The Cats’ Meow : Breeders Display Fancy Felines, and an Alley Waif Takes a Top Prize

Oxnard resident April Senecal darted toward the rows of gaudily decorated cat cages.

“Have you seen the cat in the hammock?” she called out. “Oh, this is incredible. You have to see this.”

Hidden beneath the orange drapery cloaking his cage, an 8-month-old cat named Hammer lay on his back, napping soundly in a kitty-size hammock stretched across his compartment. His paws neatly folded over his stomach, the feline appeared undisturbed by the dozens of people wandering around him.

“This is how he acts at home,” said Dick Kallmeyer of Castroville, who takes Hammer--a member of the Scottish Fold breed--to shows almost every weekend. “But he loves motel rooms. He loves to run and jump around.”

Hammer was one of 180 cats being shown Saturday at the Cat Fancier’s Assn. regional competition, which drew breeders from across the state to the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

The event, which continues today, is the only major cat show in Ventura County this year, show manager Becky Orlando said. The next one will be in January, 1995.

“It’s the only place you can see 40 different cat breeds as well as people selling everything from ridiculous toys to necessities,” said Orlando, who breeds exotic shorthairs and had four cats in the competition.

Orlando said 101 purebred champion-class cats competed Saturday, with every breed from Abyssinian to Siamese represented. Also vying for honors were 35 kittens, 10 household cats and 28 premiers-- the term for a purebred cat that has been spayed or neutered.

Breeders washed, brushed, combed and polished their cats with hairspray-like products before taking them into competition. Instead of show rings seen at dog shows, the cats were presented on tables, where judges examined them for appearance and conformity to standards for each breed.

Some owners brought as may as four or five felines in hopes that one would be named First Cat.

Visitors watched as the judges poked and prodded the fluffy competitors. Although the household cat division was the smallest, it was one of the most popular.

“I like the household cats better because they’re not all poofed,” said 10-year-old Jade Gutierrez of Oxnard.

But Ventura resident Mary Lindley, a regular cat-show visitor, said her two felines--especially the 19-pounder--would probably be unacceptable.

“If I brought mine here, they’d probably say they were overweight,” Lindley said.

Orlando said many people don’t enter household pets because of the expense.

“It’s a $50 entry fee,” she said. “It’s a lot of money for people.”

Sylvia Fitzgerald, one of the judges for household cats, said she has seen some unusual combinations in her 20 years of judging.

“I often wonder how Mother Nature arrived at some of these cats,” she said. “I always feel very sorry for them. I find myself apologizing to them.”

Unlike the purebreds, Fitzgerald said, the household cats aren’t judged by set standards. Instead, they are rated on their appearance or presentation and how they handle themselves in competition.

Such any-pet-can-enter competitions are unique to cat shows, Fitzgerald said. “They don’t do this in the dog world.”

Nipomo resident Dianne Mullikin would know. Mullikin, a professional dog breeder, said she takes her feline pets to cat shows as a vacation from dog shows.

“It’s just for fun, to get out of the house,” she said. “These are just household pets, they don’t have a pedigree.”

They don’t have pedigree names either. Mullikin’s cats--David and Mr. Cat--stood out in a room full of exotic names like Pawsitively, Azurski and StormSong.

And unlike the polished purebreds around them, Mullikin’s cats have seen life on the other side of the tracks. Both of the felines she has in competition were rescued. She found David, a black-and-white alley cat, at a gas station in Santa Maria.

“This was his first time in the show ring and he was First Cat,” she said.

But David didn’t appear to care about his peach-colored ribbon. He seemed more interested in the container of chicken livers just beyond paw’s reach from his cage.