This is a fresh-off-the-press news item and I don’t have the full story yet but want to post something as I seem to be ahead of the curve at the date of this post. This is a genuine show cat news item.
I received a phone call from Martin Stucki of A1 Savannahs about 2 hours ago. He is on vacation in America. He told me that a Savannah cat called “Lighting” had been awarded the title Supreme Grand Champion by TICA. This is a first and a milestone on the history of this most glamorous cat breed. it would have happened at the latest TICA cat show as I understand it.
Lighting is an SBT (stud book tradition) Savannah cat bred by A1 Savannahs and owned by Janet Spain. He would be a fourth generation Savannah cat but I have no details about Lighting. “Fourth generation” means four generations from the wild cat, the serval. The most famous Savannah cats are F1 (first filial) cats as they are very large and impressive. I am thinking of Magic for example. But these cats, the first to third generation Savannahs, are foundation cats and not show cats or eligible for these titles.
The awarding of the first Supreme Grand Champion title to a Savannah cat is significant because this year, 2012, TICA upgraded the status of the Savannah cat breed to a championship breed. It is quite a long journey for a new cat breed to achieve championship status, the highest in a cat registry.
Some of the criteria are:
- 200 adult Savannah cats have been registered with TICA.
- At least 100 shows where Savannah cats have been exhibited.
So you can see that although the Savannah cat has been around for a long time it takes time for the breed to be able to challenge for the title of Supreme Grand Champion.
I am not totally familiar with the awarding process at cat shows. I presume that Lighting has been awarded the title of Supreme Grand Champion after many success in the show ring. It takes time to achieve the highest award that TICA can bestow on a show cat. But wait and see for updates, please.
I’ll try and get a picture for the page in due course. 1st Sept 2012. Still awaiting a picture but here is a picture (above) of the certificate and this is a link to the A1 Savannahs new page.
Looking forward to a picture!
dw