• To determine the number of points your cat earns in each ring.
• To determine how small a show you should go to.
• To determine how big a show to go to.
• To choose which is the best show to go to.
• To determine how high you need to final for a ring to be good enough to be a "keeper".

Determining Points Earned in Each Ring

The obvious use of the National/Regional Point Chart is for calculating your cat's points at the show for each ring.

It's easy.

The top row of the chart is numbered for placements in the finals 1-10 (1-15 for kittens with an entry over 100).

The far left column is numbered 1-200: the number of cats in Championship (Kittens or Premiership).

To determine the number of points you cat has earned in a ring, go down the left hand column until you come to the number of cats in the show for your category. Now go across the row to the column for the placement your cat won in the final.

That's your cat's points earned for that ring. Of course, since we count our rings as individual rings, you need to keep track of each ring's points.

Repeat for all the rings, add them up - and that's your cat's points for the show.

It Starts With Your Goal Number Let's say your minimum goal number for a regional win is 30. Looking at the chart, go to the 10th Best Cat column and go down it until your find 30 points. Now look across the row to the left to see how many cats there needs to be at a show for 10th place to earn you 30 points. The answer is 56 cats.

So, as long as there are 56 cats at the show and you make the final, you will have reached your minimum goal for that ring. Of course, if you final higher than 10th, you are ahead of the game :-).

Figuring out the minimum size show you want to go to becomes even handier as the lowest of your 100 rings gets higher and higher. There is no point in going to a show where even a Best Cat win will not replace the lowest of your top 100 rings.

Obviously, if you a doing a regional campaign with a regional quality cat, you will probably want to avoid the national campaigning cats when you can... so you will want to avoid a show where the count is high enough to attract the national campaign cats.

The national campaigning cat needs to be at a show with enough count to earn high enough points for r a national win (See Campaigning, It's a Number's Game)

...let's say around at least 75 in Championship, 75 for Kittens and a 45 count for Premiership.

So if national campaigners in championship have a Goal Number of at least 75, they will be looking for entries higher than 75 cats. The cats hoping for a high national win will be looking for even bigger shows.

For a regional win, you are probably looking for a count of at least 50 -75, certainly less than 100... unless there are lots of other high count shows for that same weekend where all the national campaigners are more likely to be (and it does sometimes happen that way).

Also, if a show has a high count and just a few national campaigners are present, your cat may still final - especially if the judging slate is favorable for your cat.

To run a smart campaign, you need to be looking at upcoming shows... checking out the shows a month or two ahead... seeing what last year's counts were, looking at the judging slates... marking the your good judges. Look at:

• Previous placements by that judge
• Previous placements in the same competition
• Knowing the likes and dislikes of that judge
• Politics

Not sure which show will be best for you cat on a certain weekend? Predict the placement each judge will give you at each show you are considering. Using the count from the previous year, calculate the points your cat would get with the predicted placements.

You will now have an idea of which show will be best for your cat.

Sometimes the choice is obvious. But more often there will be 2 or 3 shows to choose from. Depending on the count, a higher count show with a lower final may earn your cat more points then Best Cat at a smaller show - and sometimes not.

Don't guess or go on instinct - crunch the numbers to get your answer!

A "keeper" ring is a ring where the points awarded are high enough to replace the lowest of your top 100th rings (top 40th for kittens)

Keeper Rings

Once your cat hits 100 rings (40 for kittens), you begin replacing the lowest rings. The longer you have been replacing those lowest rings, the higher they will be. As you keep replacing higher and higher rings, it becomes more critical to know how what combination of show count and final will produce enough points for the ring to be a "keeper". There is no point in going to a show and making finals that don't earn enough points to replace your lowest keeper ring. Again, that's where you use your chart by going to the 10th Best Cat column and finding the number of points of your lowest ring you are replacing... then going across and finding how many cats need to be present at the show to make a minimum of that many points.

Once you are at a show and the count is announced, you can use the same system to see how high you need to final in a ring to get the number of points you are hoping for too.

Knowledge is power - and Using your Point Chart wisely gives you a lot of knowledge!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOUR SET OF POINT CHARTS

• Calculate your cats points for each ring.
• Predict which placement your cat needs to final in order to reach your goal number, a great help in choosing your best show to enter for each weekend.