Seattle cat show draws felines, doting owners

Munira Murrey carefully dabbed white powder under the wide, gray-blue eyes of her cat, Celestial Glory, to cover up any discoloration on the silver Persian's long, silky white fur. Murrey then misted Celestial Glory with a special antistatic solution and began grooming her, making her look more like a cat and less like a throw pillow fresh from the dryer.

"It took me three hours to bathe and blow-dry her because her coat is so fine," said Murrey, a Persian breeder from Kelowna, B.C.

Murrey toted Celestial Glory — still a kitten at 7 months, though she weighs 6 ½ pounds — over to the judging ring, one of six set up at the "Kitties Sweeter Than Wine" Cat Show at Seattle Center. The hours of prep work paid off when the judge exclaimed "Wow, what a coat!" and commented favorably on Celestial Glory's "big, expressive eyes."

The show, put on by the Pacific Northwest Outlaws Cat Club, continues today.

Some 180 cats filled two large rooms at the Center Pavilion building Saturday. They were judged on everything from the quality of their coats and the shape of their ears to whether their eyes were appropriately walnut- or almond-shaped — though, being cats, most seemed quite pleased with themselves no matter how they ranked and regarded the humans fussing over them with bemusement.

"You've never been ignored till you're ignored by a cat," quipped one judge, Elaine Weitz, after the cat she was inspecting resolutely disregarded the feather, bell and jangly toy she waved at it.

There were cats bigger than small dogs, and cats that could fit in your coat pocket. Some cats resembled miniature leopards; other looked as though they'd been crossbred with ferrets. Their coats ran the palette from pure black to snow-white, from long and thick to, well, nonexistent.

Ann Jorgensen, of Pullman, brought two of the latter, Pastel and Fanny. Known as sphynx cats, their fur is so short and fine as to be nearly invisible (though they do have some visible fur on their nose, called "nose leather," and a few other patches on their ears and tails).

Because they lack real coats, sphynx cats seek out warm, cuddly places, Jorgensen said; they're not infrequently seen in kitty sweaters. They are people-friendly by cat standards, she said.

"Most cats go running when company comes over, but these cats come running out to see who's there," she said. "They're a great breed, if you can get over the original shock of the nakedness."

In another room, Janis Berry, of Eagle River, Alaska, was walking her Abyssinian, Cao, on a harness and leash. "People say these are the cats most like dogs," she said, though more because of their intelligence, playfulness and people-friendliness than their leash-walking.

Berry, a social worker and "Aby" breeder, is training Cao to aid in therapy of emotionally disturbed children; her personality makes her well-suited for such sensitive work, Berry said.

"Cats are harder to train — you really need a special cat who knows what they're doing," she said. "You can train dogs to do what you want them to do, but cats have to want to do what you're trying to teach them to do."

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145