A national win with a Siamese kitten has always been THE treasured dream for Susan and me. Although we have had great success showing Siamese kittens (three previous best of breed kitten winners), we had never had a kitten born at the right time of year for a national campaign.

Santorino (call name Mario) was sired by GC, BW, NW Thaifong Rio of Ayuthaya (CFA’s best Siamese and sixth best cat 2009-10). The litter was late coming into the world - born on day 72. We weren’t thinking about show prospects. We felt blessed to have live kittens!

Mario’s show career got off to a slow start.  For his first outing, we took him to one day of our regional show in June where he made three finals, one a best kitten. He sure looked pretty in the ring! We took him to a few local shows and he did better and better each weekend. So we decided to test the waters at a larger show and made the long trip to Baltimore. He did well there and a favorite judge commented that it shouldn’t be hard to get a NW with him. “No way”, we thought. We had missed too many of the big shows, AND he was going to age out before the World Show in November. But we had already made plans to attend National Capital, one of our favorite shows, and we had the National Siamese Cat Club show the weekend before Nasty. What a show that turned out to be. Mario was best kitten in all ten rings! Things were definitely looking up. So off we went to National Capital where he had a great show, picking up enough points to make a NW look possible. With only three weekends left, we started scrambling to find count. After two disappointing weekends it was back to Maryland where Mario had a fantastic final show, splitting best kitten wins with the future KOTY.

Mario went on to grand in his first weekend out in championship. With a NW looking more and more like a done deal, we were able to relax and show for fun. And fun it was! Mario’s championship wins were impressive. He black-lined 7 of his 13 adult shows (was second in three others) and was best cat in 47 out of 90 rings.

I have always believed that there is no greater challenge than breeding a good chocolate point Siamese male. Mario fits the standard and stands out with his wonderful elegance, length, and refinement. He has a rock hard body, large flyaway ears, a long tapered head and pretty dark eyes. His color is excellent - a clear ivory body and perfectly matching points. He was truly a pleasure to show. Although he was rarely animated in the ring, he loved to snuggle up to the judges and purr. We never tired of seeing the look on judges’ faces when they picked him up for the first time and felt his amazing weight and muscularity.

What were the season’s highlights? Well nothing can top going best kitten in all ten rings at the NSCC show. We will also treasure the memories of being awarded Best Siamese at the World Show (Red) in a very strong class, and winning the Mona Cherrington Award at the Absolutely Abyssinians show in January. It was definitely a year to remember and he will be a hard act for us to follow.