UK GRAND CHAMPION & UK IMPERIAL GRAND PREMIER & INTERNATIONAL GRAND PREMIER AND IRISH SUPREME NEUTER AND FIFE PREMIER JAKATTA DESDEMONA

A week or so later I was preparing some fish for all the cats and and Dessie was nowhere to be found. After much calling and searching there was still no sign. The only conclusion we could come to was that somehow she had escaped and had got out.

We had builders in and I was convinced they had left a door or window open somewhere. We searched the lanes around the house but still no joy. Rocco declared he was going down the cellar to see if she was down there. 'Don't be so ridiculous' said I. 'How could she possibly get through two locked doors'.

Of course, five minutes later he reappeared with an extremely black Desdemona in his arms! She had been playing in the pile of coal. We still don't know how she got down there. That was the first time she had a bath!

Time moved on, I had the baby, a little boy called Edward. Having had to miss a couple of months of shows I was really looking forward to getting out and taking Dessie to her first show. We had a wonderful day, everyone loved her and she came second in a very good class of kittens. Two weeks later we went again.

This time she won every class!! I couldn't believe it. The next outing was to be the Maine Coon Cat Cat Club show. Always a big turn out of cats with the best Maine coons in the country competing for the title of Best in show. The day started well for us. Dessie won her open class and carried on to be nominated for best in show kitten. The panel of judges were unanimous. Not only did she win Best in Show kitten but she went on to win Overall best in Show Maine Coon. An amazing achievement for a kitten, especially a female. We went home on cloud nine and with a whole car full of trophies! We just couldn't believe it.

Two weeks later we took her to another show, this time an all breed show and once again she took the title of Overall Best Exhibit in Show. By this time Dessie had very quickly learnt how to command attention and always had a throng of admirers around her pen! The next show was a very big and prestigious one and yet again we came home with another Overall best in Show title.

This pattern continued and the following summer we returned to the Maine Coon show and yet again the verdict was unanimous. Overall best in Show Maine Coon. Soon after this Dessie started calling and was duly mated to a beautiful brown tabby boy, Grand Champion Kititas Leonardo Dicatprio. She had two beautiful babies, a red tabby boy and a silver tabby and white girl which we kept. Very soon after the red boy left for his new home we realised that something was wrong. Dessie wasn't eating very much and was depressed.

The weight started to fall off her. The vets couldn't find anything wrong with her but eventually diagnosed post natal depression! She had Delvasteron as a last ditch attempt to help her . It was now the end of April, two months after her kitten had left and her weight had plummeted to 3 kilos. She is a very big cat so it was a massive weight loss. Within six hours of the injection she was eating, and four weeks later had returned to her normal weight. We had thought we were going to lose her and were amazed at the turnaround.

Another four weeks later we returned to the maine coon show for the third time. To our complete astonishment she walked away with the title of Overall Best in Show Maine Coon for the third year running. No cat had ever won two years running let alone three.

We were so very proud of her that day. She had been so unwell and she really enjoyed herself preening in front of the judges and strutting across the best in show table to be judged.

 

After a few more shows and a few more best in show wins we repeated the mating to ' Leo '. This time two beautiful brown tabby and white boys were born. All four of Dessie's kittens were being shown and all were doing very well, especially the silver girl, Cecilia. We were looking forward to mating her the following summer again, so many people had asked us for kittens from her. In the july I noticed that she was off her food and had been sick.

Now Dessie is rather partial to plastic bags and we have to be very careful what we leave laying around. I had seen her nibbling at some plastic covering some dry cleaning but had moved the bag out of her way. But a couple of days passed and she kept being sick and was clearly unwell. Worried that a piece of the bag had got stuck somewhere inside her I took her down to the vets.

After examining her they said that they could feel a lump in her intestine and were going to operate immediately. I sat at home waiting for the phone to ring. I really had no idea just how serious this was. Half an hour later they rang to say she had two intersusceptions and was gravely ill. It was less than 50/50 but they could try to repair the damage with my permission. We felt that we had to give her a chance, the odds weren't good but we just couldn't give up on her.

She was supposed to be hospitalised for 5 days but after 2 they suggested that I bring her home. She was a terrible patient and point blank refused to eat or drink out of a stainless steel bowl and kept pulling her drip out! So home she came. We confined her to our small kitten pen and she had to have a teaspoon of lukewarm liquidised coley fish every two hours for two weeks!

They told us it would be six weeks before she was out of the woods. She was recovering well and we were very optimistic. But at around four weeks later I got a feeling something wasn't right. She was very quiet and withdrawn. I took her straight back to the vets and they suspected a third intersusception. They said they would operate again but that if it was another one, they didn't think she would survive.

I was devastated. Waiting for the phone call was awful. When they rang the news wasn't good. She had pyometra! She had a badly infected womb and they were going to have to neuter her. Once again it was touch and go. More weeks of nursing but slowly she started to recover. She got stronger and stronger and by the Autumn was back to normal. I didn't know whether to show her again or not. She had been through so much but she really loved going to the shows. So we took plunge and she went to her first show as a neuter.

She amazed us all by winning all her classes and gaining best of breed. From there on it was like she had never been away and very soon she started winning Best in shows again.

 

In 2003 Dessie travelled to Ireland for the first time. It is the only way we can gain an International title and very few cats in the UK do it. Needless to say, Dessie loved the travelling, thought staying in the hotel was brilliant and won Overall Best in Show at the first time of asking!

Later in the year we went again and yet again she won Overall Best in Show. In December she went to Olympia, London for the National Cat Club show and won Overall best in Show SLH. A massive achievement at one of the UK's biggest shows.

In 2004 we travelled to Dublin for the Irish Supreme Cat Show. Dessie needed one more certificate to gain the title of International Premier. She won her certificate, then Best of breed, then Best of Variety and finished off the day by becoming Irish Supreme Neuter. The Guinness certainly flowed that night!!

The following April we returned to the Emerald Isle and Dessie became an Irish Grand Premier and yet again won Best in Show SLH Neuter. We have lost count now of just how many certificates she holds but she has won 27 Best in Show titles to date and is the most titled Maine Coon in the country.

Certainly, cats like Dessie only come along once in a lifetime and we know how priveliged we are to have her. She is the ultimate show cat and the accolades are endless.

This is the part where people say ' but at home she is just tiddles '. Well, at home she knows exactly who she is! UK GR CH and GR PR and INTGR PR and IRISH SUPREME NEUTER Jakatta Desdemona. And woe betide anyone who forgets it!