and exhibited cornish rex cats and currently have American shorthairs and I’m definitely fond of them.”
The Raleigh Cat Show will continually be hosted at the Fairgrounds for future TICA events, and judging is open to the public that may be interested in putting their household cats up to judging.
Judge gives a look at one of the cats participating in the cat show