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Ragdolls with a FIFe-World Winner Title
- WWs 02: Shyshaman's For Pamir &
IP Apostrophe Curaso
Text submitted by Maria Sarkio, Finland:
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- Young adult Shyshaman's For Pamir (Niklas) -
photo: Marita
Kienanen
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he long-awaited World Show of Cats finally took place in November of 2002 in Helsinki, Finland. The show was FIFe's largest World Show up to that date, and thus also the largest show in the history of FIFe by 2002. Close to 1100 purebred cats (incl. 30 domestic/housecats) with the required prior show success were entered from as many as 23 different countries! This made the Helsinki World Show three times larger than a regular International Cat Show in Finland, and we can say without a doubt that never had there been so many stunningly beautiful, high quality cats and so tough competing in one place ever before.
he show was held in an old ice hockey arena which had been filled three stories up with cat cages and commercial stands of different companies and club presentation tables. The opening ceremonies were grand: the flag of each participant country was carried up onto the large stage, and as the colorful flag parade advanced, the national anthem of each country was played for a few moments. The show had a well-known patron, Eva-Riitta Siitonen, the Lord Mayor of Helsinki, and we even received flowers from no one less than the President of the Republic, Tarja Halonen, who is a wise lady and owns two cats... FIFe's chairperson Eric Reijers and SRK's (Finland's FIFe member) chairperson Anne Paloluoma held a speech each, after which it was time to start the show, the thrillingly exciting judging of the cats...
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- Apostrophe Curaso (Rasse) at home -
photo: Tuija Arola
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record number of 59 Ragdolls were entered, of which 56 showed up, and 47 of all the Ragdolls at the show were owned by our club members (The Finnish Ragdoll Cat Club). To our disappointment only two Ragdolls had come from abroad. These were seal bicolor female EC Krickelins Anais Anais and seal bicolor male GIC Ettorah's Schwartzenegger, both from Sweden, but it was really nice to have some foreign Ragdoll breeders there as tourists and see them "camp out" close to our cages for the whole show time and share our increasing excitement... The Ragdoll breed was represented in all its patterns and in all its colors except for lilac. The long lines of Ragdoll cages looked very impressive, the cages were mostly stylish and the cats were just lovely, and it really seemed the Ragdoll owners had wanted to give this show their best shot. As many as 15 judges had been invited to judge the Category II, the semilong-haired cats, and there was really no envying their job, so beautiful and well-behaved were all the cats present. The Ragdolls were divided so that almost each pattern and color were judged by a different judge, which also meant that the cats in the final WW panels would represent a nice variety of opinions. Unfortunately, this also meant that it was impossible to view all the classes as one was understandably keen on following one's own judge and his or her evaluating, and so I myself missed the mitteds and the blue colorpoints.
ur club had a high profile. The stand we had set up the night before was full of tempting products, the overall look was dark blue with silver ornaments, and I heard we made a nice profit too. We had an absolute show stopper: although not participating in the show itself, Finland's largest Ragdoll IP Ragtime King Of Finland had his own large cage by the stand, and a constant group of admirers in front of it... And we had printed out a lot of leaflets and brochures, but started running out of them as early as Saturday afternoon... We also had a full page ad in the show catalogue, all our members' cages had a special name tag on front and each member carried a badge with her or his name and our club's logo on it. In addition to all this, our club had donated trophies to give out to every Best In Variety Ragdoll. Because the opportunity to arrange the World Show only comes once in a decade or even less rarely, it was a unique chance to present ourselves to the world as the leading force and pioneer of Finnish Ragdoll breeding. Of course, the best representatives for our club were our wonderful Ragdolls.
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- Niklas, shortly before he won Best in Variety Kitten (3 - 10 months) - photo: Åsa Halén
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s the Satuday afternoon slowly darkened into evening, we knew that a few ragdolls were going to the Grande Finale. All in all six ragdolls were nominated for BIS: EP Starfire Scarlett My Love (seal colorpoint spay, o. Sanna Kuitunen), EC Erkatin Edith Erika (seal bicolor female, o. Erja Kaartinen), Shyshaman's For Pamir, AKA "Niklas", (seal bicolor kitten 6-10 months, o. Maria Sarkio), EP & EC, WW 01 Purr-Fect Dream Angel (seal bicolor spay, o. Riitta Paakki), GIP & CH Tiridoll's One Of A Kind (blue bicolor spay, o. Tanja Karppinen) and IP Apostrophe Curaso, AKA "Rasse", (blue bicolor male neuter, o. Tuija Arola). It was interesting to note that five of them were bicolors, one was colorpoint and none was mitted, and also that five of the six nominations were neutered cats - traditions often rule in the toughest cat competitions. All of these Ragdolls except for one were owned by our club members, and also all of the BIV prizes except for one came to our members' cats.
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- FIFe judge Leslie van Grebst holding Niklas, his nomination
for Best In Show and World Winner -
photo: Åsa Halén
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he WW panels were on Sunday. I do not know how the other Ragdoll owners were feeling, as I was so nervous and excited about having my own Nicholas in the finals. I tried a few tricks to calm my nerves (drank a lot of water, walked about the show hall), but it didn't help me one bit! And then it was time for the Finals, the BIS panels which took place on the stage decorated with flowers. The audience gathered in front as best it could for all the crowd. It had been a hard job to fit all the judging tables on stage. I apologize for not giving an account of the house cat panel and the Category I panel, as I was frankly too nervous to follow them with attention - my congratulations nevertheless to all the winners.
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- A new World Winner 2002! Niklas with his happy owner Maria Sarkio - photo: Åsa Halén
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he Category II panel was given two hours because of the huge number of cats present. The BIS adults were very attractive cats, both Maine Coons, the male (BOS) from Poland and the female (BIS) from Finland. I still want to congratulate Erja Kaartinen's Erkatin Edith Erika who represented Ragdolls with style in this hard adult panel. Then it was time for the neutered cats to come on stage: there was only one male neuter Ragdoll, Tuija Arolan's IP Apostrophe Curaso, but ... he won! CONGRATULATIONS RASSE! Way to go, Ragdolls!! I ran down to congratulate Tuija. She hadn't understood that by winning the males Rasse had already become World Winner, and there we cried and hugged each other (or Tuija cried, as I was too nervous waiting for Nicholas to enter the panel). Three Ragdoll ladies were competing in female neuters, but this time it was a Birman who won; it was Feon Yin-Tabby Emei's 4th WW title and she is 11 years old - an unbelievable accomplishment!. And then it was time for the Kitten Panel / 6 - 10 months. Eager as I was, I was too close to the stage to view it properly... and too nervous to watch it anyway... I only remember at one point the speaker announcing "the most votes go to Cat Number 419". Somebody gave me the Finnish flag to carry, another one pushed me onto the stage. I saw my Nicholas and I just wanted to take him and run away... Somewhere to my left was the crowd and in front of me stood FIFe's honorary judge Kate Stierncreutz, who smiled and congratulated me and said she had admired the Ragdoll breed since it first gained Champion Status in FIFe. I must admit I had tears my eyes... Then a little show walk on the stage with Nicholas, and then off to be photographed... The photos came out just as expected: Nicholas looks beautiful and I look baffled.
he World Show was a real celebration for the Ragdoll breed: Two World Winners, both bred in Finland!!! How thrilling it will be to continue from this point on! I am beyond myself with joy that my little darling Nicholas, whom I not only own but also have bred became World Winner, and I know that Tuija with her wonderful Rasse shares this joy with me.
y happy greetings to all the participants of the Helsinki World Show, congratulations to all the World Winners and thank you to all those who cheered us and took part in our joy. Greetings also to Rasse's breeder Nunu Nopakun who only bred one litter, but what a litter it was! What a wonderful day for the Ragdolls!
Maria Sarkio, November 2002
y the way, the Helsinki World Show turned out to be a success not only for the Ragdolls, but it was also the very first time the whole show could be followed on the Internet in real time. If you want to see more WW show pictures - here is the link to the official Helsinki WW site: http://www.kissaliitto.fi/worldshow/
It is now exactly one year since the festive World Show in Helsinki, and it has surely been a great year. All of us who love this magically beautiful breed share in the celebrations for yet a new World Winner Ragdoll: Seierö's Jackie Chan the first colorpoint and kitten 3-6 months that received his high title in Copenhagen, November 2003. Our heartfelt congratulations go to him and his breeder/owner Dorthe Seierö. I myself continue to be the dedicated and devoted owner of my darling Nicholas who has fulfilled all his potential and even more. Let us hope that the Ragdoll will continue on this path to Glory.
Maria Sarkio, November 2003
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