A brand new CCA cat club put on an ICAT tournament last weekend in St. Catherines, Ontario.
It was a small show, with about 100 cats, but really lovely ones, very nice quality. I think at least 30 of the cats in the show tried the ICAT course. We had cats on the course almost nonstop all weekend.
Only one cat didn't enjoy it, a HHP at his first show, who was just too scared. Everyone else had a great time. We encouraged everyone to try the "playground" for their cat. Some cats just really enjoyed running around with their owners.
One HHP, a SH blue tortie, responded to her owner's voice & singing & hand signals. She did the ladder and the tunnel a few times. She reminded me of Vivian Frawley's Linus, the way she responded to her owner. Linus is the cat who follows Vivian around, not a toy--he's relearning how to do agility with a teaser now. Many of you have seen his photos as they are some of the best we have--a red & high white HHP jumping through the hoops. Linus was the winner at our first Michigan ICAT tournament in Novi in 2004.
An immensely coated Himmie alter just loved the hoop jump--he earned a Crazy 8 certificate by jumping through the hoop 4x, with 4 other obstacles as well. He was just breathtaking jumping through the hoop with that 8-10" long coat!
A Pixiebob stole the show. His owner worked with him quite a bit. At one point, he looked at her, saw the hoop in front of him, and just jumped through it, knowing that's what she wanted him to do, even though she didn't have the toy up yet. We saw lots of cats undergo a transformation on the course, from playing with a toy to sensing that they were following their owners around a course. It was really neat to see.
The Canadian club got sponsorship money and money donated from club members and put together most of a basic agility course. I brought a couple of obstacles from the GLACE, Inc. set and some of the carpet squares so they would have enough.
They do have one club member that I certified as an agility official at our Novi ICAT tournament last November, so they may be able to have more tournaments in the future. There was a LOT of interest.
Susan Lee
