Boys are sinister

 Or at least left pawed according to an article HERE.   I'm going to have to watch our kitties and see this in action now.

Wild and wonderful world show

Late, late, late, I know. My husband was hording the picture on his iPad. But here they are at last, Diego and Fiona at the CFA world show in Columbus Ohio.  They are hanging out in their Sturdi pop up. Fiona finally relaxed the second day and was more mellow than I've ever seen her at a show. And it was an big show. There were near a thousand cats with a echoing hall ,a P.A. system that sounded like Charlie Brown teacher speak and a gym meet across the partition. I feared she'd be curled in the back of the tent the whole time but she actually started coming out of her shell. Maybe we just need exhibiting practice. 

What really made the trip was getting to met Laura , Lynn and Robin, fellow RagaMuffin breeders. And we got to hug new 'Muffins. Bonus!

And we have a Chaaaampion, my friends!

Well, in spite of not knowing top from bottom about cat shows, our lovely girl Fiona has earned the ribbons for CFA champion status.  Will we go on fighting 'till the end? I'm not sure. Fi just doesn't seem to like showing. It's not the handling, and it's not the driving.  Being in the show hall with all the other cats though, it makes her shy.  Even her favorite tuna only makes things tolerable. This Queen may only go a few more rounds, and then bow out of the spotlight if she doesn't perk up.

Play it again, piano cat

Lolcats have had their vindication. This weekend The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis held a Internet cat film festival. Can i haz a palme d'or, plz?

¡Ay, caramba, he's cute!

   Scallywag Rags Don Diego had made it home to Soft Kitty Cattery.  He's such a wonder kitten. He wasn't scared leaving home after one initial moment of "Ahhhh! Outdoors!" The Sturdi pop up was disdained and he rode in style across my sons shoulders. No car fear, no worry about shut doors. Now he's a Canadian too, having made it over the border. Welcome to Ontario Diego!

Canadian Muffins

I'm very happy to say, RagaMuffins are now CCA recognized! I got this email today, such good news!

 *****************************

It is with pleasure that the Standards Committee announces the acceptance of
the RagaMuffin (LH) into Championship status of CCA.

Final approval of the standards was given on Wednesday, August 8 by the CCA
Board of Directors. A 60 day waiting period is required before the RagaMuffin can compete for points or titles (October 7, 2012).

In the meantime, breeders/owners of these breeds are allowed to enter and
present their kittens, cats, or alters at CCA shows in the New Breed class.
This would allow judges to familiarize themselves with the breed prior to
the official recognition date of October 7, 2012. Regular entry fees are
required. No finals or points are awarded during this 60 day waiting period.

Please cross-post this announcement to other breed/cat lists you may belong
to.

Elaine Gleason

  *****************************

Diego countdown

We're getting more and more excited here at Soft Kitty. In 15 days, we'll be venturing to the U.S.A. to bring Scallywag Rags Don Diego Vega home.

Little helpers

Apparently Glory thought that I could use her sewing expertise. She does have a lot of experience chasing thread.

And Fiona felt that Glory needed a bit of a wash, so she stopped by too. That orange fur looks so nice with black linen!

Snips and snails, but no puppy dog tails!

The Soft Kitty kitty household is very excited, we might be getting our first boy.  We're in the early stages of ogling...err, evaluating  this little fella to be a future stud muffin.

If the stars align and the kitty fairy godmother's agree that he's got the right stuff, he'll be coming up to woo our ladies Fiona and Glory. We've even put some thought into a potential name for this little masked bandit of hearts, Diego Vega. Ole!

Showtime!

 Excitement, razzle, dazzle, we have cat show magic. Fiona did very well for her first show with 3 finals, especially considering she was as shy and upset as I've ever seen her. Oh, and so very warm.
A big thanks to the golden triangle cat club for being such wonderful show hosts, Nancy Grandison entry clerk extraordinaire for helping us get signed up correctly, and  all the marvelous judges who juggled our girl and liked her in spite of her stage fright. 

Super victory over paperwork!

Yesterday, in the hour I had between errands, I managed to defeat the many headed form beast. Now Fiona is all registered with the C.F.A. In one week's time we give her a bath, help her to look mmmmmarvelous, (natural for her, so it should be easy!) and we will have a cat show princess. That's as long as she can pose as pretty in a judges ring as she does in the laundry basket.

Life and art (or at least TV) collide

Anyone looking at our cattery name will guess that we are Big Bang Theory fans. In the The Zazzy Substitution Sheldon gets a cat, Robert Oppenheimer. The whole Manhattan project in feline form is soon gathered, along with Zazzles, who's just so Zazzy. The strange part for me is that I found out an early RagaMuffin from the Encore cattery was named Pizzicato Pizzazz, affectionately called Zazzie. When his stud days were done, he retired to Texas.

On the flip side

Fiona seems to have worked things out. Gloriana likely needs a little more time to get used to them.

Play? Play! play! play!

Anyone remember Nugent the dog from Over the Hedge? Here we have a more reserved version.

  Romana tried so hard to give Gloriana that ball. The big dog puppy is a bit much for Glori yet. 

The kitten has landed!

 Glory has been bouncing back since her flight from Florida Tuesday. Lots of time purring, sleeping, and pouncing solo in a room with just one or two people. She doesn't seem to mind people. The dogs and cats still kind of tweak her tail. This morning she graduated from shut door to baby gate and Fiona jumped right in. They have been circling each other slowly, with the occasional rumble when one gets too close. Now Glory is behind my monitor, Fi is on the fleecy bed, and Vadar pug is snoring away. He was feeling most deprived stuck away from his spot (aka. my lap). Romana even made a short visit for lab puppy sniffing fun. She's such a good pup, no charging, no barking, just a friendly long nose that gets pulled back when the kitten warns her off.

Welcome Glory

It's been a busy while since I last posted. We've gone to our first cat show, gotten our first memberships and cattery name from three of the main cat registries, gotten our business name registered, and gotten a web domain (Softkitty.ca). But best of all, we've added a second lady to our household.  Meet Rivendell's Gold -n- Glory of Soft Kitty.  She's not here yet, but will be arriving the 24th. We're so excited!

One of the gang

We'd originally worried that the dogs would be too much for Fiona. Our two pugs and lab mix mutt are a boisterous bunch.  After her arrival Leia took one look at the orange fuzz ball and claimed her as her "puppy". Grooming her, driving off any other dog or cat that looked at her crossed eyed, following her around everywhere, they were inseparable.  Now Fi's one of the gang.

Recipe for sleeplessness

The boys drove up north to a gaming convention yesterday.

•  They didn't make it home until the wee hours.
• Throw in that it was even later with daylight savings. 
• Then top that off with Fiona. 

She'd missed them. They'd been gone forever and obviously hadn't had proper chance to fill their Ragamuffin adoration quota yet. They got the full cutie pie greeting. Fi followed them around chirping hello and handing out ankle hugs. When Michel tried to turn in she and Romana were competing for the end of the bed. Forty five pounds of puppy ends up sleeping off to the side on a blanket because the kitten rules the roost.

Learning new things

Today Fiona discovered two important things. One is that fingers tasting like people food are good for nibbles, and the other is where I stash my yarn. My knitting may never be the same.

Welcome to Soft Kitty Cattery

Jen and I would like to say a friendly "Hello" to everyone and introduce Fiona.  Fi is a red tabby and white purebred Ragamuffin. She makes grown men squee with her cute-fu. My husband, son, friends, and random delivery people have been melted into submission by her. Upon her fluffy shoulders sit our hopes and dreams of starting a small cattery. She is our first Queen.

We were looking into showing her at an upcoming cat show on the 17th, but the amount of paperwork and memberships needed stymied us. Never let it be said that there was no work involved in cat fancy!
I've been filling out forms to join so many groups, so I could join other groups, just to be official.  But Fiona's worth every carbon triplicate. We want to do things right for our girl. With any luck we can get breed recognition for Muffins with the C.C.A.  and start showing her before long.