Spotlighting all the feline stars

Fifty-five pedigreed breeds of cat? In championship competition? Who knew?

Cat people, that's who, and they turned out bright and early at the Convention Center on Saturday for the annual Allbreed and Household Pet Cat Show of the International Cat Association, known as TICA, now in its fourth decade.

The competition, which continues through Sunday, includes 313 cats and kittens, from the delicate - Abyssinians, sphynx, and Egyptian maus - to the stocky - American shorthairs and Maine coons. The winnowing process across 12 judging rings leads to best-in-breed and best-in-show winners to be announced Sunday.

Although several cat associations sponsor competitions, TICA bills itself as the cat world's "largest genetic registry."

Many of the feline fanciers in attendance were dressed in animal prints that mimicked the exotic coats of the hybrid breeds, such as ocicats and Bengals.

Christine Watts of Willow Grove wore her love for her eight cats, and one Shih Tzu dog, in the form of tattooed portraits across her shoulders and on each ankle.

The cat closest to her heart right now, a neutered, 9-year-old, fluff-ball Persian named "Muncy," is a supreme grand champion, the highest title awarded to show cats. He is a pampered, show-stopping beauty who travels with his own kit of brushes, combs, and grooming powder to touch up water stains around his chin. Between rounds of judging, he lolled in his cage under the breeze of two battery-powered fans.

"He gets hot with all that hair," said Watts, who worked for a breeder at a cattery for 17 years.

Winning cats are the ones judged closest to the physical ideal for their breeds in terms of fur color, eye color, muzzle shape, ear shape, coat pattern, and other variables. Each stage of the judging may add points, prize ribbons, and ceremonial titles to the cat's overall record in competition.

Top purebreds can sell for $3,000 to $4,000, owners said. Neutered and spayed cats compete in the "alter" category and sell for less. The minimum age to compete as a kitten is four months. The cat category begins at eight months and has no upper limit.

The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society, and Jersey State Animal Rescue were on hand to arrange some adoptions of common strays.

At the other end of the hall, vendors of cat paraphernalia hawked refrigerator magnets hyping "Cattitude," Furminator shampoo to prevent hair balls, and cat portraits on mouse pads and T-shirts emblazoned "Hiss Off!"

Kate McLuskie of Staten Island manufactures catnip toys named for her cat, Galileo.

Dog owners, she noted, tend to be social with people and their dogs at the same time. "But you can't put kitty on a leash and drag her around," she said, so cat owners tend to be social "through shows like this, and endless storytelling about their cats."

Monique Lewis of Lansdale, a 2004 graduate of Temple University, is the proud owner of "Beck," a poised, movie-star handsome, brown-ticked-tabby-with-white Maine coon cat from a well-known cattery in New York.

At 17 pounds and 18 months old, he is still growing. In the 30 national and international cat shows that Beck competed in last year, he won so frequently that Lewis proudly presents him as "the number one Maine coon alter in the world."

A natural show cat, he went into a langorous, look-at-me stretch the moment he was touched by Jean Marc Lagarde, a Frenchmen who was among the dozen judges. In that preliminary round, Beck placed second, preserving his shot at higher honors.

Displayed but not competing Saturday were savannah cats, a hybrid breed created in the 1990s by crossing a domestic cat with the exotic African serval.

They are leggy, generally larger than domestic cats, with extra spunkiness and phenomenal jumping ability, according to their owners.

TICA considers the savannahs "an advanced new breed" but has yet to certify it for championship competition.

Savannah owners such as Darlynne Downey of Rogersville, Tenn., who came to Philadelphia with her savannah Dixie, hopes that happens next year. If it does, count on Dixie jumping for joy.

The first thing she did Friday in her Philadelphia hotel room, said Downey, was a standing leap to the top of the TV console just inches from the ceiling.

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