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CFA’s 14th Best Kitten GC BW NW Emau’s Shoot The Moon, AKA “Sol”. There is no question that it is tough to be born a boy into the Emau household. Pretty much everyone who knows me knows that ALL bias is favored towards those flashy silver girls… For me it is like the search for the Holy Grail. With each litter, as they are being born, I ask myself is THE silver girl in this one? The boys, well they get barely a glance… We all know, I HATE showing boys! Add to that that there was no question that 2008/2009, with an uncle that was Kitten Of the Year, was a hard act to follow and poor Sol was already well behind the 8 ball before he was even thinking about opening his eyes… This flashy silver guy took on the challenge happily however and he proved hard to resist even for the most hardened of us… The only boy in the repeat of the litter that had produced my beautiful Lark (GC BW NW Emau’s Touch The Sun), he had to battle for attention with a silver girl who I could not take my eyes off of from the moment she started to walk. Okay, okay, even I had to admit that the boy looked, well… yeah…. Pretty spectacular too… Fair enough, they were both pretty darn incredible. I could not wait to debut my beautiful Luna (GC Emau’s Over The Moon Of Erendel), and of course, her brother, Sol whose only real fault was that he was A Boy… Thankfully, Sol did not care that he was not my chosen one… He set out to prove me wrong and change my mind and change it he did, but not without a fight from me. It was the story of my life… First kitten show and Luna barely got a glance… as beautiful as she was and is, she was one of those babies that grows in bits and spurts, while from the beginning Sol maintained his balance and then added that special something that only a great show cat has; presence on the table. That first show it was all about “The Boy” and I was not amused… A couple of weeks later and even I had to admit that the breeder in me still went head over heels about Luna, but in the ring it was all about the little silver boy phenom who was making people talk… No question, at least as kittens, he was going to be the one… I could fight it, or I could embrace it, but it was going to be him or no one. Honestly, from early returns, it looked pretty good for him. Coming into Garden State I pulled comparables on him versus two other notable Emau kittens, Minuet and Dell. Not only was he holding his own… he was tracking AHEAD of them show for show… things looked promising indeed. He just kept getting better and we were heading to National Capital with a good slate of judges and one of the most balanced young Egyptian Mau kittens I had had the pleasure of showing. It was hard to imagine anything going wrong… This was a kitten so full of joy and beauty he was a force of nature… Enter the drama, because god knows there is no way anything can be completely easy and fun in the Cat Fancy… The morning of National Capital dawned bright, but something seemed not quite right. Still, I could find nothing REALLY wrong. He was playing and eating, basically behaving like any self-respecting kitten should, so I ended up chalking it down to pre-show jitters. The first ring was everything I could have dreamed of… He got on the table and showed his heart out. I started to think that I had just overreacted and all the drama that had me dumping the morning start up problems on my co-show manager had been for naught. The second ring was fine too and I finally started to relax and enjoy what was shaping up to be an incredible show with an incredible kitten. Then we entered what seemed like the twilight zone and everything fell apart… What had looked like it was going to be a dream weekend turned into a nightmare of epic proportions. Hours later, instead of celebrating a wonderful day and the potential of locking a National Kitten win, I was standing in a O.R. room assisting as we gassed my beautiful boy down to catheterize him… He never blocked completely, but he was well on his way and he scared me to death… His National Capital dreams were over and all my dreams for him had shifted from let him have a good show to “please god, just let my little one be okay”… He was, thank goodness. Countless tests and vet visits later, he was pronounced absolutely 100%… They never found crystals, or stones and to date, he has never had a single indication that there are any residual issues, but there was born that day in Chantilly VA, an unholy obsession with that cat’s litterbox habits… From that day to the day he left me for Norway, he was rarely out of my sight and every trip to the litter box was analyzed and inspected! What is amazing is that despite missing most of National Capital due to his own problems and three of the highest kitten count shows due to MY issues, he did as well as he did… He never really had a bad show and he never failed to throw himself into each and every ring with every fiber of his little self. What a joy from start to finish in the showring, at home and on the road… No one could have asked for anything more in a show cat of any breed much less an Egyptian Mau… He converted the most unlikely suspects! Sightings were seen and confirmed…. … the rumor is true, gasp! Yes indeed, Susan Cook Henry, of Jadon Persian fame was seen showing the flashy silver boy through much of his kitten career (she actually granded him too!)… She learned to share a room with a toy-and-attention crazy Egyptian Mau rather than the sophisticated and reserved beauties she was used to… People would have died laughing if they could have seen him running loose in her house… He went foraging in the kitchen and proudly brought “gifts” to us in the living room… he learned how to pull the doorstops in her guest bedroom and make the whole house sing – at 2AM…. Truly though, it was hard not to fall in love with this sweet trusting boy with the incredible body and huge green eyes… While his older sister Lark was all about toys at home and in the ring, Sol was all about people… As a show cat he wanted desperately to make people happy and he gave every bit of himself in every ring. The evolution of his love affair with me, and a number of the judges was a wonder to watch. On one occasion when he was on the table in the ring with one of his favorite judges, a fellow exhibitor was heard to mutter, “tell them to just get a room”… Sol was without a doubt, the best Emau ambassador that I have ever had the honor of showing… the good he did for the breed went above and beyond any titles… He made people smile, he made people laugh and he made people love him… His gift was to all of us and it was twofold… He gave to all of us his trust and his love, a gift to be treasured as the precious rarity that it was and he is. Sol left the U.S. in April 2010 and I know that I for one miss him greatly although I know that he is greatly loved in his new home in Norway. Sol is the full brother of 2008/20009 Breed winner GC BW NW Emau’s Touch The Sun AKA Lark. Lark and Sol are both out of GC BW NW Emau’s Drop-Of-Golden Sun, DM, AKA Sunny. Sunny earned her DM in the same season her son earned his NW and the BW and in so doing became the first Egyptian Mau to earn every title available to a championship cat. F |
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