Polysrock: A momentous day

February 28th, the NZCF held the first show of the 2009 show season. It's hard to believe that the day I have been praying and hoping for and waiting for so many years for, has finally happened :-)).

It was a small show held in a provincial town on the West Coast of the South Island, but a big one as far as polys are concerned and one that will take its place in the history of Maine Coons.

I had 2 polys, Diggie (Mainelymagic Digitally Enhanced) and Jazz (Mainelymagic The Jazzman P) entered in the entire section. This was the very first time in the entire world that a polydactyl was to be legitimately judged as a Maine Coon and eyes were on us :-))). Everyone was waiting to see how they fared, particularly as I was told that 2 of the 4 judges were against polys.

I am very proud to announce that both cats did extremely well. They were the only 2 Maine Coon entire cats there (other breeders brought kittens and neuters), but they were judged against the other breeds for overall placings.

Diggie was favoured over Jazz by 2 of the 4 judges. He went on to receive 2 Runner Up Best in Show awards from these judges, beaten both times only by a Persian who last year won the National Points Award for Best Longhair kitten (All Breeds). Diggie also received 2 awards for Best Groomed.

The other 2 judges picked Jazz over Diggie for Best of Breed (an even split LOL). He was placed by one as 3rd overall and by the other as Best in Show!!!!! He also won a Breeders Award of Merit for us. This is a special award given at the judge's discretion, they are highly prized by breeders and mean more to most than the placing awards. Needless to say, we were over the moon. Jazz also won 2 awards for Best Temperament and one for Best Groomed.

The night after the show we were having a celebratory party with the other Maine Coon breeders at the show, we were all excited at how the polys had done and also one of the MCO entire kittens who did extremely well. The others had received many texts and phone calls asking how the polys had done at the show. There was evidently a lot of interest in how they had fared being judged for the first time. I was happy that even the judges who did not personally like polys judged them well and fairly. Only one judge seemed to be influenced by their feet, the others judged them according to their heads (ears, muzzles, profiles etc), body, boning and tail length and didn't bother with the feet other than to remark that the cat was a poly.

So many set backs and disappointments but now it has happened. Polydactyls judged as Maine Coons, Polydactyl Maine Coons taking out Best In Show, Polydactyl Maine Coon Champions (both Diggie and Jazz now have the title of Champion!) Woo hoo!

Photos from the show:

CH Mainelymagic The Jazzman P (1 year old):