This article is from page 32 of the 2008-02-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
FINDING hotel rooms for more than 100 cats is not a job most people would relish.
But for two ladies from Killaloe, it’s a labour of love. Carmel Byrne and Shirley Ward of the Midlands Cat Club have been doing their bit in staging the club’s annual show for the last ten years
Shirley is chairwoman of the club and Carmel is show organiser and, says Carmel, the show gets bigger and better every year.
“This year we have more than 100 cats and they are coming from all
over Ireland and the UK,” said Car- mel. Siamese, Ballinese, Bengals, Burmese, Snowshoes, Abysinni- ans, long-haired, short-haired, lilac brown, chocolate and plain old love- able household pets – the show has a place for all of them.
Carmel got involved with cats af- ter a friend gave her a present of a Tonkinese. “I thought I should get a little friend for him, a Ballinese and I started entering shows. Well, he took first prize and never came second af- ter that.”
Carmel still has Rossie, her cham- pion cat, who is now II years old but she doesn’t enter her own cats in
shows anymore.
“After a while I got involved in helping to oranise shows and from there I became show organiser. Peo- ple organising don’t enter their cats, it wouldn’t be seen as fair.”
On the subject of booking hotel rooms for cats, Carmel can’t say enough about the Kilmurray Lodge Hotel in Castletroy, where the show has been staged for five years now.
“They are absolutely fabulous to us and can’t do enough. They ac- commodate cats and owners and not every hotel will do that. They’re so efficient that all I have to do is to put names on the rooms.”
Carmel explained that owners do their bit to keep the good will of ho- tels by ensuring that the feline stars stay in the bathroom for the dura- nO)
The show is sponsored by Royal Canin pet food manufacturers and it goes ahead this year on Sunday, February 17. It’s open to the public from 12.30pm to 5pm and anyone interested in entering can get details from Carmel on 065 6821616.