{"id":26298,"date":"2024-07-30T20:59:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T02:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-space-for-livestock-no-problem-bring-your-cat-to-the-fair-instead\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:37:36","slug":"no-space-for-livestock-no-problem-bring-your-cat-to-the-fair-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/no-space-for-livestock-no-problem-bring-your-cat-to-the-fair-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"No space for livestock? No problem. Bring your cat to the fair instead."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The cat show\u2019s decorated participants. From left to right Tyler Lindsay, Violet Porter, Brenda Cunningham, Christian Doolen, Elise Doolen. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Sounds of meowing filled a small room in the Montezuma County Fairgrounds\u2019 main barn this morning, where the fair\u2019s first ever cat show took place.<\/p>\n

The goal was to involve children \u2013 in the fair and 4-H \u2013 that live in the city and don\u2019t have space to raise livestock, said Tierney Wilson, a 4-H specialist and cat leader who spearheaded the show.<\/p>\n

Four participants, who Wilson called trailblazers of the project, showed off their feline friends.<\/p>\n

Unlike some pet shows, where animals perform tricks or run through obstacle courses, today\u2019s event was more about showmanship \u2013 not obedience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a rabbit show,\u201d said Brenda Cunningham, a judge at the show and worker at the Cortez Animal Shelter. \u201cThey\u2019re doing all of the presentation, and we\u2019re just judging off of what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tyler
Tyler Lindsay shows judge Brenda Cunningham his cat, Snow. (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Each participant took turns bringing their cat and its carrier up to a folding table at the front of the room. Cunningham judged as they presented themselves and their cat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they introduced themselves, they had to tell us about their cat, their age, their name, and what their breed is. Then they went into vaccinations, which is very important, and \u2026 what kind of food they eat, how to groom,\u201d said Cunningham.<\/p>\n

The carrier had to be clean, complete with food, water and a towel.<\/p>\n

The participants also talked about what makes their cat special.<\/p>\n

Elise Doolen, the first participant to present, said her cat, TJ, was special because of its size. At 13 pounds, it was the biggest in the litter. She said it was especially funny to have a cat so big since she\u2019s so small.<\/p>\n

A runt of the litter, Teaspoon, was also part of the show. Her owner, Violet Porter, was champion of the junior division and said her favorite part of the event was getting to spend more time with Teaspoon.<\/p>\n

Tyler Lindsay, another participant, brought his cat Snow \u2013 who was nearly named Snow White \u2013 and agreed that spending time with his cat and getting to hold her was the best part of the event.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Doolen, senior division champion (Cameryn Cass\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Christian Doolen was the champion of the senior division and last \u2013 but not least \u2013 to show off his cat. He said he tried to study as much as possible before the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was nervous, I kind of forgot most of the stuff I was going to say,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To help the kids prepare beforehand, Wilson brought them to a series of three classes at the animal shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe showed them how to vaccinate their cat, how to check their health, the ears, the teeth,\u201d said Cunningham. \u201cWe clipped toenails on cats to show them and taught them how to determine the age of the cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can tell a cat\u2019s age, at least while they\u2019re young, by looking at their teeth.<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re kittens, they have no teeth. Over time, they grow and have different sizes of teeth as they develop. Once they\u2019re full grown adults, tooth size becomes universal, so you need a blood test to tell its age at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you how much I learned about cats through this process,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

Next year, they plan to host the fair\u2019s second cat show. They hope to see more kids get involved and might even add a pet and carrier decorating contest to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

opens the door for city dwellers to participate in the Montezuma County Fair<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[947,28,60,2105,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-4-h","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-fair","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79304,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26298\/revisions\/79304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26298"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}