Waiting for more lambs...

We haven't had any more lambs since the 1st, but next week should be busy. Quby and Dot are due next and were staying close to the house this afternoon while the flock was out to graze in the front pasture.

VERY close to the house as these photos show, they are at the front door wanting in. Tunis sheep are so friendly and curious. The cats were enjoying them through the glass door.

Photos from the Waco Cat Show

Only a little late... Bob Koestler is a great exhibitor at our cat shows and he always takes photos and posts them on his website. Attached is the link to the photos he took at our Valentine's Weekend show.

http://www.oriental-kittens.com/CatShows/Waco2010/index.htm

Weekend over...

Well, the busy weekend has passed. Thursday evening did bring us some snow!

Friday morning, everything at the farm had a dusting of snow!

But nothing like our son, Jeff received in the DFW area! Their snowfall clobbered the old record from 1888 with 12.5 inches around DFW airport.


Then after a careful drive into Waco on Friday morning, I spent several hours at the hospital with my aunt who was having vertebroplasty to repair 3 vertebrae.

Then off to the show hall to set up for the cat show. Most of it was done by the time I got there. And boy, was it cold! But we got it all ready for the exhibitors to come in Saturday morning.

The weather was better Saturday but there was some freezing fog that iced some of the bridges. I came upon two vehicles who had just lost control. One could have been really bad, she went airborne and landed upside down in a deep ditch. The good Lord must have been watching over her because she crawled out with no injuries. It took DPS over 30 minutes to come and by that time two more vehicles came sliding off the bridge. Luckily no injuries again, but one had traveled about 150 feet to come to rest on the shoulder of the oncoming traffic. Family members arrived to help the girl in the truck and they went to flag traffic down before they hit the icy bridge. I left after the trooper finally came and went on to the cat show.

We had a great entry and lots of great cats. I didn't get around to taking any photos unfortunately, there was some gorgeous cats there.

Busy weekend coming

This weekend brings the annual Heart of Texas Cat Club's show. Since I am one of the founders of the club I'll be busy all weekend with it.

We are also expecting our first lambs this weekend. So it could be interesting.

The weather is threatening to be bad starting tomorrow, with possible freezing precipitation. Hopefully it will clear before the exhibitors come in on Saturday. At least the barn is pretty cozy for any lambs that decide to make an appearance.

Circle the cat...

Something fun to try... I haven't been able to do it.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/gf3/circle-the-cat.html

Annual Mission City Cat Show

I judged for one of my favorite clubs in New Braunfels, Texas on Saturday. It was there 26th annual show and I think I have been to everyone of them.

The entries were down this year, but the quality of the cats was fantastic. There were lots of new and rarer breeds there this year too.
I found two neat "wooly" cats that I had to get my camera out for. The one above is a Selkirk Rex - Longhair, gorgeous color too.

This is the shorthair variety, look at that neat wooly coat. Just like a lamb!

I had so much fun judging the cats because we had plenty of time with the lower entry.

One cool Norwegian Forest Cat decided he wanted to perch on top of the scratching post next to my judging table. He was pretty high up and I had to coax him down with a toy.

Below is one of the hairless breeds, a Peterbald. They originated in Russia.








Another of the newer breeds is the Toyger, I LOVE the stripes on these guys.

More Kitty Pix

We had a lot of amateur as well as professional photographers at the cat show this year. You can see even more photos online.

To see Robert Koestler's click the link below, then click on 'Cat Show Photos'. Then click on HOT Waco - 2009 at the top of the page listing shows. Then click 'slideshow' to get past the introduction page. Robert C. Koestler, Saroko Cattery http://www.siamese-kittens.com/.

My DH Bob started a dotphoto page for the cat show photos he took. He's really enjoying his photography hobby. Click on the button to reach his cat show page:

More Photos from the Cat Show

Bob wasn't the only photographer taking photos at the Waco cat show this past weekend. Waco Tribune-Herald sent out two photographers. Take a look at www.wacotrib.com then scroll down to find the link to a ton of photos.

George Snell also took some great shots and posted them at: http://picasaweb. google.com/ george.snell/ HeartOfTexas#

Another Annual Cat Show is Done

Here are a few of the hundreds of photos Bob took at the annual cat show here in Waco.

This is Toni Jones judging one of Ann's household pet kittens (a 3/4 Birman from the cinnamon point color breeding program). Little Fiona is my Bobo's niece. Fiona has a new home now along with her little brother, Freddy.

Other judges pictured are D'Ann Kovic, Kay Devilbiss, Steve Savant and Vicki Jo Harrison.

Annual Cat Show Time

Our local cat show is always the second weekend of February. This year it falls on Feb. 14 and 15 and will be at the Heart of Texas Fairgrounds in Waco as usual.

Ann and I started the Heart of Texas Cat Club about 30 years ago. With some good help from other members of our small group we try to have a great time while offering a great show for the cat show exhibitors.

If you are in the area try to come by for a visit or find another cat show near you on the show calendar at http://ticamembers.org/calendar/.

We always have a lot of spectators who visit to see the show, and we have lots of vendors of cat items, from scratching posts to figurines to cat supplies and food. We also have a junior achievers ring for the young people in the cat fancy.

Here is a great group of photos from last year's show:
http://www.wacotrib.com/featr/content/features/slideshows/audioss_catshow/index.html

If you would like more information about the Waco show go to:
http://justcats.org/HOT2009.html

What a Wonderful World

A beautiful video shared on YouTube. Thanks, Joe for letting us know about it.

My 15 Minutes of Fame...

I'm not sure how long the link will be active but I was interviewed by a local television station at the Brenham cat show. Yikes... do I really sound like that?

http://www.kbtx.com/local/headlines/38763667.html

My "real" job...

...is keeping me BUSY... but that is typical during January. It is trade show season and as marketing specialist, it keeps me hopping. New brochures, new ads and trade show furnishings all are due at the same time.

I work for Manitou, an international manufacturer of rough terrain forklifts and other material handling equipment. It really is a good place to work. I have worked here at the U.S. subsidiary for 13 years now.

We even have two office cats, K-D and Mani who make the time at work more enjoyable. Their mother had them in the ceiling at our old plant and one weekend they fell between the wall of the engineering department. Luckily, their mewing was heard and after removing the paneling these two and four others were rescued.

Their mom was nowhere to be found, they must have been looking for her when they stumbled into the gap. We found homes for the others and our president of the company allowed us to keep these two. Named appropriately for the company (it was then K-D Manitou).

Very funny video

A friend emailed me this cute video! Click once on the video and then on the play arrow.

Beautiful silver tabby longhair! Cute Golden Retriever too...

The German Cat Show - Part Five

The Bavarian Cat Fanciers invited four U.S. judges to judge their Christmas 2008 show in Nurnberg. Henry and Eva Kellner are the nicest couple and I love to do their shows. They do a first rate job, presenting very organized and well attended shows three times a year.

The European format is quite different then we do here in the U.S. Judges must write critiques of each cat and then the show climaxes with a Best of the Best competition on the stage. I had a very lovely young lady who stewarded for me at the show. Darlyn was better at English then she thought. We were able to communicate quite well.

The four of us, Donna Madison, Ann Hoehn, Karen McInchak, and I narrowed the competition down until a beautiful torbie and white Maine Coon was chosen as Best of the Best both days.

Quick Trip to New York

My friend Ann and I took a short vacation and visited Westchester County this past weekend. We were both to judge the fantastic Westchester Feline Club's annual cat show on Sunday but went a little early so we could do a little sightseeing.

We rented a car and drove around, though cold and windy, we had a great time visiting the Lyndhurst Castle. There were lots of geese grazing on the manicured grounds.





Next we drove to the community of Sleepy Hollow and wandered through the huge cemetery!


That was very interesting, lots of famous people buried there, including Washington Irving who wrote about the Headless Horseman.


We also went to a nice little church bazaar and picked up some homebaked goodies and Christmas ornaments.



The show was wonderful as usually with over 225 cats entered. Newer breeds like the Kurilian Bobtail and Savannah were exhibited. We missed getting to meet the men of RescueInk, a cat rescue group that were there on Saturday. Visit http://www.rescueink.org/ to read about their group.

Love is in the air...

Or something like it...
Our little cat Ellie-Mae has been calling and calling... then she started spraying all over the house. We knew it was time to make a decision to spay or breed her. She is a 3/4 Birman from Annbirwaves Cattery's cinnamon point breeding program. She has very nice Birman type and GORGEOUS deep blue eye color but we didn't know if she had inherited the sought-after cinnamon gene.

Luckily there is now a test to see if a cat carries the cinnamon gene. It only requires swabbing some saliva from the inside of the mouth. The test is done at University of California at Davis,
http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/cat/.

So I sent it off and received the results yesterday. I highly recommend them! Very prompt and only $40. We found out that she is not a carrier so off to the veterinarian she went today to be spayed. This service is so welcome, no longer will we have to test breed cats to find out if they carry the preferred (or not preferred) colors.

Connecticut in Springtime

My friend and fellow cat judge, Ann and I went to Connecticut to judge a show near New Haven. We rented a car in Hartford and just drove around the state. The first day we visited Dinosaur State Park near Rocky Hill.

Then on Saturday we found a Daffodil Festival to attend in Meriden, as well as a Wool and Fiber show near Hartford. Here's some views from the Daffodil Festival.

They had a lot of things going on, parades and bands, lots of arts and crafts booths and a big tent with all kinds of festival food. I tried the fried Oreos, like they weren't fattening enough by themselves...?

The CT Wool and Fiber Fest in Vernon was a lot of fun too. They had lots of wool related vendors and some educational demonstrations. Not only sheep wool either, they had angora rabbits and alpacas there as well. They were also giving oxcart rides to the kids.

The Geneticats cat show was Saturday and Sunday in Ansonia. We judged about 150 cats each on Sunday and had a great time. Lots of wonderful entries, I especially enjoyed seeing some of the rarer breeds like Chartreux and Egyptian Mau and the new Peterbald and Savannah.

New baby at Unicorner too!

Bobo (aka Clyde of Unicorner) also has a new niece. Ellie May is his sister's daughter and she has come to live with us. Ellie is a five month old seal lynx point, and she is 3/4 Birman, 1/4 Oriental Shorthair.
Here Uncle Bobo is deciding whether to share his scratching tree with Ellie Mae.

Bobo Gets A Present

Bobo aka Clyde of Unicorner, our household pet attended the cat show on Saturday. He showed last year enough to receive 16th Best HHP in the region. This weekend he hissed and grumbled his way through 4 rings and recieved three rosettes. But I knew he didn't enjoy it and absenteed him from the rest. We left him home on Sunday. I figured he would punish me for taking him to that horrible place where there were... of all things... CATS! I guess he doesn't know he is one.

To apologize to him, we bought him a cat tree he can climb on and a cute catnip mouse.

Here he is after first seeing the tree. Of course, he loves it. He loved the mouse too, so much that he disemboweled it, there was catnip all over the carpet and it was in two pieces when we got home from work.