TheBanyanTree: Purrfectly on Display

[Rob McMonigal]

Mom, Dad, two of my friends, and my friend's co-worker went to the cat show
today at the Monroeville Expomart as part of a "cool thing, also get to see
friends" deal.

I have only ever been to one other cat show, and that was at least ten years
ago at the old convention center. It was probably the same show, just in a
different venue. We arrived a little late, but quickly found Drew and
Christine, though surprisingly not near a batch of Tonkenese, Drew's
favorite type of cat.

The show itself had vendors on the outside ring, show areas in the center,
and rows and rows of well-groomed cats in-between, like some kind of
planetary rock formation. I was very impressed by just how organized that
all was--I don't think I've ever been to a show that made it that easy to
know where to find what you were looking for. Who says you can't organize
cats?

At first we went around and looked at the cats in their (mostly) soft cages.
This is apparently a new fad, though as we all noted, none of our house cats
would last very long in them, or rather, the cage itself wouldn't stand up
to their sturdy claws and teeth. Perhaps show cats are, as a rule, more
docile.

I saw a lot less persians than I expected, and a lot more Maine Coons,
Rexes, Tonkenese, and Egyptian Maus (my personal favorite "show" cat--they
look so wild, and yet so regal) and other breeds overall. Several times, we
watched them show the Tonkenese, which was fun because they, like Siamese,
area big on meowing to anyone and everyone--which I think hurt one
particularly vocal kitty especially.

Drew got to pet one of the Tonkenese, I didn't ask anyone. There's so many
"do not touch" signs everywhere, from the cages to periodic announcements,
that I really felt weird asking.

One of the highlights of the show was seeing the activity cage, as I beleive
they called it. Basically an obstacle course for cats, the goal was to get
them to jump little fences and hoops, as well as run through tubes. I only
saw one cat actually do it, which was one more than I expected to see
complete the course. They use a little tease toy on a stick to get them to
move along, which makes sense. We were told that the traienrs are not
allowed to use food as an incentive. Good thing, too, or there might need to
be catnip testing!

I snapped a few pictures as I felt appropriate, mostly of the Tonks and a
few others. I really didn't watch a lot of the showing, prefering to walk
around and see the various kinds of cats. While I enjoy seeing them, the
judging itself didn't really grab me all that much, because I don't know
exactly what they look for--maybe next year, I'll read up first, since right
now I have a lot of free time on my hands.

After the show we did Chinese/Japanese food at a nearby restaurant, nearly
dying the death, as another of my friends might say, due to some really wild
drivers using mall back roads as a shortcut to the highway at inappropriate
speeds. I opted for tuna sushi (Yes, I ordered sushi, and enjoyed it a lot.
I was a bit frustrated by how much used salmon, because I have trouble with
it.) and cheese wontons. That was just about enough for me, with a few
nibbles of Mom's sweet and sour shrimp to finish off things.

It was a great day, and I'm glad to be out and about again.

-Rob