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GC, RW Ristokat's Chippendale ("Chip"), a seal point Himalayan male, ended the season as 6th Best Cat and Best Persian in the Northwest Region and 5th Best Himalayan Nationally! As many exhibitors begin the new season with a campaign goal in mind, I thought I would share with you Chip's "story"... a case of a campaign sort of sneaking up on us :-)) |
We always considered Chip a special boy... yet we had no intention of keeping him. He was the "wrong" color (we wanted a lynx point), the "wrong" sex (we wanted a girl) and the "wrong" parents (too close to most of the girls who would be his potential wives).
So right from the get-go we offered Chip for sale... and although several people inquired about him, no one snapped him up.
He was shown only 3 times as a kitten, just to get him used to the show hall. In his last kitten show, at 7 months of age, he ended the show as highest scoring longhair kitten, and 3rd highest scoring kitten overall.... Still, overlooking the obvious, we credited that success to the fact that it was a very small count, summer show...
We were still looking for the perfect home for him in July when he turned eight months old, so we decided to go ahead and get his winner's ribbons.In a class with ten other Himis, he was Best of Breed in 4 of the 8 rings, AND made 2 top 10 finals! As if that wasn't enough, he received a silver platter that is given each year to the Best Himalayan in Show by the Sunkats Club in memory of Greg Ostlund of Sogo Himalayans.Despite his success, Chip was still the wrong color and the wrong sex for our breeding program, and we still had no intention of keeping him....Then a couple of good friends did what good friends are suppose to do in times like these - They told us we were idiots! :-)They opened our eyes to just how exceptional Chip was - from his beautiful, round head, his teeny little ears, those big deep blue eyes, and of course, the biggest coat we'd ever produced on a cat....
With all that coat in the middle of summer, we rushed to get him granded, sure that he would start losing hair at any moment. He granded fairly quickly, but we certainly had no thoughts of a campaign at this point. However, since he was still in coat, and we were having fun showing him, we thought we'd show him "just until he dropped coat"... famous last words!
In retrospect, this is rather humorous as he was still "dripping in coat" at his final show in April, never blowing coat through the entire season!In fact, judge Brian Moser nicknamed him "Cousin It" in February, and the name stuck... After that people would chant "Yeah, Cousin It" during his finals.Chip was shown very lightly and just at local shows. He earned many Best Cats along the way from both allbreed and Himalayan breeder judges. He even butted heads at one show with a national campaigning Himi and held his own. February he made it to #6 in the region and he continued to hold that position until the end.
Not bad for a kitty we weren't keeping :-).
