[Vision2020] Caturday (December 10, 2011)

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the New York Times at:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/cats/index.html
 
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Step Aside, Fido

Feline agility competitions, in which cats run through an obstacle course,
have become fixtures at cat shows like the ones in New York and
Indianapolis this weekend.

Modeled after canine agility competitions, the tournaments feature a ring
in which cat owners — some of whom have trained their pets from kittenhood
— brandish a feather or sparkly wand to try to coax a cat to climb stairs,
weave around poles and leap through hoops in as little time as possible.

Feline agility events began about a decade ago when two couples who met on
the cat show circuit went out to dinner and started talking about the
tricks their cats did. They modified some dog agility obstacles and showed
them to their cats; from there, a group called the International Cat
Agility Tournaments  — or ICAT — was born.

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Anthony Hutcherson, who raises Bengal cats and trains them in his
backyard, walking one of the cats down a homemade ramp in the yard of his
Maryland home.



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This kitty is all tuckered out from a tough day of practice. But it may be
a good idea to start the training early.



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“When we first started it, everybody said, ‘Train a cat? Impossible!’ ”
said Shirley Piper, left, one of the four founding members. She and her
partner, Kathy Krysta, right, live in Riverside, Calif., with their 20
cats, which they train regularly.



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Piper putting one of her cats through a training session.



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Some of Piper’s and Krysta’s cats — Divine Lady, Porcelain Doll and Tiny
Dancer — are so well trained that they will run an agility course on their
own, with no feathers or other incentives.



“The spectators don’t care about records and organized running,” said
Piper, who will serve as ringmaster at the Meet the Breeds show at the
Javits Center in New York this weekend. “They just want to see a cat
perform by itself.”
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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown
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