 |
GC, RW Topknot's Isis BY KIM SIEVING Published February 2014
Photos copyrighted by the individual photographers A gorgeous odd-eyed white female Persian named GC, RW Topknot's Isis is CFA Midwest Region's 4th Best Kitten for 2012-2013. This is her story . . .
Topknot Cattery My name is Kim Sieving. Along with my three daughters, Ashley, Stephanie and Rosemary (Mo), I breed Persians and Exotic Shorthairs under the Topknot cattery name in Jacksonville, Illinois. I began in the cat fancy with Himalayans as their blue eyes just captured my heart. Over the years I became more and more interested in white Persians and they are now my passion. My daughters all enjoyed going to the shows with me and it was fun to share my hobby with them. Now two of my daughters have started breeding programs of their own. In early 2012, I bred my CEW Persian male, CH Sunny Ridge's Mr Magoo (littermate to GC, BW, NW Sunny Ridge's Polar Express, CFA's Cat Of The Year 2008) to my CEW girl, CH Validian’s Pearl Jam. Near the end of May, Pearl gave birth to a litter of two.
One female kitten in particular showed a lot of potential right from the start. Her coat was white, but until she opened her eyes I wouldn't know what color they would be? Copper like her parents? Or blue like an earlier sibling? At 10 days, I had a flashlight ready to check as the babies eyes peeked open for the first time. Copper eyes reflect back a greenish color while blue eyes will shine red. When the time was right, I flashed the light. One eye shined green — and the other reflected red! The baby was an odd-eyed white! My favorite color Persian! My youngest daughter was studying Egyptian and Greek mythology at the time so she named the little girl "Isis" after the goddess of nature and magic. As the weeks passed our little odd-eyed goddess developed into a beautiful (but also very messy) kitten. As anyone who shows white Persians can attest, their coat takes a lot of care if it is to be kept immaculate. When a kitten loves to bury its head and feet in the food bowl it is a daily challenge to prevent staining.
We were showing one of our males by the time Isis was old enough to show so we decided to enter her too so we could keep up the daily care of her coat. Although she was barely four months old at her first show, and she made only a few finals, she still took the breed in the Solid Persian Division in every ring against much older kittens. We were very encouraged that the judges could appreciate and reward the quality in such a young kitten.
Personality Plus Isis's white coat masks tortoiseshell — and as she grew she certainly had a lot of the classic tortie-tude. In fact, she has enough attitude for several cats. That is part of her charm. She is also deaf, despite expecting she would at least have hearing in the ear on the same side of her head as the copper eye. My daughters doubted me when I first said I thought Isis was deaf because she is so attentive to her surroundings. However, there are two telltale behaviors that suggest the extent of her deafness. If you touch her suddenly when she is asleep she pops two feet into the air. She also doesn't react when our family dogs stampede through the house barking loud enough to wake the dead. Her deafness has certainly never held her back as she enjoys life to the fullest. At the shows, she always had a blast, lapping up all the attention and delighting in making people laugh. Best Kitten One final in particular stands out in my mind when Isis was just a very young kitten. Barbara Sumner was presenting her kitten final. There was a large crowd of spectators and Isis was spinning in circles in her judging cage and repeatedly knocking her number card down off the top of the cage. Everyone was laughing. The other kittens were straining against the cage bars all trying their best to see what Isis was up to. She continued to hang off the top of her cage like a monkey — falling down only to jump up and start all over again. Barbara interrupted her judging several times to tell Isis that it was not polite to steal the show. When Barbara finally took Isis out of her cage and plopped her down on the judging table, Isis gave the audience a look that only a odd-eyed Persian can give. It was as if she was saying. "It's about time". Barbara then made Isis her Best Kitten!
One Point Shy There would be many Best Kitten rosettes after that — and often Isis was Best Kitten In Show. Isis was well up in the Midwest standings and we felt confident she would be a regional kitten winner at season's end. We had attended only local shows while she was a kitten, but when Isis aged out, my daughter and I drove seven hours to Wichita, Kansas for Isis's first show as an adult. Isis had a terrific show including being awarded Best Cat from the Open class by her favorite judge, Jim Dinesen. By the end of the weekend, Isis had picked up 199 grand points — just one point short of her grand title! As we set off on the long drive home, we were on Cloud 9 — but not for long . . .
The Bump In The Road We were on the road just a short time when everything in the car just shut down — no power, no lights, no nothing. We coasted off the interstate and on to an off ramp. With no lights to warn approaching cars of our presence, we took the cats out of the car in case it was rear-ended. An emergency call brought a tow truck and driver who replaced our car's battery. Thinking the problem might also be a faulty alternator, I purchased a second battery just in case. Once again we set off for home still five hours away. Less than two hours later the car stopped again. This time we coasted into a schooling parking lot and began to change the battery for the second time. A police officer stopped and helped. Once the new battery was in place, we headed to the nearest hotel. It was already very late and we didn't want to be stranded. The next morning we loaded up the car then drove to a local garage to have the car's alternator checked before getting back out on the road. The mechanic drove my car too quickly into the garage, lurched over a large bump, and Isis's carrier in the back of the car went flying. The litter box in the carrier flipped upside down and in all the confusion, litter flew in Isis's face. A veterinary examination revealed that her copper eye was deeply scratched by bits of embedded litter. Her show career appeared to be over. That was the start of weeks of eye drops and vet visits. My three daughters and I took turns treating Isis's eye around the clock, day after day. My oldest daughter even got up in the middle of the night to bath and treat the eye. The whole family pulled together to save our girl's eyesight. A New Grand It was almost three months before the eye completely healed and we could consider entering Isis in a show. We still needed to corral one last point for her to become a Grand. I checked the show schedule and was delighted to see her favorite judge, Jim Dinesen, was on the slate for the next show. Imagine our pride when Jim selected Isis as his Best Allbreed Champion. Isis was finally a Grand!
Queen Of The House Isis stoked the hearts of many exhibitors a the shows. Some people told us they had never liked odd-eyes cats until they met Isis. She charmed them into changing their minds. Isis loved the shows but I think she just really liked to entertain — we could always count on her to do something silly to make everyone laugh. Now that her show career is over, Isis is queen of the house. She rules the roost and when on her favorite tree no other cat dares to challenge her for her spot. All the other cats knows Isis is still Top Cat — or maybe they just recognize she is still a goddess. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Below are photos from the show career of GC, RW Topknot's Isis Odd-Eyed White Female Persian CFA Midwest Region's 4th Best Kitten 2012-2013 Born: May 28, 2012
|
Legal Disclaimer | Report A Broken Link or Typo : : : : : : : : : : : : : : |