Novice Rules Changes – How Does It Work?

At the May and June Board meetings, several rule changes were implemented concerning novices. These are cats registered in other associations but not in CFA. Rather than go over each show rule, I’m going to discuss how the new rules are implemented. First, there are now two kinds of “novices” – those who want to earn points and titles in CFA and those who just want to see what a CFA show is like.

For the sake of this discussion, two Abyssinian exhibitors - Ann and Gloria, and a Devon Rex exhibitor - Bobby, want to enter their whole cats at the CFA World Championship Cat Show being held in Columbus, Ohio the weekend of November 17-18, but all three of these cats are only registered in TICA. What to do. Ann and Bobby are interested in getting a CFA title on their cats, while Gloria is not. Here is how that entry and competition process will work under the rules adopted at the June Board meeting.

First, all three exhibitors will hopefully send their entries in shortly after 12:01 a.m., eastern daylight time on September 10th so they easily get into the show. None have CFA registration numbers at the time they enter, so they enter the cats as Novices; however, both Ann and Bobby inform the entry clerk that they would like their cats to work towards a CFA title. They can do that either at the time of entry or after the entry clerk sends them a note with the confirmation asking them if they would like to earn points and go for titles, and the process required to do same. The entry clerk informs them that they need to send him a certified pedigree along with an additional fee of $ 15.00 so that their cats can receive a temporary registration number. For Ann, that consists of four generations, but for Bobby, it only consists of three as that is all that is required by registration rules to register a Devon Rex via pedigree. They both send in the extra fee and copies of the certified pedigrees. The entry clerk completes the application for temporary registration number if not already sent in with the pedigrees and requests and receives that number from central office. The number is in the form TRN-MMDDXXX where MM is the month, DD is the first day of the show being entered, and XXX is the sequential number of the cat being entered per central office.

While all three checked the Novice box on the original entry, the entry clerk will only put Gloria’s cat in the show as a Novice. Both Ann and Bobby’s cats will be put in the show as Opens, with their associated temporary registration numbers of TRN-1117001 and TRN-1117002. In the judges’ books, Gloria’s cat will appear as a Novice, while both Ann and Bobby’s cats will appear as Champions. In the show catalog, again, Gloria’s cat will appear as a Novice while Ann and Bobby’s cats will appear as Opens.

During the show, the judges are very impressed with Gloria’s aby, and it not only wins the breed in most of the rings, it also makes several finals. Ann’s aby gets a couple of finals as a champion earning 83 grand points, and also goes through every ring without a disqualification. Similarly, Bobby’s cat gets the purple ribbon in every ring, and earns over 200 points based on finals. Both Ann and Bobby complete champion confirmation forms and submit them, along with the additional $ 15.00 fee, in the envelope maintained at the Master Clerk table for submitting confirmations.

When the master clerk determines the count for the show, both Ann and Bobby’s cats are included in both the championship and champion counts, while Gloria’s cat is not included in either.

At the end of the show, the master clerk includes in the paperwork going back to central office the two applications for temporary registration numbers stapled to the associated pedigrees and fees. He also notes the temporary registration numbers on those pedigrees in case they get separated from the applications.

When Central Office receives the show package, they will then check the pedigrees submitted for the cats with temporary registration number applications. If they find that there is a cat that isn’t allowed in the associated pedigree, they will inform the exhibitor that the cat can’t be registered in CFA, and those points banked at the show will never be credited to the cat. On the other hand, if there are no registration issues, the cats will have the points earned at the show banked until the cats are officially registered with a permanent registration number.

After the November 17-18 show, Ann and Bobby can continue to show their cats with their temporary registration numbers at CFA shows until December 17th. On that day, the temporary number can no longer be used, and they can’t enter a CFA show unless they have their permanent registration numbers. For them to obtain one, they need to do different things. Bobby just needs to send in the additional $ 25.00. Central office checks the pedigree and finds it contains all Devons except for two British Shorthairs. These are acceptable outcrosses for Devons, so central office then issues a final registration number for Bobby’s cat – one with a Devon Rex registration prefix and the normal number (for example 2904-1749382). Since her cat already had banked over 200 grand points and had submitted the champion confirmation, Central Office will also issue the cat a Grand Championship certificate.

On the other hand, Ann not only needs to submit the additional $ 25.00 to finally register the cat, she will also need to submit four additional certified generations worth of pedigree to register her Abyssinian. If Central Office finds all cats acceptable in the additional pedigree cats, they will issue her a permanent registration number. However, if there is, for example, a Somali at the 7th generation, they will inform her that the cat cannot be registered in CFA, and again, the points earned at the show will not be credited to the cat.

Gloria came away from the show with the ribbons and rosettes won by her cat, but that’s not all. Her cat did earn qualifying rings, so if she changes her mind and it registers with CFA with a permanent registration number, she can at least then claim a champion title.

One other item - suppose Gloria decides between the time she gets her confirmation and the beginning of judging on November 17th that she really wants to go for those awards so that the points will count. She can do that by bringing to the show that certified four-generation pedigree and paying the $ 15.00 fee. The person doing check-in will put on the absentee/transfer sheet that the cat has transferred from Novice to Champion. Based on the receipt by the Master Clerk of a completed temporary registration number application, certified pedigree, and fee to include in the show package; the Master Clerk will transfer the cat in the MC catalog to Open and obtain a temporary registration number from Central Office.

That should explain the entire process involving these cats. Essentially, there are two types of listed cats (cats without CFA registration numbers but registered in another association), those with temporary registration numbers, and those without. Those with are shown in the normal classes of open, champion/premier, grand; while those without are shown as Novices. There are no “number of show” limitations for cats shown this way – only the 30-day limit for being able to show with a temporary registration number.

Monte Phillips, Show Rules Committee Chair
Article originally published in CatTALK (Volume 2 | Number 4 | August 2012)