Aby-a-Day – 31 March: Scandinavian Winners Show (Cat Show Saturday)

Today we are entered in the 2018 Scandinavian Winners Show in Göteborg, Sweden.

It’s kind of a big deal. Cats exhibited at the FIFe Scandinavian Winner Show must satisfy one of the requirements in the 13 month period prior to the Scandinavian Winner Show:
Adult cats in classes 7-10 must have achieved:
Best in Variety (BIV) or
Best in Show nomination (NOM) or
Each cat qualified in Class 12 or 11 within 13 months prior to Show

Luckily, Logan has qualified in Classes 12 and 11 (Kitten and Junior) and was NOM in his first class 7 (Open Champion) show.

The show is conveniently located in Gothia Towers. This weekend (Easter weekend), Göteborg also hosts GothCon, a gaming convention Björn has attended regularly for 34 years. It’s rather nice that both big events fell on the same weekend. We booked a hotel in between the two venues, which is perfect.

The Winners show is different from regular shows. The first day is a regular show, but the second day is a sort of “Best of the Best,” as I understand it. This is also a much larger show than most of the shows we go to. There are over 800 cats representing 37 different breeds and 14 different countries.

Before the show, there was an official opening ceremony. Stellan, one of Sweden’s Singapura breeders, lives in Göteborg and was the main emcee for the day.

After the introduction, there was a demonstration of typical Swedish “Bug” dancing. I don’t know from bugs, but it looked a lot like the swing and rockabilly dancing I did in the late 90’s. It looked like fun!

Then they had a second dance and invited the audience to join in. You can see Stellan cutting a rug there in the middle.

Then there was the Parade of Nations. Naturally, Sweden was the first, since they are the host country.

When the stewards carrying flags from all 14 participating countries were on the stage, it was pretty impressive. There are even cats here from as far away as Brazil!

After the Parade of Nations, the 14 judges were presented to the exhibitors.

As you might imagine, there are a LOT of rosettes and prizes to be awarded to the top winners.

Many of the cages in the benching area are decorated in a nationalistic theme for this show.

Of course, most of the entries are Swedish.

This Oriental Shorthair breeder had a very Swedish-themed cage along with two really cute crocheted blå och gul crocheted Oriental dolls.

This cat has a lighted chandelier in his cage!

These are cats from Denmark.

And these kitties are obviously from Finland.

But guess what? These Finnish entries aren’t just “cats”…they’re all Somalis!

Logan’s cage wasn’t decorated to any theme apart from the regular one we always use at shows. It includes fake pussy willows, because his registered name is Vide, which is the Swedish word for pussy willow.

If you’re thinking it looks a lot like Jacoby’s show curtains, well….you’re right. They are the same.

But that cool showcage table? That’s all Logan’s!

Aby-a-Day – 30 March: Alfred and his mother (part three)(Friday Flashback)

This is the third installment of posts about Alfred’s family. I was lucky enough to get to meet both of his parents, all of his littermates, and some other relations as well. Today we’ll see a little bit of Freddy’s relationship with his mother. Last week’s post is here.

While we were visiting Alfred and his littermates, Artemis, their mother, decided that Freddy needed to go upstairs to bed.

Although she’s had several litters, Artemis seems a little unclear on the whole “carrying kittens by their scruffs” concept.

She sort of carried him by his front neck.

Of course, it didn’t help that Freddy wasn’t sleepy and didn’t want to go to bed upstairs.

Okay, upstairs we go, little man.

…A slight readjustment of grip…and we’re carrying, we’re carrying…

Come on, you little brat…cooperate. Mommy needs…I mean, YOU need a nap!

Mother knows best, after all.

…And up the stairs she whisks him.

Say goodnight, Freddy.

But what’s funny is, when Freddy wants to grab Logan by the scruff…he usually grabs him by the throat, just like his mother did to him. The only difference is, Logan doesn’t put up with it.

Aby-a-Day – 29 March: “Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport” (Travel Thursday)

Back in 2015, I posted about the EU regulations about microchipping and importing domestic animals. So I thought my non-EU readers would like to see what the pet passports look like. The LunaTicks all have leather passport covers to protect them, made by the same woman who made their harnesses, Arja’s Art, and they are not only gorgeous, but they match each cat’s harness, and the icons on the cover match those on each cat’s silver nametag.

Here is Alfred’s passport as an example. On the outside, the pet passports look a lot like a passport for humans, but they are slightly larger, and the cardboard is much thinner. There’s also no RIFD chip.

All the rabies shots are recorded in the passport. Jake’s and Angel’s passports also have their vaccination records and rabies blood titres since they were imported from the States.

The passports also have a space for an optional photograph of the named cat, so of course I had to make sure that everyone had a proper passport photo. We started with Jacoby. Björn held him up while I took the photos. We used the plain white background of our balcony wall.

First he was very squirmy. If I wanted a photo of his toes, it would have been awesome.

Okay, slouching is worse. You look like you have no neck!

But finally Jake started to get his act together, and we were able to get a decent photo.

Next it was Angel’s turn.

Seriously, Angel? Seriously? You only have one eye as it is. Don’t close it!

But eventually she, too, settled down and we got a decent shot.

A year later, when Logan and Freddy joined our household and got their passports, it was passport photo time again.

Even though he was just a kitten, Logan was as “good” at posing as the big Abys were.

But finally, he too managed to give me a decent pose.

Surprisingly, Freddy was a natural.

I actually got a few usable shots, all without having to be held.

Of course, while I was taking the kittens’ passport photos, Jake came and showed them how to pose properly…Not that he did that when we were actually taking his passport photo!

These are the four photos we ended up using.

And here they are in the passports themselves.

All the entries are covered in clear self-adhesive plastic to prevent alterations. I put some over the photos and “signatures” as well.

I wasn’t sure about using kitten photos on the passport they’ll use for the rest of their lives…but I guess it will be okay.

I have rubber stamps for Angel’s and Jake’s pawprints, but Freddy and Logan haven’t gotten theirs yet…so these are their actual paws! I guess that makes up for using kitten photos.

But at the end of the day, this is what matters. A cat and his passport, riding the rails on the way to Finland for his first international show.

(And in case you’re wondering…yes, they really do check them when you cross a border!)

Aby-a-Day- 27 March: Logistics of feeding (Cartoon Tuesday)

These go back to when I still lived in Boston. I was brainstorming ideas about all the hoops I had to go through to feed Jacoby, Angel, Tessie and Kylie. When Kylie was a tiny kitten, we made a box with a hole only she could fit through so the adult cats wouldn’t eat the higher-calorie kitten food. We did this with Logan, too, so he could have food whenever he needed it.

This was some kind of idea about the kitten box and the menacing big cats hovering around it. I still am not sure where I was going with this.

This was an idea about the logistics of feeding. At the time, Jake and Angel lived with Tessie and Kylie. Kylie was a slow and picky eater, while Jake scarfs down his food and looks for more. He had to eat UT food, and we didn’t want him eating regular food, so he ate in the spare bedroom. Angel ate in the bedroom, because she also needs UT food, and also because Tessie would bully her and keep her from eating. Tessie and Kylie could eat together, because Tessie wouldn’t try to steal her food.

We have a similar system here in Sweden, because of eating styles and special diets. Jake doesn’t like raw and still needs UT, and he eats in the bedroom. When Alfred and Logan were kittens and ate the same food, we fed them in the Kitten Room and Angel on the cat tree. Pyret used to need eat a renal/hepatic diet, and we fed her on her chair. Angel never tried to eat Pyret’s food, so that worked. When Logan was still eating kitten food after Freddy was neutered, we fed Logan in the Sturdi Shelter and Freddy ate alone in the Kitten Room, but now that the Suprelorin has kicked in, they are back to eating the same food. Between the voracious Aby appetite and the special diets, feeding our cats is a bit like that old riddle about the farmer and the fox, goose and bag of beans!

Aby-a-Day – 26 March: Re Ment Pose Skeleton Cat (Miniature Monday)

Personally, I think cat skeletons are kind of cool. You may remember
my roughly life-sized skeleton cat, Os-car I found at CVS one Halloween. So when Björn showed me a picture of Re-Ment’s Pose Skeleton Cat, I had to get one.

It’s one of those typical cool Japanese toys with tons of special touches. The cat comes with a litter box (I think…it might be a bed), a typical Japanese wand cat toy, and a belled collar. I added a Schleich cat tower and some food and water bowls I had from another set, and it seems that the scale on all of them is roughly the same.

The amount of detail on this little thing is incredible. The collar has stitching marks and a leather look, and the bell has a seam and the hole at the bottom to let the sound out.

Of course, when he heard the camera, Jacoby had to come see what I was taking photos of…and why I wasn’t taking photos of him.

Jake was very curious about the little cat skeleton and tried to pick it up.

He only succeeded in knocking over the cat tree. Then he wandered off.

Thanks a lot, Jake!

It’s really a tiny figure (as you can see compared to Jake’s paw), but it has eight points of articulation (tail, both hips, mid-spine, both shoulders, neck and jaw)! I really adore this little thing.

Aby-a-Day – 25 March: The Case of the Buried Bowls (Cinematic Sunday)

When Alfred and Logan joined our family, they ate together in our guest room, also known as the Kitten Room. This was because I didn’t want the big Abys eating the high-calorie kitten food, and I wanted to give the older cats a little break from the rambunctious kittens.

Every time I went to let them out and collect the bowls, I would find them covered in a pile of toys. Both of them will make the motions of burying old food by scraping the floor around the dishes, so I couldn’t be sure who was doing it.

Logan would usually follow me when I collected the bowls, but he seemed almost as mystified as I was. He didn’t give me any clues as to whether or not it was him. So finally, I set my camera up on a tripod, started it up, and left it running while they ate. The original video was 23 minutes long, so I edited out the times that no cats were in the shot and nothing was happening. Even after clipping the boring bits out, the video is still almost 6½ minutes long!

So, if you don’t want to watch it in realtime, here is a sped-up version that takes half the time.

Either way, mystery solved! It’s Freddy, although Logan helps. And Freddy still buries his bowls, even now that he’s over a year old. He’s been eating on his own in the Kitten Room, and when I come to collect his dish, I always have to dig it out from underneath a pile of toys.

Even funnier, it seems to be a family trait. Freddy’s older half-sister, Hera, also covers up her food bowls when she’s finished eating!

Aby-a-Day – 24 March: Cat-apulted into a new life (Swedish Saturday)

Björn has written another post for me, this time about our cat show career. He is such a great help to me at shows, and he’s better at talking to the spectators than I am! I am so glad he doesn’t hate going to shows with me.

Dogs have masters. Cats have servants. And show cats have an entourage. Since Koshka moved to Sweden, I’ve become sort of her tour manager.

We’ve been to shows both in Sweden and abroad (Finland and Estonia thus far) with both Logan and Jacoby, and I’m usually the one who books hotels, tickets for trains and ferries, and rent and drive a car if one is needed.

Hauling all that luggage (one big bag for the cat, and one for us, plus a few smaller bags) is too much for one person, so that’s another task.

Then, at the shows, it’s the usual setting up to do. That’s pretty much Koshka’s thing, as she has done it so many more times before. Once the show starts, I’m still bewildered by what and when things are supposed to happen, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.

I take it that men are in minority in the world of cat shows. There are the judges and breeders, the spouses (enthusiastic or suffering), and the occasional single guy with his cat. As we go to a show on average once every two months, it doesn’t get boring. What is fun is to go to new places, meet new people, and to stay at a nice hotel and go to a good restaurant.

Also, as I have come to know Jake and Logan, I have become more invested in their success. After all, no one goes to a show just to display your cat and chat with the neighbor!

While I’ll never have the cat show circuit as a lifestyle, I’m not doing this to indulge my wife, but to do something that I’ve come to enjoy.

After all, we do this at the pleasure of our feline overlords, right?

Aby-a-Day – 23 March: Freddy’s family (part two)(Friday Flashback)

This is the second installment of posts about Alfred’s family. I was lucky enough to get to meet both of his parents, all of his littermates, and some other relations as well. Today we’ll meet Freddy’s mom and littermates. Last week’s post is here.

Alfred’s mother, Artemis, is devoted to her kittens. She went from having a singleton, Beaver, to a very active litter of five. Five is a large litter by Abyssinian standards!

When we went to visit the family, Artemis was present, monitoring her brood and making sure the visitors behaved.

Monitoring five kittens is a lot of work!

Especially these kittens! At times, they seemed to fly around the living room!

She took time to spend a little one-on-one time with each kitten. Here she feeds Freddy’s brother, Bertil…

…until she decided he was finished.

She also spent a little quality time with both her sons. Freddy and Bertil have a little cuddle, wash and snack with mum.

His sisters were busy, too. Märta and Greta were very interested in me, my camera, and my phone.

Meanwhile, Kerstin played on the climbing board.

I wonder if fighting his siblings for a place at the milk bar is what made him so food-obsessed?

Aby-a-Day – 22 March: You wanted a lap cat. Be careful what you wish for…(Thursday Things)

Cats and laptops…the love affair may seem like a recent phenomenon, but it actually goes back to printed books and newspapers. Cats love to sit on whatever their favourite human is reading when they want attention. The fact that laptops are warm is just a bonus. Even when the thing they sit on makes weird noises, cats love laptops. Now, I know I just posted about Logan and my laptop just two months ago, but it’s getting worse!

They’re searching for things on my computer! Although I’m not sure what “DQ9X700DXYŪ” is in Felinese.

They are also opening multiple tabs in Firefox (it was more than 30 empty tabs!) and printing things. I caught this one before a piece of paper was wasted, but they have actually printed things.

Angel has historically been the worst offender, but lately Logan has stolen her throne, so to speak. Of course, he’s a big believer in the “If not for sits, why is it made of warm?” school of thought, but he also just loves to sit on my lap. And when the laptop is on my lap, well…he’ll just have to make do, won’t he?

“I love my mommy, but her lap is busy with the hard thing. That’s okay, we can share mommy’s lap.”

Aby-a-Day – 21 March: Lovely bones (Cartoon Tuesday)

Alfred loves bones. He loves chewing. Whenever we have lamb or beef ribs, he gets a few more chew toys. I have actually bought him chewing things meant for dogs…and he has loved them.

So this is a doodle I did in class one day about the OTP of Freddy and the bone.

Aby-a-Day – 19 March: Angel at the vet (Medical Monday)

The first time we took Jacoby and Angel to the vet was in September 2016. We went to introduce ourselves (which turned out to be pointless since we ended up going to the other vet in in town), to get a refill of Angel’s Amitriptyline prescription, and to get both Jake and Angel their EU Passports (about which more in an upcoming post).

Angel can be a little skittish and fearful at home, but she loves to explore when we’re at the vet.

She’s so cute when she’s curious.

Before the passport can be issued, the vet needs to scan her microchip to make certain she is really herself and not an imposter. Microchips are much more important in Europe than they are in the States. Besides being listed as the cat’s version of a social security number, they are also required for pet insurance, and every cat’s microchip is scanned when you check in at a cat show.

Yep, Angel is Angel!

Jake is happy to just chill on a chair while Angel explores.

Angel watches as Björn takes Pyret out of her carrier.

While the vet and Björn attempt to have Pyret examined, Angel checks out the floor again.

Abys are so different from other cats at the vet.

Aby-a-Day -18 March: “If you gaze long into an Abyssinian, the Abyssinian also gazes into you” (Swedish Sunday)

This is another post written by my husband, Björn. While Björn has had cats most of his life, he never lived with Abyssinians before…

Before Jake and Angel moved in, the most active cat I had lived with was Olivia (1999-2010), the small tortie shorthaired Norwegian Forest cat mix. She was pretty talkative and active, annoying and fun (usually at the same time). Still, she was nothing compared to cats like Jake, Angel, Alfred and Logan.

Other cats I had met, like those of friends, were pretty sedate, just like my own old cat, Pyret. Some hid under the sofa and refused to come out when I was visiting, others were just furry couch potatoes. I had met Jake and Angel in Boston in 2015, and had seen their antics during our FaceTime sessions before Koshka moved here. I thought I was prepared…

18 June 2016. Two cats are let out of their travel cage and explore their new surroundings. Soon I’ll learn what it means to live with Abys. While Angel is more like a regular cat as long as there’s no meat involved, my old Pyret was the opposite to Jake.

Active, attention-seeking and affectionate (usually), the claim that Abys are the most dog-like of cat breeds is proven true.

Did I say dog-like? Abys aren’t really like dogs, at least not at the dinner table. Dogs are usually well behaved and just sit there, with sad puppy eyes and whining, hoping for a scrap. Abys, on the other hand… Or paw.

Living up to the epithet “grabby Aby”. Any plate within the reach of an Aby is fair game, and that reach is considerable. Turn your head for a couple of seconds, and that piece of chicken is gone. Don’t think that just because you’ve stuck your fork in the meat that it is safe.

The Aby looks at it and says: “Is that meat you have on your fork? Mind if I insert my head between your hand and mouth and take it?”

It was rubbing off on my old cat, too. OK, she always had a thing for shrimp off my pizza, but she began to join the other four-legged (or rather two-armed) pests when we had a meal.

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She wasn't as aggressive as the Abys, though. The young boys – at least Freddy – have adopted the bad habits of their elders, but that was just a matter of time…

Still, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. Living with Abys and a Singapura is a whole new experience, and I would never consider one of those decorative but passive breeds that might score first prizes at shows, but which are about as fun as a plushie. With Jake, Angel, Freddy and Logan around, there’s almost always something happening.

Contrary to what uneducated people think, cats have personalities, and with their intelligence and activity, I would say that Abys are among the most personable of all breeds. That helps now, when my Pyret passed away two weeks ago. To have the other cats around have made the loss a little bit less painful. A home without a cat isn’t a real home.

Aby-a-Day – 17 March: My goodness, my Guinness (Silly Saturday)

At this local pub we go to for book club meetings and the occasional pub quiz was festooned with these silly Guinness pint glass St. Patrick’s Day floppy hats when we were there last Thursday. Of course, we had to snag one to show the LunaTicks. It turned out to be just the boys…Angel, sagely, made herself scarce.

Logan was in his favourite brown nest bed and I couldn’t drag him out just for some silly photos. So, I just put the hat on his bed. I think he liked it.

When Alfred came into the room, I moved the hat to our tree stump cat tree.

He was actually a little afraid of it.

He’s usually so brash and fearless, it was highly amusing to watch him be so wary of a new thing.

I tossed it on the floor, and I think for a second he wondered if it was alive.

He examined it thoroughly, inside…

…and out.

Then I did that slightly mean thing that all cat people do…I made the “Pssssst! sound and he jumped back.

Which actually might be a good thing. Maybe I can put it on places I don’t want him to go.

Jacoby, on the other hand, was unfazed…or should I say, unfezed?

This is Jake’s 8th St. Patrick’s Day, of course, and he used to live at Ground Zero for the legendary Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade. I guess it’s all old hat to him.

Meanwhile, Logan came out of his bed and joined us on the sofa. I came up for a different way for him to “wear” the hat.

I’m not sure if he liked it or not. With that face, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

Okay, then. Guess he didn’t like it. Well, St. Patty’s Day isn’t really a thing in Sweden anyway, apart from some bars.

Aby-a- Day – 16 March: Freddy then and now (part one) (Friday Flashback)

Alfred’s story actually started on 21 March 2016, when his mother, Artemis, had a litter of blue silver kittens. Sadly, only one survived, a little boy named Beaver.

Karin, his breeder, posted endless photos and videos of him as he grew up. He was a charming, sweet little survivor, growing up without kittens his own age, just his mother, father and older sister. I fell in love with him and would have adopted him in a heartbeat …but he was already spoken for.

But then, last year in February, Artemis had another litter. And this time, there were FIVE kittens, and every single one survived! There were three girls (Greta, Märta and Kerstin), two boys (Albert and Bertil), and four of them were black silver Abys while Märta, was Ruddy. They were all named after characters in Astrid Lindgren‘s books.

When he was five weeks old, Freddy met the love of his life…food!

Freddy at six weeks, showing off.

Freddy has always been a bit of a goofball.

It’s wonderful to watch your kitten grow up…I have seen photos of Jacoby’s littermates and siblings, and met his father, uncle and one brother, but I never got to see them all together. And I got to see Logan together with his sister and mother and several cousins, but I didn’t get to meet his father. Freddy’s the only one I’ve seen grow up from birth, met all his littermates (and also a half-sister) as well as his father and some cousins.

We went to Stockholm when Freddy and his siblings were just seven weeks old. We got to play with them and watch them interact with each other…something I didn’t get to do with the others.

Watching five kittens play in a house that’s basically set up as a kitten playground is a lot of fun!

Karin had a ton of interactive climbing play areas for the kittens…

…Like this hanging mesh tunnel from IKEA. I actually found one for our kitten room here…but Freddy pulled it out of the ceiling.

Freddy has always liked to be on a high perch.

It was so much fun watching the kittens play! I took so many photos…too many for just one Friday Flashback. So, come back next Friday for more of Freddy and his family!

Happy Birthday, Molly!

One of my best friends in the Abyssinian world, Molly of Tigerflower Abyssinians, has a couple of major life events happening this month. At the end of the month, she is retiring…but today is her 80th birthday! Since Molly considers the CFA her extended family, I am trying to create a birthday greetings blitz with her friends. So…HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOLLY!

Molly has been breeding Abyssinians under the cattery name Tigerflower for over thirty years. Mainly working with dilutes, she’s raised countless litters of beautiful, title-winning Abys. Besides her Abyssinians, Molly followed a long New York fashion career – on staff at Mademoiselle and Glamour Magazines, freelance writing for Town & Country, wardrobe and speech writing for the Miss America pageants…she even once met Jack Benny!

I met Molly at a show in Groton, CT back in 2011. It was a memorable show for many reasons: Jacoby achieved his Grand Premiership, I met Richard of Chanan for the first time, and Jake and I dressed up as ancient Egyptians because the second day of the show fell on Halloween. But among the most memorable things was meeting Molly and Red Ferne Moses2 of Tigerflower.

He was quite the little firecracker, little Mosey!

He did well at that show, too.

When I lived in Boston, Molly lived in Orlando, FL and then in New Jersey, so we didn’t get to see her very often…but she did come to a couple of NEMO shows. This is the group of my friends and I after the first day of the first NEMO show…Molly supplied the plastic wine sippy cups.

She and her young red boy, Nik, were enchanted by this spectator at that show.

Molly was one of the few people who came to Björn’s and my wedding…in fact, having guests at our wedding at all was Molly’s idea!

If it hadn’t been for her, we would not have had a wedding party.

She also gave us this incredible stained-glass Aby, which hangs in our front room window in our apartment where we can see it every day.

So…Molly…give your beloved Clawdius a hug from all of us here in Sweden…and have an absolutely marvelous birthday party! We wish we could be there to help you celebrate!

Aby-a-Day – 15 March: Flash in the pan (Thursday Things)

Cats go through fads. They’ll ignore a bed or napping spot for weeks or months, and then one day, suddenly – BAM! It’s the most popular thing in the house and everycat wants to sleep there.

Jacoby is very much the faddist. He’ll suddenly start sitting somewhere and it becomes his go-to place. So recently, his place in the kitchen is our red cast-iron frying pan that lives on our stovetop.

And I thought his other obsession with this pan – licking the grease residue on it when it’s cold – was bad!

Of course, we rinse it before we use it now, but seriously…the frying pan? I just hope he never tries to sit in it when it’s still hot!

Aby-a-Day – 14 March: Wordless Wednesday (Philadelphia)

Abys are Everywhere – Player’s Cigarettes cat cards

My friend Marsha posted a photo of a reproduction cigarette card featuring an Abyssinian the other day on Facebook. I actually managed to find an image of it in the digital collection of the New York Public Library!

Cigarette cards were the precursor to collectible cards in bubble gum packets, and date back the 1890s, when cigarettes were wrapped in paper packets instead of boxes. Manufacturers began inserting pieces of card to protect the contents, quickly realising that these would be useful for advertising their products. Soon this evolved into sets of cards featuring various things of interest, in the hopes that smokers would want to “collect them all” and continue to buy that brand rather than another.

Usually, they were marketed to men, and so featured sports players, pretty actresses, trains and ships…but there were some animal-themed sets as well, including a 24-card set of different British breeds of cats printed in 1936 by Player’s Cigarettes.

The originals are not dated, but these were reproduced in both 1986 (with blue ink and the Imperial Tobacco Ltd. logo on the corners)…

…and in 1997 (this time with red ink). Therefore they are not hard at all to find, especially from UK sellers on eBay. I got this one for about 80kr (less than $10 USD) including shipping.