Stella's 5th cat show competition

As a gentle reminder, the purpose of us documenting events in this blog is NOT TO SHOW OFF, but to record our children's life journey as part of our precious memories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Superstitious saying that "44" is an unlucky number. Is this really the case? Let Stella tell you....

Stella attended FFF's 3rd 2024 cat show on 16th-17th November in Kowloon City Plaza. This is the final cat show in Hong Kong for the year. Its a pretty tiring exercise, running from around 11am-6pm each day. The place though spacious is a bit noisy. 

Day 1, 16th November:

Day 2, 17th November:

The finale:

Snippets:

The official results:

After thought:

This shall be Stella's last regular cat show. During this past year, we have learned from the judges (comment on Stella and other competitors) on how to better take care of our children. 

During the year, we have constantly reviewed our strategy as to whether we should continue competing. With our clear goal to find out where is the limit for Stella's potential. Full participation in FFF's Hong Kong competitions for 2024 is the answer. We hope that her total score would be sufficient to achieve a national standing. The result will be announced in early 2025.

This year, Stella's closest competitors are 2 other Exotic cats. They are brothers from the same litter and is roughly a month younger than Stella. Both are very handsome and well groomed, each with their own strength and glamour. Hence competition amongst them are really tough. In my view, luck matters here. 

As a joke, we called them 串燒三姐弟 (Three brothers and sister on a Skewer, DanGoSanShiTei, だんごさんしてい  ). This is a modified version of the Japanese cartoon 串燒三兄弟 (Three brothers on a Skewer, DanGoSanKyouDai, だんごさんきょうだい). Though competing amongst each other, the 3 of them exceled over each other in different rings and sometimes, they are united and formed a strong frontier against other group competitors in order to secure the lead. 

An interesting episode happened in Day 2. Stella was placed 6th in one of the rings. This came as a surprise to us and probably to some cat owners as well. As an amateur, we respect and accept the decision of each judge because we trust in their professional experience and judgement. We suspect Stella on a white and cream coat might look less appealing than those with obvious pattern, as coat color and pattern has a 20% weight. 

So when comes to the finale - nomination of FFF Queen, 5 judges will choose from the top female winner from the kitten, adult and premier category. It was a very tight race, as #6 was nominated by VC and FC, while ET and IM voted for #44. The swing would come from AS, who despite giving her a 6th, cast his vote for her, crowning Stella as the FFF Queen. He also voted her as cat in Best Condition. 

Overall, life is full or surprises! It has its ups and downs! It has a lot of noises (unfriendly comment at times - "she wins again", "influential personnel" putting the cat in the competition cage" etc). So just take things in life as they come, concentrate on what you are doing, continue the game at ease and enjoy the process. 

Thanks be to God!