You wonder why I make jokes about Jacoby’s calmness in the show ring? Well, since a picture’s worth a thousand words, I’ll illustrate. This is how most Abyssinians behave on the judge’s table and in the ring cages:
(This is Jazzy Abys Buddy Rich, a grandson of Jazzy Abys Fats Waller, who was a contemporary of Gun-Hee entered in the show 5 years ago.)
(This is the Aby kitten Abycastle Mozambique of Aby’licious.)
(This is Khamsin’s Magik Karpet Ride of Soledado, the one girl Aby in the show this weekend.)
(This is Cousin Taz.)
See? Active, playing, even in the cages they’re watching everything that’s going on. And then there’s Jake:
(Jake is #131…facing the back of his cage.)
Jake just stands there majestically.
He is friendly, cordial, polite…
…and he gives the distinct impression that the judge could turn his back and walk away, and he’d just stay there and wait for him to come back.
Something tells me I’ll never have to worry about hearing the dreaded cry “CAT OUT!” in connection with Jacoby.
Something tells me I’ll never have to worry about fire alarms, either.
And part of it is, he was trained to be a therapy cat before he was trained to be a show cat.
His lack of typical Abyssinian hyper-kinetic perpetual motion in front of the judges may cost him some points. It’s not really supposed to, since they’re judged against the standard rather than on their personality, but he’s so calm he tends to flip his ears back so they don’t look as upright and alert as they should.
He’s also more food-oriented than toy-oriented.
Still, all in all, I’d rather have a cat who’s unfazed by a rattling truck, the hissing airbrakes of a bus, and the slamming shut of train doors than a cat who jumps all over the place at the slightest little thing…
…and if it means he gets compared to a British Shorthair once in a while, well…so be it.
