by B. Iris Tanner

Created on: July 03, 2010

How to prepare your cat for a show

The first thing anyone contemplating showing a cat needs to realize is that showing a cat is a COLLABORATIVE experience. Your cat must be willing to tolerate – and hopefully participate – in the exercise. If this is not the case, both of you will be unhappy with the results. Not only that, you’ll be embarrassed, the cat will be traumatized, and somebody just might get bitten or scratched.

You’re probably nodding your head in agreement. After all, this is just common sense, right? Not exactly. There are novice and experienced exhibitors out there who either haven’t absorbed it or have forgotten it in their quest for a few more ribbons or points. I’ve been guilty of this myself occasionally . . . but my cats have always reminded me!

I’ll provide some grooming basics later on, but the finer points of grooming are best learned from an experienced exhibitor working with your breed. Grooming is really secondary to the first, most basic question you need to answer. Is your cat a show cat?

If you have a pedigreed cat. . .

If you have a purebred cat, the breeder you bought it from is the best person to answer this question. Most will give you an idea of whether the cat is show quality when you buy it, but we aren’t infallible! There are very few experienced breeders who haven’t looked at a picture of a cat they sold as a pet and realized that their original assessment was wrong. (I’ve done this myself too!)

Hopefully you already have registration papers for the cat, which enable you to show it in the registry of your choice. There are several different organizations around the world and all have different registration requirements. It’s best to research local shows, find the organization that sponsors the one closest to you, and get familiar with its rules. Often you may be able to show a kitten without having registration papers, but not an adult.

After identifying the organization that’s sponsoring the show you want to attend, you should also visit its web site and review the “standard” for the breed. This is a detailed description of an ideal example of that breed. Pay particular attention to any disqualifying faults listed in the standard. Certain markings, eye colors, and other features can cause a cat to be disqualified by a judge. In many breeds, any sort of kink or irregularity in the tail is a DQ, and these can develop at any age.

In any case,

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