IW SGC Cooncreole Paavo

Paavo was bathed yesterday and we took some photos of him today as they need a photo of him for his International Win with TICA. He hasn't his full winter coat, it is definitely a summer one, but I think he looks very handsome!

Congratulations Paavo on your win, we are so proud of you, our big Love Bug!

TICA International Winner SGC Cooncreole Paavo

After the exciting and wonderful news of Paavo receiving a Regional Win for his first year shown at TICA, tonight we received confirmation of his INTERNATIONAL WIN!!!

18th BEST LONGHAIR
IW SGC COONCREOLE PAAVO

Way to go Paavo!! You star x

A big thank you to Diane for showing him in the USA and for sending him to us. The only sad note is that Judy isn't here to see it, but I am sure she is watching over him with pride x

TICA Regional Winner SGC Cooncreole Paavo

Very exciting news yesterday, we had confirmation of Paavo's Regional Win from Martin Wood Director of Northern Europe TICA.

Paavo achieved

NINTH BEST CAT OF THE YEAR
FIFTH BEST LONGHAIR CAT OF THE YEAR

For TICA Northern Europe Regional Awards 2008-2009

WELL DONE PAAVO YOU ARE A STAR x

Show News

Well we have been very busy here, with the family, kittens and still in a mess waiting on the new kitchen to be finished!

Somewhere in between all of the above, we managed to squeeze in a one day at the TICA show held by the UK TICA Alliance location Milton Keynes. We took Paavo along for his first day out and it was also an excuse for us to try out our new Sturdi Pen - Habitat which we got when we went to Frankfurt. They are a bit bigger than the standard Sturdi pen here, but I thought it would be better for the boys to have more space.

Paavo showed like a dream again, and he finalled in 4 rings gaining

• a Best Long Hair Cat - Irene van Belzen
  
• 3rd Best Long Hair Cat - Arline Noel Garel
  
• 4th Best Long Hair Cat - Vlada Beniya
  
• & 7th Best Long Hair Cat - Bridgitte Berthelon
  

Way to go Paavo, we are very proud of him. When he was judged and won Best cat the Judge couldn't believe how relaxed he was, this is what happened

• Andy placed Paavo in his pen for Judging
• Paavo went to sleep
  
• Bridgitte woke Paavo up and carried him to the judging table
• Paavo was placed on the judging table
• Paavo went to sleep
• Bridgitte checked Paavo's profile (still sleeping!)
• Bridgitte stood Paavo up to check confirmation, stance and build
• Paavo lay back down and went to sleep
• Bridgitte picked up Paavo and placed him back in his pen
• Paavo went to sleep!

Are we seeing a pattern! This was the same for when he received his Best Cat too!

Now and again there was some activity especially when he surprised one of the Judges by going from asleep to running up the scratchy post, she said "I wasn't prepared for that!", it was very funny.

Paavo loved his new Sturdi Pen well he slept well in it!

We also saw Melanie there with Snowgum Titan, and Darren and Erica were there with Snowgum Maisie, they are Cimus's little ones so it is lovely to see how they have grown. Both Titan and Maisie did really well, Titan was in 9 Finals and Maisie was in 7 Finals over the two days. Well done to Titan and Maisie x

While we were in Milton Keynes, Susie and Mark were showing Kosi (seal point Birman) and Illyana at a GCCF show in Godmanchester. They both did brilliantly, Kosi got his Imperial and Best Show Neuter and Illyana achieved her Merit and 2 Firsts and a Third in her side classes. Well done to Kosi and Illyana x

So it was a brilliant weekend for us all xxx

Europe - Two Special Deliveries!

Sorry been awhile but things have been so very busy here...so where do I start!

After much planning and discussion, on Thursday 26th April, I rushed home from work to pack for our weekend trip. Andy had gone off to the hire car company to pick up the car what I thought was going to be a VW Passat (both Andy and I have cars which don't do great mpg, my TT at best does 34mpg and Andy's Scooby well dare I say it 22mpg!) so we wanted to hire a diesel for the weekend. Andy came home not in the Passat but in a top of the range black Mercedes! Cool hey, travelling in style and comfort...

So after much rushing around, putting everyone to bed and packing the car we finally set off about 8:30pm our destination a hotel near the Eurotunnel. We got there about 12:30am and finally got to bed about 1:20am, yet another early to bed for us...

The alarm went off at 6:30am, we got ready and for once we got to the Tunnel early, we checked in and then went to get some supplies for our road trip, somewhere in between picking magazines and sandwiches we somehow managed to miss our train, doh so we ended up on the next train which was then delayed so eventually we got on the train and off we went, Frankfurt here we come!

We arrived on the other side of the Tunnel, turned on the Sat Nav, which Dad had kindly lent us and he had brilliantly keyed in all destinations and stored them under favourites. So we picked "Jo's Hotel Frankfurt" also known as Movenpick Hotel Frankfurt City and off we set. It had estimated a 5 hour trip and we arrived in Frankfurt around 4pm (there roads are no-where as busy as ours and Andy stretched the legs or wheels on the Mercedes!). The hotel was easy to find and when we checked in much to my delight we had been upgraded to a Skyline room on the 6th Floor. Very exciting...

So we went off to our room and it was lovely, really contemporary and lovely furnished, just what you want after our trip. We unpacked, well kind of I never unpack when I go away Mum laughs at me because I live out of the suitcase! And then Andy made the important call, what important call? Well the reason why we were in Frankfurt our first special delivery, SGC Cooncreole Paavo!

I will be doing a special blog for Paavo to talk about him from the beginning, but short version is it all started with an email on the 4th January 2008 to Judy Chappetta of Cooncreole Siberians. After seeing some photos of Paavo and his Mum CH Cooncreole Nadezhda Moroz Mur (Hope), descendant of IW SGC Treskuchiy Sibirskiy Moroz Mur and his Dad LA IW SGC Cooncreole Michail, and chatting with Judy it all went ahead for us to adopt Paavo and Judy would show him for us in the USA while he waited on the PETS Passport scheme.

Around Christmas 2008 after more chatting with Judy, it was decided that Paavo would stay with Judy and we would meet them both in Germany for the last show of the season. This wasn't meant to because at the beginning of April Judy passed away after losing her battle with cancer, we were both very sad and upset to hear this, even though we never got to meet Judy for over a year we had emailed and chatted about Paavo and Siberians and we had been so excited to meet her as we felt we had made a new friend in the Siberian world. Judy was always so passionate about Paavo and both her and Diane loved to show him. Diane very kindly continued to show Paavo for us and then made the arrangements for his trip to Germany, Judy and Diane's friends Chris and Vanadis were going to bring him over with them, which we both are so very grateful for.

So Andy called Vanadis at the hotel and made arrangements for us to collect him, well I was very excited so we went straightaway. The trip to their hotel seemed to take forever but we got there and found their room. It was great to meet Vanadis and Chris, both are lovely and then we got to meet Paavo...Well what can I say he is everything we were hoping for, handsome, big, heavy and best of all the most adorable, happy and loving Siberian you could ever ask for. Chris said Paavo doesn't know the word strangers exists and she is right he doesn't. After much chatting about cats etc we headed back to the hotel and settled Paavo in. I say settled in, what I mean is Paavo just made himself straight at home with us. He is such a cool dude. Paavo doesn't worry that you have just met he just loves you and cuddles you. He is a dream to be around and we are so very grateful for such a special boy.

While in Frankfurt the plan was to go to the show, so the next day we got ready for the show and off we set to "Jos Cat Show Frankfurt". Well the show was brilliant and Paavo loves to show, he is very relaxed (we think the jet lag was creeping in on the Saturday afternoon because he wouldn't stay awake in one of the rings and missed out on a final!) But we didn't care over the two days he got

• One Best Cat
• 2 x 3rd Best Cat
• a 4th Best Cat
• a 5th Best Cat
• a 6th Best Cat
• 2 x 9th Best Cat
• a 10th Best Cat

This was just the best result we could have hoped for, overall he got Best Long Hair in show and 2nd Best Cat overall. This meant that he had secured his International Win for the season at only 16 months of age! And he wasn't even competing as an adult for the whole of the season! Final positions are yet to be confirmed by TICA but it looks like he is

• 3rd Best Siberian Cat Internationally (81 Siberians shown)
• 13th Best Siberian Kitten Internationally (98 Siberians shown)
• 35th Best Cat Internationally (3101 cats shown)
• 18th Best Long Hair Cat Internationally
• A total of 143 Finals for the season
• 3 x 2nd Best in Show
• 3 x 3rd Best in Show
• 1 x 4th Best in Show
• 2 x 5th Best in Show
  

What a superstar he is, we are so proud to have him and our thanks go to Judy and Diane for such a wonderful boy.

So after a brilliant two day show with Paavo, we set off to Holland for our Second Special Delivery! I will be doing a proper introduction for Fe as she is very special and deserves her own blog section. Fe's story starts in February 2008 when Maria kindly asked Angela of Tomintoul's Siberian Cattery in Holland about a girl for us from the gorgeous CH Tomintouls Bacardi on the Rocks and CH Sibirientaigas Yentle. Well in May 2008 Tomintouls Dreamgirl Santa Fe a Black Silver Torbie and White was born and we were very lucky when Angela agreed for her to be adopted by us. Fe went to stay with Angela's friend Hilde while she waited on her PETS Passport and Hilde and Angela kept us updated with news and photos, so I was very excited to finally meet her and of course Angela, Cajo and Hilde. Straightaway you could see that Fe was a very loving girl and we felt very sad taking her away from Angela and Hilde. Thank you to them both for looking after her for us and for all the lovely gifts you sent her with. So after a very short visit and meeting the rest of Fe's family we set off for the Tunnel and home.

We were running late and when we finally got to the Tunnel there was a bit of a hic-cup with the paperwork but after a quick visit to a local vet it was all sorted and we were on our way again. We stopped for a quick drink and a bite to eat, when Andy said "Quick, our letter had been called and we needed to go!" So we rushed back to the car, to find that Fe being very clever had worked her way out of her carry case. After an initial shock, Andy got Fe back in her carry case and off we went to the train. Then we set off home...

Once home which by this time was around midnight, so after 700miles and 11hours of driving we finally delivered our special Two home. We settled them both in, Fe in the spare room and Paavo with us, much to the dislike of everyone else!

Paavo is still enjoying being in our bedroom and he cuddles me every night and morning. Fe is being introduced to the rest of the family and is a sweet loving girl, who really enjoys a cuddle and to play.