Adventures of an American Cat Groomer in Moscow – the cat show

Saturday, February 20, 2010       Late Evening – Moscow time

I was promised a day trip on Saturday afternoon so we could revisit the Kremlin, Red Square, Victory Park and a few other places. I really wanted to get those photos!

But it wasn’t Mike’s fault we didn’t go. It was mine. Saturday was the coldest and windiest day of all while we were there. I knew I wouldn’t last 5 minutes outside and each of those stops would require at least a 20 minute trek before we could get ourselves back into a heated environment to thaw out.

On top of things, I was now feeling all of the aches and pains of that nasty cold. Thus the photos would have to wait until the next time we were in Moscow – preferably during a summer month.

The kind woman who allowed me to use her Scottish Fold the day before had come back on Saturday and was very excited about the info I had brought to Russia. She bought my book and DVDs that I had with me and was eager to share this info with exhibitors at the International Cat Show. Nadejda breeds LH Folds and exhibits in both TICA and CFA. She is also an international judge and really knows her cat stuff. She and her husband, Alec, offered to drive Mike and I to a shopping mall to hunt for souvenirs and such.

They took us to a mall in Moscow that was 5 stories high and long enough that we never made it from one end to the other. They helped us find the souvenirs we sought, all for a great price, and in the process gave us some history and other great facts about their homeland. We had a great time with Alec and Nadejda!

Earlier that day, Nadejda’s friend and fellow exhibitor (of Maine Coons), Natalia, gave me a grand tour of the TICA International Cat Show that boasted some 1200 cats in attendance! Through an interpreter, I was able to speak with several breeders and get my hands on a beautiful sepia Bengali with the most striking aquamarine eye color. I was also introduced to the new Toiger breed. I had never even heard of the Toiger before so this was a real treat. While exquisite in appearance, the Toigers tend to have a too much wildness about them, in my opinion. In the grooming salon, we call these cats “aggressive” or “demon possessed” depending upon the mood we are in.

Somehow Nadejda and Natalia hand arranged a cat grooming contest of sorts, whereby the exhibitors would allow me to critique and judge their grooming presentation and then pick from the participants a Best, 2nd Best, and 3rd Best. Fortunately I’ve been to enough cat shows in my day to know how to look the part of a real cat show judge. This was a good thing, too, because several Russian media persons were in attendance to do interviews with me and report on the whole affair.

I will admit I had a lot of fun. The most amazing thing to me was that the exhibitors were so excited about my cat grooming program being brought to them. They truly want to learn how to perfect their grooming, even those that have no intention of operating a grooming salon. I quickly found out that information on cat grooming has been nearly non-existent for them up until now.

I am honored to be a part of this cat grooming “revolution” in Russia. May it be only the beginning of revolutions the world over. Changing the world one cat at a time. I know some laugh at that. But what do they know?