It's been a grey, cool and drizzly day here chez Casa Reynard, with a brisk northwesterly blowing.
Managed seven hours sleep last night, albeit that was after a nearly 20-hour day. But I treated myself to an extra two hour nap after a brief foray to the kitchen for a
Had an interesting day at the cat show yesterday. My judge and I started off smoothly. Until we got to the fifth cat in her book - an entire male Bengal. He was sat in his bed in his pen, so I just lifted him out of the pen, bed and all, and popped him on the trolley for my judge to assess. While she was checking to see if his teeth align correctly, he just flipped. I have *never* seen a cat go from zero to apesh*t so quickly. And I've absolutely *no* idea how the judge managed to get him back into his pen. Unfortunately, she got bitten quite badly in the process - I was holding his rear end, so was out of the line of fire.
I've been stewarding on and off since 2008, and I've never had to deal with a biting certificate before. It's the steward's job to do the paperwork for that, and yes, it comes in triplicate... You need to get the show manager to withdraw the cat from competition, the duty vet to check the cat over, and countersign the forms. My judge was sent home via A & E - she's got the wound cleaned and dressed, and been given a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
I ended up swapping to a different judge for the rest of the day. This chap is an all-breed judge and had overall Best in Show as well, so I was pretty busy trotting around the show hall. I still can't feel my feet! Of course, the other judge's book was redistributed, and as luck would have it, my new judge ended up having to re-judge that Best of Breed class with the entire Bengals. Of the other two cats in the class, the female (who was in the pen next to the cat that went ape) was having none of it - she went for both of us when we tried to handle her, so the Show Manager withdrew her from competition as well to avoid anyone else getting bitten. And the other entire male, who was actually quite a friendly soul, then failed a vet assessment because his teeth were badly misaligned.
But I handled three breeds I'd never handled before - Russian White, Toyger and Lykoi. The Lykoi (a blue roan) was a real treat, as they are incredibly rare. Not everyone's

on the looks front, but they have such lovely temperaments. And then I got to meet a second Lykoi who was on exhibition - a tortie roan. Ye gods, she was lovely...
Doing BIS was lovely too. I shared with another steward, and presented three of the six cats to the judge - a blue & white Persian, a red spotted tabby British and a chocolate Burmese. The British made the final cut of three, and the Persian went on to be the overall best.
Madam Boo was pleased to see me when I got home, and she spent a fair while sniffing my white coat and my assorted gubbins. I just chilled in the company of the cat whilst demolishing a pot of tea and a large quantity of cheese & biscuits.
Today I have done very little. I still have to top up the firewood in the house, scoop the litter tray and sort out a little bit of paperwork for tomorrow. But other than that, I plan on having a quiet evening.