Curiosity fills the cat show

ORGANISERS are delighted after a thousand people surged into the Green Island Civic Hall for the Southern Cross Cat Show yesterday, the most popular show the club concerned has organised for more than a decade.

Southern Cross All Breeds Cat Club president Zena Pigden said yesterday’s attendance was ‘‘fantastic’’— four times higher than for last year’s show.

Some strikingly different cat breeds, including Maine Coons, sphynx cats, and a toyger had struck a chord with members of the public, and attracted more interest, Mrs Pigden said.

‘‘I’m sure they were really interested to come and see these different, unusual cats, definitely,’’ she said.

Scores of people had watched closely as judges interacted with some of the less well known cat breeds, she said.

The success of yesterday’s show and the atmosphere of excitement there highlighted the many benefits cats and cat owners gained from each other. she said.

Cat owners of all ages gained huge mental health and other benefits from caring for and interacting with their pets, and cats enjoyed continuing their long association with humans, she said.

The show’s main winners were: Longhair Supreme:

Gold Double Grand Champion Ishcus Dragon Simara, a

Maine Coon owned by Zena Pigden and Elizabeth Currie; Shorthair Supreme: Fuzzoff Prince of Thieves, a sphynx owned by Amy Rousseau; Domestic/Companion Supreme: Sunny, owned by Laurol Chadwick.

PHOTOS: LINDA ROBERTSON Mysteries of the sphynx . . . Michelle McGrath, of New Plymouth, a judge at the Southern Cross Cat Show, enjoys her close encounter with a distinctive sphynx, Fuzzoff Prince of Thieves.

Eye of the toyger . . . Ms McGrath judges toyger Korucats Copper Glow, a sizeable domestic cat with tigerlike markings.

Galaxy of different cats . . . British shorthair Tellassee Haywards Heath was one of many breeds represented at the show yesterday.