I went to the NIRO RSA rat show this weekend - not only went to it, but judged it! I was responsible for judging Standard-Ear Bucks, which sadly turned out to be the smallest class. It seems almost everyone is concentrating on Dumbos these days (and I peer at my latest litter sheepishly) and not standard ears. I think a good standard (topear) is so much more attractive than a dumbo though, and it's harder to get a good looking dumbo (in my opinion) so I don't concentrate on dumbos, I just end up with them because that's what the best parents happen to be/carry.
I was pretty proud - the Best Standard Buck that I sent up to the BIS table won BIS. Not that there was too much question about it. TEK Johnny Cash is a really amazing rat. He's HUGE and his head is just incredible. I'm hopefully going to be getting a baby out of him - I told Dan from TEK that I don't care WHAT the rat is or carries, I want that CONFORMATION in my lines. Just stunning.
Also up on the BIS table - and this was a huge thrill - was FSTR Sopravissana as Best Dumbo Doe. Sopra is completely out of my siamese lines (the three generation pedigree is nothing but BVR) and was a breeding that Kirstin from Farstar did to get Satins to put in her mink line between BVR Ekewaka and BVR Seiobo. She ended up with a bunch of AMAZING siamese and black rats in satin and satin-rex and standard. Sopra is a pet-placed rat owned by Kirstin's former roommate Robin Enz, and littermate to my own FSTR Xixa Ardia, Llanwenog, Qashqai and Zakynthos, who are up for breeding some time this year. Another littermate, Kirstin's FSTR Bond (an amazing black satin dumbo boy) took Best Provisional.
Best Standard Buck, Best Standard Doe, Best Dumbo Doe, and Best Provisional were all black selfs. Claudia made the comment that it showed we weren't all "about the fancy colors" but I disagree with that... there's very little that's HARDER to get and more stunning to look at than a GOOD black self. Midwest breeders have always had trouble with the charcoal/silverbelly in our black lines (and good God, some Michigan breeders are now breeding FOR that, calling it "Midnight" and "Shadows" instead of what it is... charcoal and bad black. Ugh. I know it's easier to just call it a standard than try to improve, but geeze.)
I was sorry I didn't bring any rats to this show. I knew that I'd be judging Standard Bucks and that my best rats fall into that category (how dumb was I to volunteer for what I do best? Heh) and most of my girls were very immature when I made the decision not to bring them. I also thought there'd be way too much stress on me to judge AND to show. Turns out all the judges (who owned rats) were also showing in other categories, the girls I have matured VERY nicely, and I think they would have done really well. Ah well, next year!
I wish the other rat clubs in the RSA (including RFL) would host some shows, but it's a huge investment of time and money and no one really wants to shoulder it. It would be nice to have shows more than once a year though - I don't see how we'll ever finish an animal that only lives 2 years at that rate. Then again, showing more often would cause most of us to be in quarantine half the year just to show. It's a dilemma that I'm still turning over in my mind to find alternatives.
Big kudos to the NIRO folks who put this on - they worked their butts off for it. And congrats to Kirstin from FSTR, Robin Enz, Dan from TEK (he had Best Standard Buck and Doe on the BIS table) and Debbie from SGR who had Best Dumbo Buck on the BIS table. I'm really glad I went and was part of it.
posted by Bao Varakii Rattery @ 3:55 PM
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