We did not start the season with the intention of running for a national win. GC, BW, NW Thaifong Rio of Ayuthaya had achieved a regional kitten win, despite being out later in the season when points were scarce. I just never thought I would have the stamina to run full tilt for an entire year, although Susan was always keen. We took Rio to the first show of the season to support a local club and he went best across the board! However, the count was low and he didn’t get keeper rings. Later in May I flew to the Midwest to pick up an outcross kitten and decided to take Rio to make the show more interesting. When he got four best cats and a second with over 100 cats present I was starting to get the message that this was bigger than both of us. So we hit the ground running and went almost every weekend until the end of October when he was the first cat in championship to break the magic 7,000 point mark, and was briefly the number one cat in the country.

After that we were able to slow down and pick shows (and judges) – only showing once or twice a month through the winter months before coming back out for a final run during the last month of the season.

We were fortunate to achieve a high national win without having to double enter, fly frequently or travel overseas. In fact we drove to all but two of our shows during the season. Rio was shown in 34 shows and was best cat 82 times.

One of our most memorable weekends was the Midwest Abyssinian show in St. Louis in June. When we arrived at the airport Friday night, we were informed that United had cancelled all flights nationwide due to severe thunderstorms. I asked a man in line if he knew how far it was to drive to St. Louis and he put it on his GPS and came up with 12 hours. So we set off and drove all night, arriving just in time for the first ring. I had someone coming on Sunday to pick up a kitten and no way of contacting her. So after the show ended on Saturday, we packed up and drove through the night to get home. Was it worth it? It was! Rio ended up best in show with finals he would never replace.

No northern winter goes by without blizzards, and we struggled through several of those on show weekends. But we never missed a show. On another memorable weekend Susan passed a kidney stone while we were driving to Columbus. I wanted to turn back, or take her to a hospital … anything! … but she would not hear of it.

Rio was a pleasure to show. He enjoyed the attention he got on the table and the judges’ toys. He also enjoyed flirting with the competition and he was often between his favorites, the pretty Russian and the sexy Oriental, in finals. Although he was passionate about females and sired two litters before the end of the season, he was always amenable to being handled in the rings.

Rio’s sire was GC Alexy’s TL Tango of Thaifong, DM, a blue point son of our Tiamo, and his dam was GC Fairydust Chocolate Cappuccino, DM. Special thanks to Dianne & Bruce Alexy and to Jennifer Wilson for sharing their cats. It was a truly a great year for Siamese – seal points in particular. Six of the top ten Siamese were seal point males and we were fortunate enough to see them all at one time or another.

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