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| Furkats Persimmons P |
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Showing Your
Polydactyl
Maine Coon
In Household
Pet Show
Rings
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| Furkats Air P Jordon |
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Showing your poly Maine Coon in household pets can be fun, legal and necessary. It is time to get the polys out of the back rooms and into the show hall. The general public needs to see the poly Maine Coon so they can learn to appreciate a part of their heritage. The poly Maine Coon survived for hundreds of years in the harsh New England climate but is having difficulty to survive 30 years of the man made standard. Lets make this the beginning of an era of a Neo-Renaissance Revival for the poly Maine Coon by showing them in the Household Pet (HHP) class.
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| Furakts Thelma P Tacker appreciating her awards in her benching area |
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Besides it is fun to have your poly in the show hall and to have your cat's cage covered in rosettes. The general public will be impress or the jugular blood bath while the HHP rings have the congeniality of a box social. You will see the judges in a new light, as they have to judge without a standard.
Polys can be registered with the various cat registries in the United States. This includes Cat Fanciers Association (CFA), The International Cat Association (TICA), American Cat Fanciers Association (ACFA) and Cat Fanciers Federation (CFF). In fact the registration of a poly Maine Coon does not indicated whether or not the cat is a poly. It is traditional but not required to include a P someplace in the name to indicate that the cat is a poly. Polys cannot be shown in championship completion, as extra toes are considered a deviation from the show standard, but they can be used for breeding and shown in Household Pets (HHP). It is perfectly acceptable with the cat associations to show a non-registered pedigreed cat (a pedigreed cat with papers that have not been officially filed) as an HHP. Cats that are not altered can be shown up until they are 8 months. After this age the cat must be altered to be eligible to compete in HHP, or they must be retired. They do very well in HHP and are big crowd pleasers. In TICA, CFF and ACFA Household Pets can be shown for National Wins and other titles.
With CFF HHP can be shown to titles of Grand Companion and Master Grand Companion as well as National Standing. To compete cats must be registered with CFF as HHP. All cats must be altered at 8 months to be eligible to compete.
With ACFA cats earn different degrees of titles called Royals. They must be registered as a Household Pet. If the cat has a cattery name it is acceptable to register the cat with the cattery name as a suffix. Air P Jordon is registered in ACFA as a HHP by the name of Air P Jordon of Furkats. Furkats Daphne Annie Mae had to be registered in ACFA as a HHP as Miss Daphne Annie Mae of Furkats. There was a cattery called Daphne so her HHP name could not start with Daphne. With ACFA it is best to register your cat as a HHP ($10 fee). If you wait and enter a show, each show entry must pay a $5 per day listing fee. You can not earn points unless the cat is registered first.
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| Thelma P & Karen accepting the Morris The Cat Trophy from Brian Person at the Lucky Tomcat Show |
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If you register your poly you can be earning points for various titles of Royals. At Daphne's first ACFA show, she was 2nd best HHP in an Allbreed ring which earned her 48 points and 3rd best in a Specialty ring for 23 points. At this show there were over 30 HHP entered but points are determined by placement and not by cats beaten. For the title of Royal she would need 250 points. She can progress form Royal to Double Royal, Triple Royal, Supreme, Double Supreme, Triple Supreme, Quadruple Supreme and Supreme Roll of Honor. Each requires 250 point to move to the next title. ACFA does require proof that a cat has been altered at 8 months. For Royal, Supreme and Quad Supreme you must pay a $5 fee and for all other titles there is no fee but you must confirm all your points. You need to record the name of the club, show date and entry number to keep track of your points.
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In CFA, Air Jordon is registered for breeding purposes as a purebred Maine Coon as Furkats Air P Jordon. When Air was shown as a kitten, he was often the judges' pick for Best HHP. He also was a real showman and pretended to enjoy kissing judges on the lips. He has not been neutered so he has retired from the show circuit. CFA does not require any proof of that the cat was altered. To show a HHP with CFA you fill out a standard entry form with the cat's name, sex, date of birth, color and owner's name. Check that the cat is a HHP, no other information is required. Air P Jordon was the highest scoring HHP at a CFA show and won a nice battery operated clock set in a crystal base. The irony was that this club only gave out final ribbons for the top 5 HHP. This writer has once been this cat clubs Ribbon Chairman and knew that they had the top 10 Ribbons as the Ribbons must be ordered well in advance. The club only wanted to give out the top 10 ribbons if there were 35 or more HHP. This particular CFA club would not allow HHP to be show for many years. This seemed to be one last act of defiance against the HHP. Since the club already had the Ribbons and no one could earn any points what harm would it have done to give out the top 10 Ribbons. Many people will not attend a CFA show that excludes HHP even if they are showing in championship. On way to register a complaint is not participate in their fund raising raffles. Be sure to let them know that if they need funding they should include HHP in their shows. If CFA would have National HHP awards that this would be a significant fundraiser. Periodically a club will propose National Awards for HHP but CFA always finds a reason to vote this down.
According to the TICA Show Rules "any feline may be shown as a house hold pet at the option of the owner." To compete for Annual Awards the cat must be registered as a HHP with TICA. In TICA you can show your cat once before you need to register the cat in order to receive your points. TICA will hold your points for one show until you can get the cat registered. In order to register a cat in HHP, it must be altered. If you don't care about points you can show in HHP without registering the cat. To be a Master in HHP the cat must earn 300 points from 4 different judges and have one final. The other titles are Grand Master, Double Grand Master, Triple Grand Master, Quadruple Grand Master and Supreme Grand Master. It takes 6,000 points plus 1 Best Cat as a Quadruple Grand Master to become a Supreme Grand Master. Even Morris's head would turn at a Supreme Grand Master. The cat earns points in a final by a set number of points plus the number of cats defeated. When the required number of points have been accumulated for each category, the owner is responsible for making application to TICA. The Pixie Bob breed, which has the polydactyl characteristic, has been accepted for show status with The International Cat Association. The Pixie Bob standard allows Polys. They just reached championship status in TICA 5/1/98, but are not registered with any other association. According to Pixie Bob breeders, the polys are not judged separately from the other Pixie Bobs; it is just an allowable feature. TICA sent out a Board Ballot last year to the membership, and it was voted on that polydactylism could be shown in all classes, if it was specifically permitted in an approved breed standard. The Pixie Bob is the only TICA breed that permits polys to be shown for competition. If Maine Coon Breeders in TICA would change the description of the Maine Coon foot standard it would be very easy for the poly to be shown in championship classes.
In order to get the Maine Coon accepted for show status, people started by showed their Maine Coon cats in household pets. In Spring Scratch Sheet of 1970 there was an official MCBFA (Maine Coon Breeders & Fanciers Association) Standard. It stated "Our MCBFA Polydactyl Standard has been voted in by our members, and the wording is as follows: 'The Maine Coon Polydactyl/Cat should conform to the standard of the Maine Coon Cat with the exception that multiple toes are allowed on either fore or hind paws, or both.'" If the polys had been accepted for show status with the other Maine Coons just think of the number of points that could have been available for the Maine Coon Breed Rings. If you hear other Maine coon breeders wishing there more cats in the ring, just point this out. Often there are not enough cats to do a top 10 final so the judges can only call up the top 5 cats. This is an excellent time to tell your fellow breeders that your HHP entry could be part of the count if only that 1970 standard had been accepted. This writer has entered two champions so that the cat on which she was trying to get points would have a cat to beat. When one of your fellow breeders is worrying about the count because they are 5 points short of a Grand Championship just mention the 1970 Official MCBFA standard. When we show our registered Polydactyl Maine Coon Cats in HHP we are wasting an entry that could be available for point. That is unless the small-footed Maine Coon breeders are afraid that we poly breeders may be able to beat them.
Remember that HHP are judged on the cat's conditioning, grooming, and disposition. If you show a fat, ill tempered, dirty poly, even if it is a purebred, there will be no crystal clock for you. For the present we will not be give that change to compete so get compete. So get your poly out of the back room. You have nothing to loose and a battery operated clock to gain.
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