Dinah Washington's breeder remembers...

     A four month old Bombay kitten, born in the Connecticut countryside, Caricature's Dinah Washington headed to Madison Square Garden for her very first show. Little did we know that this would be the beginning of a National kitten campaign.
     As happened with Dinah's mother, Marian Anderson, one of CFA's judges and his accomplished partner, pointed out the potential they saw in this little bright eyed kitten. Could enough points be attained to get a NW starting at this time of year? It was already early October. Kitten counts start to fall in early February. There was exactly enough time if we could get her to the highest kitten count shows. Dinah would also need a wide range of judges who felt she met all of the parameters of the Bombay standard.

     Dinah still had a long way to go when the holidays came and winter storms disrupted travel and shows. At the end of one weekend, we became stranded in Cincinnati . The flights to our NY destination were cancelled due to a snowstorm. We flew with Dinah to the closest airport still open. It was Dulles in Virginia . Flights before ours had been diverted to Dulles and rental cars were scarce. By luck, we found a little SUV available and drove through the night and early morning hours to the NY airport in hopes of finding our luggage. It had not gone on our flight to Dulles. Throughout the long and tedious trip, Dinah held her own. She was great about hopping into her little pop up tent to use the litterbox in cars or airports and hop back into her carrier. On another occasion, we got to our hotel in Ohio and learned the online booking had been wrong about accepting pets. Hotel to hotel we went until we found one. We ended up in a beautiful suite at a hotel delighted to have us. Dinah strolled into the bedroom, promptly stretched out on the king-sized bed and began to preen herself in front of the full length mirror. Then she strutted back and forth looking over her shoulder. It was like watching a Victoria 's Secret fashion show. This little girl had developed quite a show girl's attitude and her cheerful Bombay disposition never faltered.

     During the campaign we made friends of new exhibitors campaigning for the first time. We came to care about the experienced campaigners and their individual kittens. We miss those kittens and seeing their owners on a regular basis.
     Dinah had much appreciated support from a wide range of judges. She gathered the interest of exhibitors and spectators alike at each show. Dinah has a long list of people hoping for one of her babies.
     When NW Caricature's Marian Anderson was CFA's first national winning Bombay kitten, we wondered, "What about Marian's babies?" Now we have our answer. Dinah is one of those babies, as is NW Caricature's Boyd Tinsley, NAR's best cat in championship this season. Dinah is CFA's ninth best kitten and the North Atlantic Region's best kitten.

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