Arina very kindly entered Tavolga into the FIFe Filidae Club's Forest show on the Saturday and stayed up until 2am on the Friday night after taking us sight seeing, to ensure Tavolga and her mum Elan were ready for the show.
It was really exciting to attend the show which was quite different to those in the UK. The hall was huge and was shared by a TICA show being held simultaneously with some cats entered into both shows! The layout was lovely and very social with the exhibitors inside circles of pens so that visitors could easily walk by and see all the cats while the exhibitors could easily talk and relax together.
I was amazed to see so many Siberians in attendance. There were cats from Rossity, Nevas Legend, Onix Gloria, Manchzhury, Volgskaya Krasa and Angelur to name just a few! It was really lovely to actually meet some of these famous breeders as I have spent many hours pawing over their websites over the last few years!
We were so excited to finally meet our girl Tavolga as we have been following her development since her first photos at one week of age and she is now 9 months old. She is really a fabulous girl and we couldn't be happier with her looks and her sweet temperament too. Judge Mrs Sirpa Lindelof seemed to like her and gave her an excellent write up. I didn't expect her to do brilliantly as she is currently a teenager and, as it was a Forest Show, there was a lot of competition with tonnes of Maine Coons in attendance as well as the good number of Siberians.
Tavloga however surprised us and was awarded Best in Variety and was then Nominated for Best In Show! I couldn't have been happier at that point but the day just kept on getting better! She wowed all of the judges and went on to be awarded Best In Show (category 2 kitten), then overall Best in Category 2 before being announced as Best of Best 1! I.e. best cat in the whole show! Amazing! Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such an amazing result when we were planning the trip to the Moscow just a few weeks prior!
Arina and Alex also had a second win to celebrate- Tavolga's beautiful mum Elan Sibaris won BIS too and as this was her 15th BIS win this awarded her the title Distinguished Show Merit (DSM). Wow! What an incredible achievement!
So I must say a HUGE thank you to Arina and Alex for your warm welcome to your country, for taking us to see the beautiful St. Serguis Monastry, for driving us around in the crazy Moscow traffic, for all your preparations for the show and of course for allowing us to adopt the gorgeous Tavolga! We can't wait to have her home here with us!
So now for some photos for you to see. (I forgot to bring a program home so unfortunately I don't know all the names of the cats. Sorry.)
The incredibly beautiful St Sergius Monastry:
My wonderful husband and very patient baby in the show hall:
Some Russian refreshments:
Siberians being judged in the TICA show:
Some of the Siberians in the TICA show:
Beautiful Tavolga was very relaxed despite it being her very first show!
Izbrannik Manchzhury owned by Nevas Legend:
A junior female from Nevas Legend:
Onix Gloria Veresk:
There were lots of Russian blues in attendance:
And tonnes of Maine Coons!
A golden adult female from Volgskaya Krasa:
Tavolga and her beautiful mum Elan:
Tav again:
Bereginya Onix Gloria:
Arina and Alex doing some final grooming on Tavolga:
Ethan made lost of friends!
Arina and I watching Tavolga being judged:
Tavolga being judged by Mrs Sirpa Lindelof:
Me wondering how she will do!
Tavolga being compared to the other female Siberian juniors:
A golden male junior from Angelur:
Tav being compared to the Angelur male:
Tav winning Best In Variety!
Ethan is pleased with his cat's first ribbon!
Tav being compared to the other category II juniors for BIS nomination:
The judge takes another close look before making her decision:
The judge explaining the good points of the lovely Maine Coon junior:
Tav wins and is Nominated for Best In Show:
Alex and Arina watch on while Elan is judged:
Elan knows how to strut her stuff!
Rossity Kamysh with his breeder Elena:
A certified female Siberian:
A golden female adult from Volgskaya Krasa:
Judging the adult Sibis for BIV:
Alex with Elan:
Elan wins Best in Variety:
Very handsome Onix Gloria Veresk:
Izbrannik Manchzhury with his owner Valeria of Nevas Legend:
Valeria and Arina with Izbrannik:
Rossity Kamysh:
Elan is BIS! This is her 15th BIS win!!!:
BIS judging for the category 2 juniors:
Tav didn't want to pose!
But she won Best In Show Category 2 junior anyway!
All of the Category 2 winners (neuter left, adult middle, kitten right and Tav out of the shot):
Tav is the best in the whole of Category 2!
All of the category winners compete for Best of Best:
And Tav wins the overall Best of Best 1!!!!! Amazing! Well done gorgeous girl! We are so proud!
Arina and I with the beautiful winner!
All the judges and stewards and BOB winners:
Best in show baby?!
Of course he is!!!
Tav's trophies and ribbons! What a huge haul!
And of course the obligatory Moscow tourist shot, me in front of the amazing St Basil's catherderal:
Lovely to see the photos Melanie - and a fabulous experience. Ethan looks wonderful - and his Daddy is clearly so proud of him!
ReplyDeleteLovely to be at the show and have this fabulous success - I'm so pleased for you Tavolga will be so precious to you and your future breeding program - Congratulations and our best wishes - and that is from the heart :)
An experience which will live with you forever, to have been there with so many great Siberians and also Siberian breeders - something to treasure.
I love the last shot - you just couldn't have not done that one :))
Thanks for the report. I wish we'd been there. Tell me about Elan, is she great or is she great? <3 Big Congratulations! Ethan is so cute as well :)
ReplyDeleteHi Melanie,
ReplyDeleteI think Lesley has said it all.
Your pics are fabulous and led us along your dat at the show beautifully. I almost felt part of the experience.
Thankyou so much for sharing it with us.
Tavolga is SOME CAT isn't she ?? Congrats.
What an amazing time with so many memories.
I'm blown away completely. xx
Thanks Lesley and Jackie for your lovely comments. I'm glad you like the pictures. There were so many lovely Sibis there so I tried to get shots of all of them and also enough shots to explain all the different parts of the judging process. It all gets a bit confusing towards the end of the FIFe shows so hopefully I've painted the picture correctly!
ReplyDeleteROFL! Best in Show Baby!!! LOVE it!! Darren and I busted out laughing! Congrats on Tav! She's a gorgeous girl! The show looks like so much fun and very different from the US. We aren't to be near the cat while judging. Great photos! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeletethat's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteHi Melanie, what a wonderful achievement for both you, Arina and Alex, you all must be so proud! for her to have won over some of the most amazing siberians in Russia or even the world, such an amazing achievement, I was filling up just reading it :) congrats to her wonderful mums achievement also she is such a wonderful siberian and hopefully your girl will be even better if thats possible. Lovely that you got to see some of the sites the pictures are wonderful and it was lovely to put faces to some of those big names.
ReplyDeleteOnce again im so happy for you, it was fate that this girl came to you I think :) Cant wait to see her all grown up.
Brilliant to see all your pictures! Congratulations to your new girl! Great to see all the breeders, as you say we all read about.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing :) Ethan is gorgeous!
Denise x
Thanks everyone. Yes we are immensley proud of her and really can't quite believe it still! Even with the trophies here with me I still wonder if it all really happened! lol. I just wish I had Tavolga with us now- it is still a couple of months wait before she arrives! Xx
ReplyDeleteHi Päivi, Yes Elan is fabulous! It looks like Thymian really has her great solid build. He's a very handsome guy! His sister says Hi!
ReplyDeleteXx
Great post Melanie, thanks for sharing your visit and the photos :-) Congrats on your success. I bet you grinned all the way home!
ReplyDeleteYes, Ethan is Best in Show Baby :-)
Well done again, Jo xxx