With 72 hours to go before the start of last weekend’s National Capital Cat Show, Racy Mooner still wasn’t ready for the big day. Sitting in the living room of her Reston home, she surveyed her surroundings quizzically, trying to figure out what she’s supposed to be doing next.
“C’mon Racy, roll!”
Lisa-Maria Padilla waved a freeze-dried chicken treat in front of the bewildered cat to draw her attention. Racy merely stared back at her.
“She’s not the brightest,” Padilla says, laughing.
Maybe not, but Racy has a reputation to live up to. The 6-year-old Abyssinian blue is a grand champion and grand premier winner, meaning she has racked up enough points at various shows to have placed among the world’s top 25 cats. And though Racy didn’t compete at National Capital, she had an even weightier task for the event: being an unofficial “roving ambassador cat.” She did tricks, let people pet her and generally showed off — for the good of the species.
It’s all part of a larger effort on the part of Padilla, her friend and show manager Deborah Curtis and other cat fanciers. For too long, Curtis says, cats have been the victim of ill-informed stereotypes — the manipulative Cheshire Cat, the prissy, white-furred gourmands from Fancy Feast commercials, the lazy and disdainful Garfield. And the stigma associated with owning cats is just as persistent — no one wants to be a Dr. Evil or an Eleanor Abernathy (that crazy cat lady from “The Simpsons”).
