Club Seminar | Annual Aftershow Dinner | Annual Raffle

The Birman Cat Club Raffles

Can I say a big thank you to every one who sent in their stubs for the annual raffle.

The winning tickets, were draw at the Birman Cat Show on November 3rd, by the Deputy Mayor of Rugby.

The first prize went to Julie Johnson, of Sheffield and the second prize to Laura Roberts.

A special thank you to those who sent in extra money, Peter and I filled in extra stubs for you all. The raffle raised over £600.

Photo by Hollymoon Photography

The Special Picture Raffle

A beautiful picture of Grand Premier Kalyani Sweet Kiri, a seal point birman, was given to the Birman Cat Club by the executors of Mrs Dawn Holden following her death.

Mrs Holden was devoted to her cat and wished the picture go to a home where it would be loved and appreciated, and any proceeds to go to the Birman Club. To carry out her wishes I took the picture to the Birman Show. It caused quite a buzz of interest as older exhibitors remembered both the cat and her owner. I discovered from a judge that the cat had been bred by her mother and that she had looked after her when she had been a small kitten. As many of the exhibitors would have liked the picture, a quality canvas framed print, I sold raffle tickets and the picture went home with a very happy Sandra Davis, of Josanbo Birmans. This raffle raised £84.

 

After Show Dinner

Special Birman Caribbean Cruise

Whilst the rest of UK were suffering high winds and heavy rain, the Birman Caribbean Cruise departed for an evening of fun and frolic in great spirits.

With both Male and female Captains, a sexy first Officer and a Purser and Head Mechanic ready to deal with any problems it was all aboard for a wonderful time.

The elegantly dressed first class passengers were entertained by a local Steel Band whilst strolling under palm trees and drinking their aperitifs. Passengers from the lower decks complete with sports equipment and sun lovers in a variety of gaudy holiday outfits managed to lower the tone considerably while a group of Ancient Pensioners left their cabins in nightclothes to gaze in terror at a Band of invading Caribbean Pirates.

Yes it was Members of the Birman Cat Club and friends out to Celebrate and Commiserate on the day’s results. Complete with cutlasses, parrots. flip flops, snorkels and teddy bears they listened to the West Indian music and relaxed before moving into the dining room for Dinner and Disco.

During dinner a couple of short games were played, with one of the Captains taking charge, these were won by Anne Mott and Mary Taylor.

A magnificent basket of tropical fruit and other goodies had been donated by the Ships Purser (Jim Warrender) for the most suitable Costume. An elegant first class passenger (Anne Gregory) was prevailed upon to exercise her judging skills and select the most suitable cruising outfit.  Anne with her eye for detail gave an amusing commentary whilst selecting her Best on Ship. She settled on Jane Nelson, who had arrived ready for under sea exploration.

In between dancing to an excellent disco, the passengers sang a Happy Birthday to past Chairman Bob Semos and raised a toast in thanks to present Chairman and Show Manager Elaine Culf for having organised a truly superb show.

The disco was still playing when I slipped away at 12.30am leaving a nucleus of dancers determined to carry on until dawn.

Among the many people I have to thank is Dennis, Ships Captain, for being my usual rock, to the Purser, Jim Warrender for his encouragement and enthusiasm over the past months, Rob at the hotel for interpreting our designs and making the room look really great and, to all those who attended and joined in the fun, plus  Patsy Knight who always pays for a ticket and attends in spirit is not in person. Thank you Patsy.

A special mention must go to one VIP who remained in his cabin most of the evening, and ended up with his own special Balloon Tree. Little Grem Ship's Mascot extraordinaire.

Anne Madden
Photos by Anne Madden, Ian Kay and Carole Kemp

More pictures

More photos from the show, courtesy of Alistair Balharrie

Club Seminar


Feline Seminar

The Birman Cat Club along with Birman Welfare and Rescue held a Joint Seminar on September 16th at Mappleborough Green.

The Seminar was well attended by 50 club members. There was a good mixture of novices and experienced breeders. All willing to expand their knowledge of the feline species.

During the morning a number of speakers shared their expertise and answered questions.

Elaine Culf and Wendy McQuilkin both senior judges, and assisted by two of Elaine’s cats, demonstrated show preparation and grooming.

Jenny Harrison who is a qualified nurse and behaviourist as well as a breeder and exhibitor, gave advice on some of the problems associated with keeping domestic cats.

Saffi Rabey was amusing and informative on joining the GCCF stewarding and Judging schemes, and Liz Whitby shared her in depth knowledge on rearing tiny kittens. She demonstrated simple equipment which could be used without spending excessive amounts of money.

All those attending benefited from quality time with each speaker and had a chance to air concerns and ask questions.

At 1pm the meeting broke for an excellent buffet lunch organised by Angie Walker and her team, and had time to purchase raffle tickets from Patsy Knight and Simone Ensor.

From 2pm until 4pm the meeting were privileged to listen to Professor Tim Gruffydd-JonesBVetMed. PhD. MRSVS. who spoke on a number of health issues that had been worrying breeders. These included FIP which generated a lot of questions, and took up most of the available time.

The professor also talked about improvements in blood testing and genetic profiling and explained how these could help in avoiding genetic problems.

There are samples held in Bristol University from birman cats who had suffered from systemic liver shunts. To enable further study and to try to eliminate the inheritance of this problem the university needed more samples and any one having a birman with a liver shunt was advised to have a genetic sample from the cat sent to Bristol. This would help in research

The final talk was on upper respiratory infections, and advice on how to avoid these.

The meeting had to finish at 4pm or the members would have kept Tim Gruffydd-Jones talking all evening.

Feed back from those present has been very positive, everyone seemed to have learnt something new. They say that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks but I found that you can teach an old breeder.

So very many thanks, to all the speakers, your commitment has been very much appreciated. Thanks also to those who attended and made the planning worth while and to all the helpers on the day.