Once a cat reaches adulthood, the stakes get higher. Adult cats and alters compete for titles as well as regional awards. Gigi’s career got off to a decent start; she made three finals at her first show as an adult! I wondered why Andrée and Pauline said it would be hard to grand her. She was halfway there after one show!

Then reality set in.

Gigi did shows in January, February, March and April, but came home empty-pawed after every one. She was showing well and enjoying it, and I thought my grooming was improving, but the competition heightened and the hormones kicked in! At her last show in April, she had breed competition in the form of a younger fawn, who beat her in almost every ring. Sarena eventually went to live in Germany, I’m sure the result of a nefarious plot hatched by Her Fawnness, to rid herself of unwanted competition. Abys and Somalis are master plot-hatchers, especially spoiled pink ones. It’s what they do at night while the humans sleep.

Gigi finished the 1993-1994 season as TICA’s 2nd best fawn Somali of the Year, sandwiched between two of her cousins, Honeymoon and Gazelle.

In May 1994 I did what I should have done back in December- I had Gigi spayed. After five weeks’ recovery, she made her debut in the alter class at the end of June. This was the first show where she and Bo would compete against each other in the allbreed rings and I was curious to see how it would work out. No judge finaled them both- that didn’t happen until Westchester- but they both made finals. Bo made two, and Gigi made three. They were all Specialty finals again, but they were just enough for Gigi to reach another milestone- she became a Grand Champion Alter that weekend!

Six weeks after that, Gigi had her best show to date. She made five finals, including, finally, an allbreed final! She had earned so many points during those shows she did as a whole cat, where she made no finals, that her first three rosettes meant three more titles on her way to the top. She made Double Grand, Triple Grand and Quadruple Grand all in the same day! Her next show was a trip back to the scene of the crime- same club, same weekend, same show hall, where this crazy adventure began.