I’m really behind on blogging. No good reason  for that. But, two weeks ago, I went to the CFA International show in Cleveland.   This time I shared the journey with friend Alene Shafnisky who is showing iCandy Fireball this season along with her Turkish Angora, Sinend Seamus, another red tabby. If you remember last year, I SWORE I would never enter three cats in three different classes again. Even two is a lot of work at the IX venue. I initially entered both Hot Tamale and Mars (kitten and championship classes). As  the show got closer, I thought I would just take one cat, so maybe I would have a chance to have a bit of fun at this show full of vendors and entertainment. At the last minute, I decided to take both cats. And, top of that, Alene was schedule to clerk for a judge, so I would need to handle Fireball for his classes.

We drove in Friday and were able to set up our cat tents. Both Alene and I have the breed booth for our respective breeds, so we set those up as well.  Saturday morning we were up and running early to get the cats settled in and study the lay of the land. I knew with 3 cats to show in 3 different classes, it would be challenging. Fortunately, I learned about the joys of compression socks shortly before the trip and got some on Amazon.  FYI, they are awesome. Over the weekend my step counter reached 31,000 steps. The loud speakers were difficult to hear, so many people like me walked the ring area regularly to be sure our cats did not miss a class.

There were a few RagaMuffin people there. It was good to see some lovely cats. And of course, there were friends there that I do not get to see frequently.  The star is always the cats. Four month old Hot Tamale handled the huge, loud venue well and earned a final. Mars got three finals! I was so proud of him! Fireball was the big winner in premiership, getting finals under almost all the judges and earning his Grand Premier title Saturday afternoon!

I have a large vehicle, a Tahoe. To say that it was packed to the gills is putting it mildly. I’m a good packer; Alene, not so much. When we started the trip I had my half all neat and organized. When she got to my house, we managed to put all her stuff in. On the way home, it started raining when we were loading up the vehicle. To say we were just throwing stuff in and pushing is not an understatement. I had planned to unpack and then carefully pack everything up.  We made it hom . Cats and people exhausted. iCandy was awarded Best RagaMuffin in championship, Best RagaMuffin kitten and Best RagaMuffin premier in the gold show.