Dick Irwin's Cat Discussion

Catmas Trees

2009-12-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again, where there are presents and food and chidrens eyes twinkle in anticipation. I remember those days ... when the kids were still here at home. Now our "children" have 4 legs and meow a lot. It's a whole new world at this time of year.

After Thanksgiving has finally been "leftovered" to death, we make our annual trip to storage to pick up the Christmas tree and the boxes of decorations. Back when our children were human, we had all kinds of pretty ornaments and figurines and such, some more breakable than others. Now and then one would be done in when one of the kids accidentally bumped it and knocked it to the floor. But, now that the kids have grown that extra pair of legs (and there are more kids) ...

... Our ornaments that are breakable remain in storage. Instead, we get out the fiber covered or plastic ornaments, whatever is not breakable. We go to storage and pick up the slender fake tree with the wide base that doesn't tip over so easily. We aet the tree in a corner where it has some support on at least two sides. We hang JUST the unbreakable ornaments and some strings of lights on the tree and we step back and admire our work ... for about 10 seconds.

From then on it's a war between us and the cats. We set it up, they tear it down. We set it up (again), they tear it down (again). Throught the rest of the Christmas season, we go back and forth and forth and back. We've yelled at them, swatted them, we've even used a water bottle to spray them, but the cats always win. It's frustrating, but 'tis the season of the Catmas Tree.

Chicago Shorthair Cat Club Cat Show

2009-11-29T23:06:00.000-08:00

I just spent 2 days in beautiful Naperville, IL not too far outside of Chicago, at the Chicago Shorthair Cat Club CFA show. There were 235 wonderful cats entered in the show and most of them were present. The show hall, building 1 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, was perfect and the show went very smoothly. What a really fun time I had visiting with friends and watching all of the kitties being groomed and loved and judged, including the household pets (HHP) class. There were a total of 15 HHP cats entered and only two who weren't able to attend. The judges treated them all with love and care and did their best to pick the best 10 HHP cats in each judging ring.

There were nearly one hundred kittens (aged 4 months to 8 months) entered and some of them were spectacular. The championship and premeirship classes were also full of lots of gorgeous cats.

As a special treat for all present, Acro-Cats, a trained cat demonstration show, was on stage both Saturday and Sunday.They were very entertaining.

My recommendation ... The next time you see an advertisement for a CFA cat show in your area, you should MAKE time to attend. You will not be disappointed.

Cat Discussion

2009-11-14T22:22:00.000-08:00

I'm still waiting for cat lovers to chat with here on Dick Irwin's Cat Discussion. I went to another discussion page, I-Love-Cats.com, and am having fun chatting with friends on that site too.

Hello All Cat Lovers!

2009-11-11T09:23:00.001-08:00

Some people believe that men do not like cats. Personally, I have a t-shirt that describes exactly how I feel. It says "Real Men admit they Love Cats!" The original copy of the shirt was purchased at a little store named "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty" in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I am on my third copy of the t-shirt in 14 years. I now get them from www.meow.com .

I have had at least one cat in my household nearly all of my life. No, not the same cat ...

Currently, my wife and I have a hobby of breeding and showing cats. Our current breed is Cornish Rex. We have also bred and shown Chartreux (a very old french breed) and Oriental Shorthair. We have shown British Shorthair as well. Our CFA-registered cattery name is Quatrepaws (pronounced cat-paws).

We also help to control the outdoor cat population in our neighborhood by practicing the capture-spay-neuter-release program.

Our home would be so very empty if we didn't have our loved cat friends to watch and cuddle. They help to complete our lives with their returned love.