IRONDALE, Alabama – Before cat judge Walter Hutzler began judging a kittens competition at the Birmingham Feline Fanciers Cat Fancier's Association show on Saturday, he pulled all the audience chairs a bit closer to his judging table.

"It's very important that your cats know where you are," the New Yorker said to the dozen or so cat owners gathered to watch Hutzler issue judgment on their feline companions. Hutzler said the kittens, which were in the household pets category (he made sure to note that "I call them household companions," not pets) could suffer separation anxiety, and it would be helpful to see a friendly face in the audience.

After a short introductory speech, Hutzler meticulously examined each kitten (the cats had to be less than eight months old to qualify for the kitten competition). He would gently remove a cat from its cage, often accompanied by soothing noises. The removal was often the most harried part of the judgment process. He'd then look it over physically, stretching it out above his head, taking a good look at the animal's face, almost rubbing noses with it.

"My philosophy is that this is a sport, like dogs, like horses," Hutzler told AL.com after judging a round. "A sport needs an athlete. Athletes need people who train them, and condition them, and feed them, and house them, and so forth. All of that reflects on—when you come to a show, what you've done with it."

"So conditioning sets the standard of how you get to recognize the cat, how you even begin to look at a cat – it has to be well-conditioned."

After conditioning, the cat's physical structure comes into play.

"After that, it has to feel good in your hands, the color should be clear, brilliant. A colorful cat, I look for," Hutzler said. "I look for a cat that's structured very well. We want a cat that's physically very well structured, that all the parts fit together nicely. Neither too lean, nor too fat. We want the cat muscular, strong, [an] athlete."

The degree to which the cat fits within its breed specification is also important, Hutzler said. The breed specification is like "a Bible," Hutzler said.

"Everybody thinks that they own that Bible, they know exactly how to interpret it," Hutzler said. "To be honest to you, the standard allows for a lot of subjectivity and personal interpretation."

Then, he'd set the cat out on the judging table and distract it with a toy. After a moment, he would gently return the cat to its cage, wipe down the judging table, take some notes, and repeat with the next contestant.

"We are Siamese if you don't please"

Hutzler said he first became interested in cats due to cats in cartoons and animated movies, and those depictions have shaped his ideals.

"I always liked cats, and my big influence about cats came from Walt Disney," he said, before breaking into a verse from "The Siamese Cat Song" from the Disney animation "Lady and the Tramp."

All that comes into play when he's judging, Hutzler said, which he has now been doing for 44 years – "I'm trying to make it to my 50 years," he says – although his interest in cat shows goes back even longer, to his first cat show in Anaheim in 1959.

He went to that show to purchase a cat, Charlie, but fell in love with the shows, the exhibitions.

After his first cat show experience, Hutzler said he began exhibiting Siamese and Abyssinians and producing cat shows. At some point, in 1970, there was a shortage of judges and the idea came about that he could step in. He did, and the rest is history.

"It used to be in the old days that you only became a judge when you were old, and they had to carry you out just to get rid of you."

During the judging Saturday – day one of the two-day show – he told a shortened, funny version of his introduction to cat judging, while encouraging the owners to take their cats home and pretend to judge them at home.

"You think that's funny but that's what I did," Hutzler told the owners. "I went home and pretended to be a cat judge, and I became a cat judge."

After all is said and done, Hutzler said what really stands out in a feline specimen is a sort of star quality, and ability to make everything around it look better.

"I like a cat that shines when I shine. If I can make that cat look good, then I will look good. It's always about that. In the end, subjectivity takes over, and it's nothing about anything, or long hair or short hair, or do I like black cats over silver cats – nothing like that."

"It's just how that cat makes me look good too. We work together."

Walter Hutzler is a judge at the Birmingham Feline Fanciers' Cat Fanciers Association show, which runs until 5 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sunday at the Zamora Shrine Temple in Irondale. Admission for guests is $8 for adults, $5 for seniors, and $4 for children under 10. For more information, visit the Birmingham Feline Fanciers website.