7 o 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



if he requires anything besides his own per- 

 sonal conviction, experience, and common 

 sense when called upon to decide the various 

 points in the different breeds. A good judge 

 of old china will not search for the mark to 

 know whether the specimen is Chelsea or 

 Worcester. He will tell you "it is marked 

 all over" that is. he knows a good bit of 

 stuff, even if it should not have the gold 

 anchor of Chelsea or the square mark of 

 Worcester ware. So it is with a good all- 

 round cat. It appeals at once to the eye of 

 the connoisseur, just as a worthless specimen 

 is at once put out of the ranks of winners. 



It is the greatest error not to have thorough 

 confidence in oneself when undertaking to 

 judge cats, or, in fact, in judging any animal, 

 or any thing. No one should undertake to 

 judge if they wish to seek the counsel of others. 

 The}' must have the courage of their own 

 convictions, and, although some amount of 

 training may be required, I think that judges 

 are born, not made ; and people who have not 

 a keen power of observation and a faculty 

 of coming rapidly to a fixed conclusion can 

 never hope to become satisfactory or com- 

 petent judges. There are many cat fanciers 

 on whose judgment of a cat I should implicitly 

 rely, and who know a good specimen when 

 they see it, but if placed before a row of twenty 

 or thirty cats of a breed they seem to 

 lose their heads and get hopelessly confused, 

 and then the reporter says, " We could not 

 follow the awards." There is no doubt that 

 judges of cats are severely handicapped. 

 Firstly, cats are such terribly timid, shrink- 

 ing animals that when dragged out of their 

 pens with great difficulty for the doors are 

 most inconveniently small they often strug- 

 gle so violently that, for fear of hurting the 

 animal or of its escaping, the judge will swiftly 

 restore it to its resting place without having 

 obtained much satisfaction from his cursory 

 examination. Unless judging pens are pro- 

 vided, there is really no chance of making 

 fair comparisons between two cats which may 

 appear of almost equal merit. How is a judge 

 to decide on the form of limbs and general 



build of a cat when holding it in his arms or 

 seeing it huddled up at the back of its pen ? 



An agitation is now on foot for having cats 

 judged in a ring, and, no doubt, in time this 

 will be the order of the day at our shows ; 

 but fanciers will have to train up their cats 

 in the way they should go namely, when 

 quite young they mus't be accustomed to a 

 lead and also be constantly brought out 

 amongst strangers. As an example, I would 

 refer to the starting gate recently introduced 

 into this country on the racecourse. It was 

 no use to attempt it for the old stagers, but 

 trainers soon accustomed the two-year-olds 

 to the innovation, and I believe many, if not 

 all, the objectors are now converted to the 

 new system of starting racehorses. 



In judging a class, I first go round and mark 

 the absent cats ; then I note down those that 

 could not under any circumstances take a 

 prize. If there is a large class say, of twenty 

 to thirty specimens I mark off all poor and 

 seedy-looking cats until the number is re- 

 duced to about eight or ten ; then I begin to 

 search for the winners. At this point I take 

 out each specimen, and, if no judging pen is 

 provided, I get someone to assist me, and 

 by bringing out two cats at a time I can make 

 comparisons and note down any remarks in 

 my book for further reference. It often 

 happens that one particular cat will stand 

 out prominently from all the rest in a class, 

 and then there is no difficulty about the first 

 award. It is always well to give a " reserve " 

 and to distribute but not too freely the 

 V.H.C., H.C., and C. cards. It does not do 

 to make these too cheap, and scatter them 

 all over the class. V.H.C. might be awarded 

 to a cat in splendid coat, but which failed in 

 head and eyes ; H.C. to another specimen 

 with hardly any coat and poor head, but 

 correct in eye ; and C. to a promising young- 

 ster without any serious fault, only with no 

 striking point of merit. A good judge must 

 thus weigh the pros and cons and have a 

 reason to give himself or anyone else for each 

 degree of merit, from first prize to the humble 

 C. And here I would mention that there is 



