# We Survived Our First Show!



## Jess2308 (May 12, 2009)

Well, me and my ittle Kaspar attended our very first show today and survived it!!! Had a minor disaster on the way where he had a little accident in the carrier and sat in it (sooooo much mess all over his coat  ) so had that to deal with when we arrived which i could have done without  BUT, other than that we had a lovely day. Kaspar's behaviour was perfect, he literally just chilled out and went to sleep  He had a lot of favourable comments (most people just wanting to smoosh his adorable face :lol: ) but unfortunately I rather let him down as it was immediately apparent that my grooming skills are somewhat lacking. Kaspar had a nice bath, blow dry and brush last night and looked presentable IMO  But wow... some of the cats today looked amazing, coats all backcombed or something - beautiful fluffy coats that seemed to just stay perfect all day. I dont know how the owners did it but i was rather impressed 

Anyway, Kaspar was placed 2nd, 3rd and 3rd in his classes. For the 3rd places he was beaten by his two absolutely beautiful litter brothers who looked stunning and he was 2nd to an adorable little baby chinchilla kitten in the other class! 

i dont think we need to worry about him taking over the cat show world as i think its all a bit too much work for me  Though I am planning to give Dylan and Oliver a go in the pets sections at some point as i think they might both do ok, and neither require much grooming at all 

Here's a photo of my chilled out boy in his pen, bless him!! I had intended to get a load of pics of our very first show but forgot to take my camera, hence the phone pic!!










He is due to be neutered this week, poor chap!!


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## Ingrid25 (Oct 1, 2011)

Awww he is so grgeous!!
But you both did a really good job! 2nd 3rd and 3rd us great! If you keep practising youll eventually get how long before to bathe him to get him looking **** and span
Its great to hear that he was very well behaved in his pen! good boy Kaspar


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## rcmadd (Feb 6, 2011)

he looks very similar to our selkirk rex variant....

show prep for us starts with a shower on monday.. then the rest of the week is powdering and brushing then friday its nails.










(hope you dont mind me puting this up for you to see.. they do look similar)


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

If you plan to show him again, please let me know and I can talk you through the bathing... There's so much more to it than just shampooing and drying. Don't be dis-heartened though. Sounds like he did very well!


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## colliemerles (Nov 2, 2007)

_very well done !! you done brilliantly, i would love to show but just dont know if i could, your boy is beautiful._


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## Jess2308 (May 12, 2009)

Carly - Any help would be very gratefully recieved if I do have another go as apparently I even brush him incorrectly :lol: I just brush him as normal, ears to tail, but apparently I need to do it the other way  I like him looking all sleek and silky though :lol: But, yes, I definately need to do better next time. 

rcmadd - I dont mind at all, they do look really similar!!  I got looks of horror when I said i'd bathed Kaspar the night before the show  Oops... Everyone seemed to agree to bath about a week before, then lots of powdering through the week and then a final wash the night before. What a lot of work!! :lol:

Our coat also seemed to clump and tangle a bit throughout the day whereas everyone elses just stayed perfect so i'd love to know what makes it do that!


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

Jes, a Persian is very different to most other coats, and you will need to experiment with when you bath him. Give him a bath with good shampoos, then count the number of days it takes for his coat to puff up and look at its best. That's the numbr of days before a show you need to bath him.

When you do the bath, you will need a de-greaser, a shampoo appropriate for his colour, then a texturiser as it sounds as though his coat is silky rather than flly away. Wash with the de-greaser first, then the colour shampoo, lastly the texturiser. Rinse, rinse, rinse until your water runs clear, then rinse some more to be sure. The reason your coat is tangling is likely because there's still some residew in there. It's the most common mistake I see with first time bathers.

When you dry him, spray in some texturiser spray, then brush the coat the wrong way. Use the air from the dryer to blow it up and away rather than down and flat. This adds volume. Make sure he is bone dry. Leave the coat damp and it will go curly, flat and lifeless.

About 2 days before the show, powder him with talc or something similar. Get it right into the roots, then brish it all the way through working from tail to head. Groom once daily until the morning of the show. Use your dryer to blow out all the powder, then texturise again with the spray and brush from tail to head. Use your combs and brushes to flick the hairs up and away from the body to add volume to the coat. I tend to use the dryer to dry and set my texturiser, but not everyone does this.

Pop him into his carrier and off you go to the show. I'd advise using incontinence pads in the bottom of this, because if he has an accident, it's so quick at absorbing that he won't get overly messy. It's also easier for them to scrumple it up and bury their poo. If he messes again, I'd not feed him in the morning, just an earlier dinner the night before which will give him a chance to poo before he goes in his carrier. Always carry talc with you. If he gets mess on his coat, powder it, leave to dry, then comb through and the poo will just crumble out.

When you get to the show, puff him up again with your brushing up and away from the body. Then you're done!

If you want specifics on which products I favour, then drop me a PM and I can give you that, as well as a lot more in-depth info about how I bath.


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

Bless him :001_wub: I think he did very well for his first time and I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of all the grooming :thumbup1:


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## Jess2308 (May 12, 2009)

carly87 said:


> Jes, a Persian is very different to most other coats, and you will need to experiment with when you bath him. Give him a bath with good shampoos, then count the number of days it takes for his coat to puff up and look at its best. That's the numbr of days before a show you need to bath him.
> 
> When you do the bath, you will need a de-greaser, a shampoo appropriate for his colour, then a texturiser as it sounds as though his coat is silky rather than flly away. Wash with the de-greaser first, then the colour shampoo, lastly the texturiser. Rinse, rinse, rinse until your water runs clear, then rinse some more to be sure. The reason your coat is tangling is likely because there's still some residew in there. It's the most common mistake I see with first time bathers.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for all that information, thats exactly the sort of help im needing!!! His breeder told me at the show that I should have bathed him with fairy liquid as it would have made his coat fluffier but I just used a normal (but very good quality) whitening shampoo. It did not suit his coat at all though 

His coat (imo) is lovely for a pet persian, he gets groomed daily and i do brush the talc through once a week, but obviously compared to the beautifully presented show cats we looked as though we'd be dragged through a hedge backwards :lol: I need to sort his neutering out (we had a complication at the vets on tuesday and it was unable to be done so he's going back in a month  ) but once thats done and he's recovered, I will perhaps look at entering him again, and maybe even the non-pedigrees too  Its so expensive though, i shall have to save up :blink: I hope you dont mind if I PM you when the time comes to be looking at practicing his bathing though 



lymorelynn said:


> Bless him :001_wub: I think he did very well for his first time and I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of all the grooming :thumbup1:


Thank you! Its so much more complicated than you'd think


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## carly87 (Feb 11, 2011)

I don't mind at all. Fairy Liquid is a super de-greaser.


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## KoogaTree (Feb 20, 2012)

Well done Jess and Kaspar!! It is a lot of fun, glad you enjoyed!


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