Herding cats: Competition lets kids get involved
Emmett Howe, 9, helps his cat Wookie through an agility course while judge Tiffany Dills takes notes during a contest Saturday at the Grant County Fair.
MOSES LAKE - Coaxing a cat into jumping through a hoop, crawling through a tunnel or walking a plank is just as hard as it sounds.
This fact was well demonstrated by six kids who worked hard at urging their cats through obedience and agility courses at the Grant County Fair Saturday.
"Cats are not like dogs; they have their own minds," said Gayle Dow, who has been the fair's cat superintendent for two years.
The cat contests offer a venue to kids who may be too young to meet the 4-H age requirement for showing other animals or who live in the city, where raising livestock is off limits, Dow said. She added that participants learn about the breed of their cat and how to keep them healthy.
"They get ribbons and it's fun for them," she said. "It helps with the understanding of what 4-H is all about."
Dow's own son started taking part in the organization via the cat competition, which has since compelled him to go on to show dogs and pigs.
"He loved his cats and we saw this as a way to get him out there," Dow said.
Scott and Maria Howe's three youngest children - Alyssa, Emmett and Amelia - showed cats this year while their three older siblings showed horses.
Amelia, 12, trained Purr Purr to walk on a leash from soon after the cat was born, she said. She now shows dogs and is planning to show horses next year.
Tiffany Dills, who has been a small animals judge for the past 10 years and works at a Moses Lake veterinary clinic, said during the fitting and showing she's looking for how well the kids take care of their animals and how much they know about them.
This is the only fair she knows of that goes beyond the fitting and showing with cat obedience and agility competitions. Unlike other animal competitions the cat contests are a bit more relaxed on regulations, and Dills said she allows kids to use a laser pointer or food treats to bait the cats into performing.
"It's the last day of the fair and it's kind of just a fun thing," she said.
On Saturday, Amelia helped her 6-year-old sister Alyssa goad a 15-pound cat named Lynx through the agility course using a can of cat food.
Also using cat food, 9-year-old Emmett tried bribing his cat Wookie into hopping through a suspended hoop, but finally resorted to lifting him over the lip.
"Really, cats will only do something if it's on their terms," Dills said.