Last weekend was the Cat Fanciers’ Association World show. Luckily for me, it was held this year at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. After looking forward to it for months, I packed up two of my RagaMuffins and drove to Philly on Friday afternoon. The plan was to check in to the hotel, get the cats comfortable, and then head over to the convention center to set up the cats’ array of, well, stuff, for the next day.

I went a bit overboard with the decorations for my grooming spot. I am not a crafty person but I gave it my best shot, making everything glittery and pink. I got to meet up with other RagaMuffin people setting up as well. Some I had never met in person, others I had not seen in a while.

After set up, I had dinner with a veterinarian from Canada and another from Idaho. I met both these women through showing cats and it has been rewarding as well as fun. It’s nice to know I am not the ONLY crazy cat lady veterinarian!  We, of course, talk cats and veterinary medicine through dinner.

The next day promised to be a long one and it was. Cats and their people had to be at the venue by eight in the morning. Each cat was judged by several judges through the day. It was a large building, so running around with cats to get them to the ring when they were called was a challenge,. To make it MORE challenging, there were two cat shows going on at once with two different announcers, so I had to be sure to listen for the announcer for the “red” show, as my cats were entered in that one.

The vendors were awesome. Cat furniture, clothes and jewelry for cat people, tons of cat toys, beds, you name it. As there are at many cat shows, there were cat rescue groups set up for fund raising and adoptions. There were also three professional cat photographers. At other shows, the most you might have is one. One of the photographers flew all the way in from Japan. I had my cats photographed by him; I figured I wouldn’t run into him at any local shows……..

My kitten Beignet was the first RagaMuffin to final at the show over the weekend. I was shocked my baby made it to the big leagues. As it turned out, it was her only final at the show. Getting a “final” at any show is what you compete for at a cat show, but at the world show, it was extra special. There really were beautiful examples of cats of different breeds from all over the world present.

The RagaMuffin people had planned to wear matching Tshirts with our breed on it for the weekend. On Saturday, whenever a muffin was in a ring for a win, there was a sea of pink Tshirts ringside to cheer each other on. On Sunday, it was a blue sea. .

My Nougat, who has been a big winning RagaMuffin, ranking with the prestige breeds like Persians, Maine Coons and Siamese, once again made me proud with more than his share of finals in the premiership classes ( those are for neutered cats). As always he took it all in stride. I had even gotten him a tux to wear in between judging which he patiently wore while spectators took his picture.

All in all, it was exhausting, but exciting. As always, it is good to spend time with other cat lovers. But, as always, it was good to come home to the rest of my fur family.