The Rock Valley Cat Club was Cosmo’s and my first show in an ACFA association show. Just a two-hour drive from home, this was a two day show and Cosmo did well, both in terms of points AND his behavior! This was a 2-day show with eight rings, and Cosmo placed in 5 of them (0, 10th, 5th, 0, 9th, 6th, 9th, 0), despite having a little chunk of fur pulled out of his backside by one of the big cats in a secret Kitty Fight Club (see below). If his color was solid, it might not have been as obvious, but his fur is ticked, meaning that each strand is light with a couple of dark bands, so the dark bands of the remaining fur made the gap quite visible. [See Cosmo’s page for his Rock Valley photo gallery]
The best part of the show was meeting such nice people. Rarely have I seen poor behavior by another exhibitor (but I have – it’s usually in the form of condescending behavior and words), but the people I was benched near were very helpful and it was a delight to spend two days with them.
NUMBERING: One thing that I really liked about ACFA over CFA is the way the cats are numbered (each cat in a show is assigned a number, and you have to listen for your number to be called to the judging rings). In CFA, they are all just numbered 1 – 225 (based on how many total cats are in the show), and while the number ranges are based on the four classes, #141 could be a cat in the Premier class, and #142 can be a Household Pet. In this ACFA show, cats numbered 0-99 are all kittens. 100’s are longhair adults (intact); 200’s are shorthair adults (intact); 300’s are Alters (spays and neuters); and 400’s are the Household Pets. So at this show, I could just glance at a judge’s ring and see which class is being judged based on the numbers posted on the cages. You can do that at a CFA show, but you have to know where each number range begins and ends for each class.
SCORING: I think I like the scoring system in ACFA better than CFA, but I don’t entirely understand either, so I won’t give a big explanation here. Suffice it to say that I need either a calculator or a points chart for CFA, and I need to know the entry counts for the show in order to figure his points. Points in ACFA is much simpler.
This ACFA show was a little smaller than the CFA shows that I’ve been to, but that made for judging that was a little quicker (and no overlapping of classes in the ring), and we were able to leave the showhall a little earlier than we can for CFA shows.
That said, there are aspects of CFA that I like better than ACFA. The shows are very similar, but each association has differences that make make them both good associations to be a part of. I’m glad to have discovered the ACFA shows within driving distance of my home!
