TWT #194 –

On July 13th, 1871, Harrison Weir organized and held the world’s first “Cat Fancy” show in which cats simply sat in cages, didn’t do any tricks, and got judged by how “fancy” they looked, apparently.

I mean, c’mon. This is taking it too far.

The only reason dog shows are cool is because they do tricks (and there’s always the exhilarating possibility that a dog will ruin it’s run by pooping).

Horse shows can be pretty badass only because they are monstrous beasts of raw power and speed (and there’s always the exhilarating possibility someone will get thrown off their horse).

But I CHALLENGE you to find even 1 moment of interesting content in this video of the “CFA International Cat Show 2018 – Best of the Best.”

Wait, I’ll save you 35 minutes, there is nothing interesting there. Just cats looking scared and confused and angry.

Let’s rewind a bit and see how we got ourselves to this point.

Harrison Weir was born in 1824 in England (well there’s your first problem). At a young age he went to work as an apprentice at a color-printer where he learned to engrave and draw animals, people, and nature.

Over the next few decades Harrison built a pretty successful career as an artist, painting pictures for books, newspapers, and galleries (definitely a red-flag in the “crazy cat guy” category).

Harrison himself, probably riddled with T. gondii (google it)

Harrison had many hobbies including breeding cats, carrier pigeons and various poultry. He was also an avid gardener and watcher of horse races.

So why did this man, who saw the excitement of horse races, decide that he wanted to create a show where cats were simply placed in cages and judged?

Because he was crazy, that’s why.

The event itself was set up pretty quickly, and it’s very obvious from the choice of judges that Harrison had a hard time convincing anyone that this would be a real thing. The judges were: Harrison himself, his brother John, and his Reverend J. Macdona.

So what could spectators expect to see at this brand new event?

A Persian cat that was “brought into this country on the shoulders of an Arab.”

A British Wild Cat that was literally just caught in someone’s yard and thrown into a cage, and which had a wounded paw from the trap it was caught in.

And a cat with 26 claws

Exhilarating!

The Crystal Palace, where the first cat show took place.

Unfortunately for us all, the show was actually a hit, attracting nearly 20,000 spectators on the first day. Which is just insane to me, but I guess people in the 1800’s didn’t really have anything better to do.

After this first event, “Cat Fancy” shows blew up, as did the organizations surrounding these events.

The “World Cat Congress” is made up of 9 member groups (and sounds like an evil organization from an Austin Powers movie):

Australian Cat Federation Cat Fanciers’ Association Co-ordinating Cat Council of Australia Fédération Internationale Féline Governing Council of the Cat Fancy New Zealand Cat Fancy Southern Africa Cat Council The International Cat Association World Cat Federation

(How are there two separate Australian-based orgs???)

I don’t know, people, am I missing something here? Are cats really that cool? Or is this all just a big money-laundering scheme for the Illuminati?

Regardless, Harrison Weir made a killing from his events and books, one of which was titled “Our Cats And All About Them” (followed shortly by “Our Poultry And All About Them”).

My favorite line is “President of the National Cat Club”

I’m not sure what the moral of this story is, kids. Follow your dreams?

Ah no, I thought of a good one: Go have children so you don’t become a 47-year-old guy obsessed with other peoples’ cats.

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