Cat Show!

I finally uploaded the pictures I took from the cat show that Susie, Rachael and I went to a couple of weekends ago. Yes, a cat show. Just like a dog show, only with, you know, cats. It was half pet store/flea market and half competition. We couldn't really get good seats for the judging, so the best part was this area where a judge lady was talking about qualities of different breeds (with handsome examples, naturally). From this lecture, we learned that cats play essentially three types of games:

• Mouse, in which the cat chases a small, quick object on the ground (such as a bit of string or a ball).
  
• Bird, in which the cat likes to bat at or jump at things off the ground or above them.
  
• Rabbit, in which the cat seizes a bigger object with its forelegs, and bites it and rakes it with its back legs. Claudio is quite partial to playing rabbit, especially when a nice, juicy hand presents itself as said rabbit.

One of our favorites was the fluffy and friendly Norwegian forest cat. To quote the Cat Fancier's Association:

These are the cats that explored the world with the Vikings, protecting the grain stores on land and sea, and which are believed to have left their progeny on the shores of North America as a legacy to the future.

I ended up with a lot of blurry pictures of cats. They just wouldn't sit still, dang them! The one that came out the best was of the cat that was trained to play (read: move its paw up and down on) the piano.

I also got a blurry shot of a cat dunking a basket ball. Awwww.