The Ocicat Club UK’s Open Day

Last Sunday (15/5-2011) I was so fortunate to be present at the open day together with 14 other ocicats as well as ocicats enthusiasts. What more could you want ?

The open day was arranged by The Ocicat Club UK and held in Kings Sutton and commenced with a vetting in to ensure that all cats were in good health.  Of cause that went without problems for anyone and we started to decorate the pens and inviting the cats into their new pod for the day.

It was a good opportunity to look at the different colours of the ocicat and ocicat classic as well as meeting their breeders. We spent a couple of hours exchanging stories and admiring the ocicats. Around noon we had lunch. There was a lot of food followed by cakes etc. This put us all in a more relaxed mood and we sat down to the more serious part of the day: An explanation and discussion of the ocicat and ocicat classic standard in GCCF.

The Ocicat

Rosemary Caunter started showing a non recognised colour – but still an ocicat. The purpose was not to be distracted from the spots.

Focus was on the type of the ocicat and how this was described in the standard.

Both cat and Mrs. Caunter enjoyed the lecture

Following the type description was a look at spotting and colours.

A beautiful spotted ocicat

Just look at the spots and the good contrast

The presentation was followed by a lively discussion among breeders, judges and Mrs. Caunter.

The Ocicat Classic

Next was the classic ocicat where the spots are replaced by a marbled pattern. The stage was taken over by Mrs. Shorten.

Look at the coat of a classic ocicat

The type of the Classic Ocicat

The focus was very much on the pattern, symmetry and the like as the is not different between the two.

An ocicat likes to play

Look at the symmetrical pattern

The presentation was concluded with a discussion of the classic ocicat, its similarity and differences to its cousin, and an exchange of experience.

The Rest of the Day

After the presentations the judges had an opportunity to look at each ocicat and comment. This was very useful for the breeders as you get the comments that rarely is part of the official judging at shows but also for the judges that had a good opportunity to compare ocicats of a high quality. Personally it was a confirmation that our ocicat had show quality for GCCF shows as well.

Cato outside

The day ended with the draw of the raffle. We were so lucky to win more than one time.

Karin "selecting" then next Winner in the Raffle

Despite the 3 hour drive home I found that it had been a very good day. I had learned something about the ocicat (and ocicat classic), meet a lot of ocicat breeders and exchanged experiences about the ocicat.

Supreme Champion Cato - see more pictures on http://www.ocicat.dk

On the way back home Cato only blessed us with his serenades a third of the trip. He was eager to get back to Ylva Lorena and his babies. I hope that The Ocicat Club UK will repeat their open day at some time in the future.

Look at all the pictures from the open day in the slide show below.

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