Stella's fourth charitable drive

 In mid-September, Stella embarked on her 4th charitable drive, with the hope that less fortunate children could also have a Hill's buffet to celebrate Mid-autumn Festival. 

So we launched an appeal for support in Facebook, 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=851564471363373&set=a.139918182528009&type=3&comment_id=1477239743542919¬if_id=1758622050570326¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

Lately, we were informed that Stella was lucky to be within the top 5 in terms of "Like" count, so we donated out all 24 cans of Hills.

Stella went to Cat Show again?!

For the first time, Hong Kong hosted the World Cat Congress in Convention Centre on 1st-3rd August, 2025.

We decided to let Stella participate in the Cat Show on 2nd-3rd August. This could be an eye opener for us. Because out of the 10 judges, only 1 was from Hong Kong. More interesting, some of the judges were from different global cat clubs. 

We knew that similar to other CFA cat shows, the competition was a lot intense. We went in without too high expectations. Stella is a sprayed long hair, so she competes in the Alter/Premier category. There were a total of 25 cats, of which 5 were short hair. This implied each competitor need to beat another 2 for a chance in the final -- to be placed and earn rosettes and prizes. 

As a first step, Stella needs to get the "Best Breed" ribbon from her sub-group (Exotic Bi-Color) competition as a potential pass to the final. Sometimes, a "Second Best Breed" might also work.

Stella tried her best, though her performance on the first day was a bit weak. We believe this could be due to discomfort in her eyes. In the last round, she tend to partly close her eyes, didn't like to look up or face the spectators. This was not the usual her. 

On the second day, DN helped rectify the problem. Stella was happier and her self confidence return. Her performance improved as well.

Despite getting a "Best Breed" in the 2nd Ring, Stella was not selected for the final. Overall, result was as follows:

 

For the less fortunate cats, Christmas will come earlier this year, as Stella in her 3rd charitable drive will donate all her prizes to help feed homeless children. 

FFF 2024 annual banquet

To bring activities of 2024 to a close, FFF held its annual banquet in Thailand on 23rd February 2025.

As expected, we asked a friend to collect the rosettes and trophy on our behalf. 

 After thought:

Unlike CFA which is an international cat fanciers' organisation, FFF focuses on Asia and has a 2 year presence in Hong Kong. We let Stella fully participate in FFF's 2024 cat shows, as we want to see her achievement in the national arena. We prefer FFF over CFA because of its fewer show competition, hence, less pressure and more economical. 

In 2024, 3 shows were held in Hong Kong, with a total of 16 rings. As national ranking is based on accumulated scores the cat obtained during that year, with 20-30% less show competition than its Asian counterparts (especially SE Asia), by default, its virtually very difficult for a Hong Kong competitor to attain high national ranking. This, to us is a flaw in the system, which we can only accept. 

Nevertheless, Stella did well in the Hong Kong shows, with the following results:

Overall, for 2024, regionally, Stella was the Best Alter in Hong Kong. Nationally, she ranked 13th in the Alter category. To our surprise, she was amongst one of the three cats to win the special award of Best Condition nationally - a pride for Hong Kong?! (P.S. in the video, the photo said its Best Head, which is incorrect)

All the rosettes awarded in 2024

Our heartfelt thanks to all the judges who used Stella in their finals: Daisy Wong for entrusting us with Stella and grooming her to perfection for each show competition; Auntie Rowena for all her love and care towards Stella; Mandy Tang for her heads up on Stella when she was first available and continuous care and support thereafter; to our Taiwanese friends for the banquet video and representing us in the occasion. 

Above all, thanks be to God for this adorable child and may she continue to be a rising star bringing warmth, love and laughter to all she knows!

Stella - an accident

 When playing, Felix accidentally hit Stella in the eye and caused a wound at 3 o'clock position of the cornea of the right eye. 

Luckily, after over a week of intensive care. She fully recovered and is back to her old self 

As an aside, below is a video taken before the accident

2024 - A year of competitions for Stella

 Stella started to experience "what is competition" and "charitable drive".

Like her brothers and sisters, we believe that Stella should try her best to help less fortunate children. She tried hard in cat shows to apart from winning rosettes, to win "goodies" as well. But unfortunately, sponsorship doesn't always work out well, so Stella wasn't too successful by this means. 

Luckily, during December, there were 2 competitions giving out cat food as prizes. As mummy is often pretty well prepared for this, she dug out from the album collection, submitted them and then went on charitable drive plea for support. Fortunately, Stella was able to master sufficient "LIKE" to stay within the top 10 and got her share of the pie.

1) Hosted by Vetmacy: 30 cans of Hills cat food

  

2) Hosted by: Hills Nutrition HK: 120 cans of Hills cat food, 5 bags of Hills dry food, a cat scratcher, a cat teaser

The above prizes were being given to 3 cat volunteers, helping less fortunate children in Tsimshatsui, Mongkok, Prince Edward and Shamshuipo. 

Another type of competition is cat show. We chose to be a regular participant in Feline Fanciers Federation (FFF) 2024 cat shows in Hong Kong. Compared with the CFA which is an international organisation, FFF is Asia focused. and they run fewer shows in HK each year. Hence, less time consuming and costly, and less tiring to human and cat, and yet we could have a rough idea how Stella stands against peers in Asia. 

Overall, Stella performed to our satisfaction, as she won 3 awards:

- Regional Winner: Hong Kong Best Alter

- National: 13th Best Regional Alter

- National: Best Condition 

So overall, a pretty rewarding year for Stella!

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.

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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! 

Stella's Fourth 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.

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Stella went for her 4th Cat Show Competition on 18th August in U Place. This one is being hosted by Feline Fanciers' Federation Hong Kong. The space was less spacious and a bit hot. Additional fans were available to help ventilation, but the associated sound and wind quality seemed to have affected the cats, as most were less playful, a bit moody and tense. 

Comparatively speaking, this was a smaller size cat show with only 3 rings running from 11am to 5.30pm, hence, should be less tiring. 

Despite the less than ideal environment, Stella still tried her best and was awarded First Place in all 3 rings. I must confess that Stella was lucky, as I think she could do much better in her interaction with the judges. 

Being the Highest Scoring Female Premier, Stella competed against the other 2 female winners in the Kitten and Adult category for the FFF Queen honour, but failed. I know Stella is a quality Exotic, but other competitors are also beauties in their own way. Besides, Stella was crowned FFF Queen in the last competition (May 2024), and to keep the game running, its fair that others also can have a piece of the pie. 

By the end of the day, Stella got 2 big rosettes as (1) Highest Scoring Premier and (2) Best Body. I was thrilled when they announced that Stella got the Best Body, for in the past 2 competitions, Stella missed the award by a mere 2 points. The comment I often heard about Stella's body, was that although she is a female, her build is muscular, compact and is even better than some male counterparts - 是個女漢子. For this, apart from her genes, I would attribute to her playfulness, as she likes to run around the house and jump to the top of the cat tree.

Thank God! By now Stella has virtually collected a "complete set of the FFF Best rosettes" - Best Head (Nov '23), Best Body (May '24), Best Coat (Feb '24), Beset Condition (Feb '24). The only piece missing is Best Color. I don't think Stella stands a good chance in winning this, as her white and cream color is nice but no big deal! Haha! 

Snippets

Official result from the cat show

 Unfortunately there are some mistakes in the  Best Head category (red circled area)..

Stella got a 1 and 2 from two of the three judges. 1 is worth 10 points,  2 is worth 8 points and 3 is worth 6 points. So Stella should be second in this category with 18 points instead of 10 points being shown in the result announcement.